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- Mary Agnes (McLaughlin) Swarva was the first child of Dennis and Annie,was born in Irwin, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania on the 13th of June,1884. She was baptized in Immaculate Conception church there on July13th 1884. No second name is listed, but she later used Agnes as amiddle name. Her godfather was her uncle , James McLaughlin. By thetime she started school, the family had moved west to the Washingtonterritory and was living on their homestead at Mud Mountain (nearBuckley). She had just turned twelve, the oldest of six children, when they movedto Juneau, Alaska in 1896. Two years later, the deaths of three of thechildren left her with no one near her own age. The next survivingchild, Celia, was seven years younger. Mary was sixteen and in high school when the 1900 Census was taken. Shehad finished school and was working when her father died unexpectedly in1908, leaving her mother with eight younger children and anotherexpected, so she was able to help out financially. In the 1910 Census, she is not listed at the family home. She may havebeen living in Douglas, Juneau County, where she worked, but most ofthose Census pages are faded and illegible. Meanwhile, George Lewis Swarva (who was born in Seattle, on September 30,1888 and graduated from the University of Washington in 1911) moved toJuneau where her worked for the Alaska Mining Company as an engineer andassayer in the nearby town of Douglas. George and Mary were married onMay 22nd, 1917 in Juneau. The 1920 Census lists them in the First District, Juneau, Douglas IslandPrecinct on page A31. Most of the page was unreadable, but names andages could be made out. Swarva, George head 32 R (rented house) Mary wife 31 George son 1 At this time, Mary was actually 35 (and George was 31), but possiblydidn't want it known that she was older than her husband. Two sons, George and Joe, were born to them in Alaska. They moved to 851South 96th Street in Seattle in 1924. George went into business as ownerof a coal company and in following year, the family welcomed its thirdchild, Nancy. Both George and Nancy were active in the democratic Party,so when Franklin D. Roosevelt came into office in 1933, George wasappointed head of the Seattle Assay Office. He remained there until hisretirement in 1955. Mary died in Seattle on the 14th of Mach, 1957, at the age of 72. Shesuffered from diabetes for many years. George later remarried, and diedon May 19th, 1968. As the oldest daughter in a large family, Mary always had a great senseof responsibility. She was short, about 5' 1' or 5' 2', and had blackhair. Her granddaughter recalls her saying that if you weren't Irish,you weren't anything - (despite the fact that she married a Scandinavian.) The above account is listed on page 5-10 in the book, 'The Family of BigJim McLaughlin of Dreenagh, Malin Head, Donegal, Ireland, compiled byMarjorie (Molloy) Jansen and published in Golden, Colorado 1999. THE SEATTLE TIMES , March 17, 1957 RITES SET FOR MRS. SWARVA. STATE PIONEER Rosary for Mrs. Mary Agnes McLaughlin Swarva, 72, a Washington pioneer, will be said at 8 o’clock tomorrow night in the Booth-Ashmore Chapel. Requiem Mass will be said at 9 o’clock Tuesday in Our Lady ofLourdes Church. Burial will be in Calvary Cemetery on Tuesday, March 19th, 1957. Mrs. Swarva died in a nursing home Thursday after a long illness. She was secretary of the old King County Democratic Club from 1932 until about 1941. She was the wife of George L. Swarva, former officer in charge ofthe United States assay office here many years. Mrs. Swarva was born in Pittsburgh, the daughter of Dennis and Anne McLaughlin. The family homesteaded at Mud Mountain near Buckley in 1888. Mrs. Swarva attended schools there and in Juneau, Alaska. She came to Seattle from Juneau with her husband in 1924. The family home is at 851 S. 96th St. (It may be Burns Street now 1999) Survivors besides Mr. Swarva are two sons, Joseph and George L. Swarva, Jr., and a daughter, Nancy C. Swarva, all of Seattle; foursisters, Mrs. Celia Theile and Mrs. Rose McMullen, both of Juneau, and Anne and Catherine McLaughlin, both of San Francisco: three brothers, Dennis McLaughlin, San Francisco, Joseph McLaughlin, Portland, Oregon, and John McLaughlin, Juneau, and two granddaughters.
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