Background
Silas Comfort Swallow was born on March 5, 1839 near Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, the son of George and Sarah Swallow. Because of the illness of his father, he assumed the management of the farm at the age of fourteen.
(Harrisburg 1904 1st edition. United Evangelical Publishin...)
Harrisburg 1904 1st edition. United Evangelical Publishing House. Octavo, 432pp., photo illustrations, gilt printed maroon cloth hardcover. VG, light wear; no owner marks.
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Silas Comfort Swallow was born on March 5, 1839 near Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, the son of George and Sarah Swallow. Because of the illness of his father, he assumed the management of the farm at the age of fourteen.
By diligent labor and the practice of economy Silas Swallow obtained sufficient money to enter Wyoming Seminary at Kingston, Pennsylvania. After his graduation he taught a country school for five years, and then began the study of law in the office of Volney B. Maxwell of Wilkes-Barre.
By diligent labor and the practice of economy he obtained sufficient money to enter Wyoming Seminary at Kingston, Pennsylvania. After his graduation he taught a country school for five years, and then began the study of law in the office of Volney B. Maxwell of Wilkes-Barre.
Before his admission to the bar, however, he decided to enter the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and after pursuing theological studies in the Susquehanna Seminary, Binghamton, New York, was admitted on trial by the East Baltimore Conference of his church in 1863.
He began preaching on a circuit in central Pennsylvania at a salary of $100 a year. Twice during the Civil War, in 1862 and 1863, he served for brief periods in the Pennsylvania Emergency Volunteers.
Between 1892 and 1905 he was superintendent of the Methodist Book Rooms in Harrisburg and editor of the Pennsylvania Methodist and of the short-lived Church Forum.
His persistent attacks upon prominent politicians resulted in the filing of charges of libel against him on several occasions and the divided allegiance of many Methodist ministers, who sought to divorce religion and politics. The controversy in the church reached an acute stage in the fall of 1901, when he was suspended from all ministerial duties and church privileges until the next annual meeting of the Central Pennsylvania Conference at Bellefonte, in March 1902.
Although this body failed to sustain the charges of "lying and insubordination, " it declared him "to be guilty of highly imprudent and unministerial conduct" and authorized the Bishop to administer a "public reproof". Meanwhile the "fighting Parson, " as he was termed, was waging a valiant campaign against the firmly entrenched liquor interests of the state and nation.
In 1896 he was elected a delegate to the Prohibition National Convention, and the next year he carried eleven counties in his candidacy for state treasurer, while in 1898 as the Prohibition candidate for governor he received some 130, 000 votes. Six years later he became the nominee of his party for the presidency and polled 258, 847 votes.
In 1909 Swallow published a volume of reminiscences entitled III Score & X or Selections, Collections, Recollections of Seventy Busy Years; in 1920, a pamphlet, Then and Now or Some Reminiscences of an Octogenarian; and in 1922, a supplementary pamphlet, Fourscore and More.
He died in 1930 at the age of ninety-one. He is interred at Paxtang Cemetery near Harrisburg.
Silas Swallow devoted his whole time to preaching, writing, and lecturing on prohibition matters. He was noted as a successful church builder and as editor of the Central Pennsylvania Methodist, a church newspaper. It was in his position as an editor that he began his lifelong crusade against alcohol and corruption in government.
(Harrisburg 1904 1st edition. United Evangelical Publishin...)
In his religious affiliation Silas Comfort Swallow was a Methodist Episcopalian and at some point he made a decision to enter the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Silas Swallow was the Prohibition Party’s candidate for Mayor of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, state legislature, State Treasurer, Governor of Pennsylvania. During the late nineties he made the Republican machine in Pennsylvania a target for his thrusts.
He was also Party candidate for the position of President of the United States in the 1904 election, running with George Washington Carroll.
The militant attitude which Swallow assumed in his condemnation of these diversions made him many bitter enemies and involved him in a large number of personal controversies.
Silas Comfort Swallow married Rebecca Louisa Robins of Elysburg, Pennsylvania, January 20, 1866, was ordained elder the following year, and during the next two decades served many pastoral charges in central Pennsylvania.
