Mary Anna Swift : Short Biography

Mary Anna was born in 1833 to Thomas Swift and Mary Connell. Her mother died sometime after 1833, and her father remarried to Bridget Fahy. Then Thomas died, and Bridget remarried to John Cusack.

Mary Swift emigrated to America with her brother John Connell Swift (b. 1831) in 1851 (family stories say 1850, but documents show it to be 1851.) Their older brother, Martin (b. 1828) and sister Bridget (b. 1829) had already arrived in the U.S. two years prior in 1848. They lived for a short time in New York, near Albany, where John worked at teaming (driving horses) on the Erie Canal. By 1858, Mary was living in Oneida, Illinois with her brother and by 1865 they were both living in Washington, Iowa. She supported herself by doing housework. She never married. Because she was small in stature, she was known by the family as “Little Aunt Mary.” She died in Washington, Iowa, on 13 March 1920.