For more than a half century the Swallow family built and sustained a prosperous liquor establishment in Norristown, Pennsylvania. Their story began with the founding father, Jonathan Swallow, a Union soldier who fought in — and lived through — many of the major battles of the Civil War. With his death his two sons, Howard and James, carried on the tradition of selling quality Pennsylvania whiskey.
Jonathan Swallow was born in Stalybridge near Manchester, England, in 1820. Early information about him — education, date of immigration, early career — are lost in the mists of history. By 1855, in his mid-30s, Jonathan married Harriet Knox, a woman of approximately the same age, who had been born in New York. They would have three children, James, born in 1856, Howard, 1859, and Maggie, 1865. An 1860 local directory lists Swallow working as a “spinner” in a Norristown textile factory.
When the Civil War broke out, Jonathan, despite being 40 years old, volunteered for service. Civil War muster rolls show him enlisting on September 16, 1861, in the 51st Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Regiment. He marched away from Harriet and his young children four days later. Possibly because of his somewhat advanced age, Jonathan entered service as a second lieutenant, second in command of a platoon.
Of all the “whiskey men” profiled on this blog who served the North in the Civil War, Jonathan seems to have seen the most hot combat. After spending almost a year in North Carolina, the 51st Pennsylvania was sent into Maryland to counter Lee’s 1892 invasion. As shown in an artist’s rendering below, the regiment was credited in taking the famous stone bridge at the Battle of Antietam. The American flag seen in the illustration here was carried by the 51st color guard. The regiment suffered numerous casualties at Antietam with 21 men killed and 99 wounded.
That was just the one of many pitched battles in which Sparrow’s regiment would participate. They included Fredericksburg, Vicksburg, Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House, Cold Harbor, The Crater, and the final Appomattox Campaign. Through it all, Jonathan Sparrow survived. In 1865 he returned to his family in Norristown and opened a saloon. The 1870 federal census listed him at that occupation. By 1880 he had stopped selling whiskey by the drink over his bar and was operating a liquor store at 200 Main Street.
Two years later, in 1882, age 62, Jonathan died. He was given full military honors at his funeral and buried in Norristown’s Montgomery Cemetery. Note that his gravestone omits his date of birth but mentions his military service with Company D of the 51st Pennsylvania.
By the time of his death, Jonathan had brought his son Howard into the business as a clerk. The boy demonstrated a real knack for the whiskey trade and seemingly stepped easily into proprietorship. The Main Street store became “H. Swallow & Company.” Shown below are examples of Howard’s ads in 1886 (left) and 1890. His brother James was working for him throughout this period.
Meanwhile both Sparrows were having personal lives. In 1886, Howard married Margaret M. Farrell, who has been born in New York of Irish immigrant parents. Although I cannot find the couple recorded as having children of their own, Howard appears to have adopted an earlier child of his wife. The family lived in a double house at 824 West Marshall St. in Norristown, shown here. James married a Mary Farrell, who died after bearing him a son, Gerald. James raised the boy himself, apparently never remarrying.
By the early 1890s, James had become a full partner in the liquor house his father had founded and the name was changed to “Swallow Bros., Wholesale Dealers in Wines and Liquors.” As many such dealerships, the brothers featured several proprietary brands, including "COMO Pure Rye,” "Fairmount Club,” and “Nonparell." They failed to trademark any of these labels, possibly because the names matched closely other whiskey brands that already had been trademarked. The Sparrow sold their liquor in clear bottles embossed with their name in script and bearing paper labels.
Swallow Brothers also featured beer in their advertising, in 1896 asserting their store as a depot for Pabst’s Milwaukee beers and in a 1914 ad for Reading Brewing Company, only 50 miles away. Shown here is a Swallow Bros. clear beer bottle and a closeup of its label. Like the bottle, the ceramic closure carried the company monogram.
The brothers carried on a brisk business throughout most of the early 1900s, until the advent of National Prohibition. Then they were forced to shut down their successful liquor business. In the 1920 census both men were registered as unemployed. The 1930 census found James with no occupation but Howard had gone to work in a Norristown machine shop as a “profiler,” operating a tool that assured the accuracy of machined parts.
Howard was the first to die, passing away in 1934 at the age of 74. The cause given on his death certificate was a stroke brought on by pneumonia. He was buried in Montgomery Cemetery not far from his father. James followed him two years later, dying of heart failure at age 80. He had moved to West Donegal, Pennsylvania, and was buried in the Masonic Homes Cemetery in Elizabethtown.
In many ways there is nothing remarkable about the Swallows’ story. But they epitomize the legacy with which an immigrant father and Civil War veteran can endow his family, initiating more than a half-century of selling whiskey —all summed up in a bottle with their name embossed.
Note: This post, information and images, was gathered from a wide number of Internet resources, including genealogical sites. The Sparrow company ads are from Norristown directories over a period from 1886 to 1914.
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