If you run, bike, or walk your dog through Evergreen Cemetery in Basking Ridge, you may have noticed a large monument at the northern end near the railroad station. The Swaim family monument dwarfs its neighbors, including that of Ferdinand Van Dorn of Van Dorn’s Mill fame.
Large monuments often tell interesting stories and the Swaim one does not disappoint. The eldest of the family, Matthias Freeman Swaim, was born in New Jersey in 1834, son of the Rev. John Sanford Swaim. On April 14, 1859, Matthais married Josephine, the daughter of Ferdinand Van Dorn. Like his father, Matthias Swaim was a Methodist Episcopal minister and served as pastor in several New Jersey churches including Irvington, Bernardsville, and Tewksbury. On the 1870 census, he and Josephine are shown living in Tewksbury with five children.[1]
Reconstruction during and after the Civil War shifted the family south. In 1864, Matthias’ father Rev. John Sanford Swaim was sent to Jacksonville, Florida, by New Jersey Methodist Bishop Edmund S. Janes to minister to Union troops and freed blacks. Matthias and family followed by 1874 when he became principal of Duval High School in Jacksonville.[2] Unfortunately, he died in Florida on January 17, 1879 and was buried in a local cemetery. Afterward, his family moved his body north and interred him in Basking Ridge. By the 1880 Census, Josephine and her family were back living with her father in Basking Ridge.[3] Josephine later married Alfred W. Dennett.
Swaim Plot Individual Stones
Matthais Freeman Swaim
b. Aug. 16, 1834
d. Jan. 17, 879[sic]
Josephine V. Dennett [wife of Matthais]
b. Sep. 3. 1841
d. Jun. 8, 1907
Jolette Swaim Wasson
Dau. of Rev. Matthais and Josephine V. D. Swaim
d. Jan. 2, 1902
Ferdinand V. D. Swaim [son of Matthais]
b. Jun. 9, 1862
d. Feb. 2, 1892
James Duane Wasson
b. Dec. 30,1870
d. Mar. 5, 1896
Lenore Swaim Smith
b. Feb. 9,1891
d. Jul. 12, 1891
Ruth Smith Vorhis
b. Jul. 26, 1879
d. Dec. 29, 1905
[1]1870 Census, Tewksbury Township, NJ. p. 12.
[2] Foster, John T., and Sarah Whitmer Foster. “The Last Shall Be First: Northern Methodists in Reconstruction Jacksonville.” The Florida Historical Quarterly 70, no. 3 (1992): 265–80. http://www.jstor.org/stable/30148632.
[3] 1880 Census, Bernards Township, NJ, p. 306.
Is the Swaim name hailing from England, Roy?
Hi Rosemary, The Swaim family appears to have come from the Netherlands and settled on Staten Island in the early 18th cent.
Roy: Perhaps you intend to continue the story, but if not, I would suggest you pursue Josephine’s second husband, Alfred W. Dennett, who was a rather eccentric (to say the least!) restaurateur in New York City, In the 1880s brothers William and Samuel Childs worked for Dennett in New York, learning the restaurant business, before opening their first Childs restaurant on Cortlandt Street in 1889.
Thanks Barry, I’ll look into him. Could Dennett have bankrolled that huge monument for his wife’s family?