Pioneers of Marion County by Wm. Wm. M. Donnel, 1872

David Sweem

David Sweem was born in Ohio, in 1819, moved to Indiana and from thence to this county and township in the autumn of '44.

Mr. S. was first an exhorter, and during his residence here, an itinerant preacher in the M. E. Church. He also took a somewhat active part in politics, by which he became well known in the county. His residence was near Attica, where he died Jan. 15th, '68. His widow resides in the village.

Like many of his fellow immigrants he came to this country poor, and suffered many of the privations of poverty and of a new country combined. At one time he and Jeremiah Gullian went to Keosauqua to get work for money to buy breadstuffs. Just previous to this they had lost their only cow; and, as this cow had been half the support of the family, their circumstances were much straitened by the loss. Work for wages was scarcely to be had, and all that Mr. Sweem could get to do was a well to clean out. With the wages for this job, and half a dollar he already had, he bought two bushels of meal and returned home.