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Obituary of Philip C. Swab
Posted By Norman Gasbarro on July 1, 2015
Philip C. Swab, or Philip C. Schwab as he is sometimes found in the records, served in the 208th Pennsylvania Infantry, Company A, as a Private, from 30 August 1864 through his muster out on 1 June 1865. He died in Tennessee on 10 January 1900, but his roots were in the Lykens Valley in and around Elizabethville. His obituary appeared in the Harrisburg Telegraph on 11 January 1900, but gave an incorrect place of burial. His grave is actually located at Maple Grove Cemetery, Elizabethville.
DEATHS AND FUNERALS
Philip C. Swab
Harrisburg, 10 January 1901 –Unexpected was the death of Philip C. Swab, from 1885 until 1891, Recorder of Dauphin County, at his home in Hartranft, Tennessee, yesterday afternoon. His son, Daniel C. Swab, who is reading law in the office of District Attorney Millar, received the sad news late yesterday afternoon and the further information that the body would be brought to the old Swab homestead near Elizabethville, this county, Saturday, for interment at St. John’s Church, near Berrysburg, Sunday morning at 10.
Philip C. Swab was born September 10, 1847, in Washington Township, and was the son of the late Eli Swab, who died in January 1899. His great-great grandfather, John Schwab, was a native of Germany and came to this country about 1735, first settling in Philadelphia, and later removing to Berks County. John Jacob Schwab, grandfather of Eli Schwab, removed to Washington Township, where he died in 1819. Jacob Swab, grandfather of the deceased, served in the War of 1812 and died on the Swab homestead in 1866.
The deceased wedded Catherine Koppenheffer, of Washington Township, about thirty years ago, and before coming to this city, was a merchant in Williamstown. He established a comfortable home at Thirteenth and Market Streets, and shortly after retiring from office as Recorder removed to Hartranft, Tennessee, to assume the presidency of the Reliance Coal and Coke Company and Middlesborough Coal Company, formed by Dauphin County capitalists. His brother, George Swab, formerly a clerk in the Recorder’s Office, later a common councilman from the Ninth Ward, is now connected with the Tennessee company in an official capacity.
The deceased is survived by three children: Mrs. G. Walter Whiteman, of Philadelphia; Daniel C. Swab, of this city [Harrisburg]; and Miss Fannie Swab, of Hartranft, Tennessee. Mrs. Swab died in this city in July 1894.
Mr. Swab served in the Civil War and was a Mason and member of the G.A.R. He was a man of kindly and generous disposition and strong character. He inherited the energy, industry, and probity of his forefathers, in a marked degree and always had a good word for his fellow man. Mr. Swab made a popular official and many friends in Harrisburg will regret his sudden demise.
Mr. Swab stated this after afternoon that he had not learned any particulars regarding the nature of his father’s illness, He received a letter this morning from his father, mailed yesterday, in which the writer stated stated that he was enjoying his usual good health.
Additional information about Philip C. Swab can be found at his Findagrave Memorial.
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