Our subject's paternal grandfather was George Schwinger, as he spelled the name, who was born in Wurtemberg, Germany. There he owned a little land and engaged in farming to some extent, but principally worked as a day laborer. He married Elizabeth Stout, and to them were born four children, namely: Jacob, the father of our subject; Rosanna, who first married a Mr. Hughey and located in Indiana, and secondly, Franz Metz; Conrad, who married Mary Ann Emerch and died near Kokomo, Indiana; and an infant, who died at sea. About 1812 the grandfather, with his family sailed for the United States and met with terrible suffering and distress on the voyage. Terrific storms drove the vessel out .of its course along the. coast of Greenland. The masts and sails were swept overboard, and while the passengers were all below and the hatches closed the masts were broken off and became entangled with the main ropes. This turned the vessel on her side and she gradually sank under the water and was held there. The air in the vessel became so foul that life could not be maintained an hour longer, the poor unfortunates being nearly suffocated, when the captain, who knew where to come in contact with the ropes, bored holes with an auger and made an opening large enough to insert his arm. He then severed the ropes with a halcart and freed the vessel from its fastenings. As it then righted itself those on board were saved from suffocation. After being tossed and buffeted about by the wind and waves they were finally driven ashore along the Greenland coast, where they remaied through the winter and until the following spring, when the United States government sent a vessel to their relief and brought them to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. George Swinger had several hundred dollars when he left the old country, but this he spent for the relief of his fellow passengers during the winter and arrived in Philadelphia penniless, with a wife and three children, one having died on the voyage. He sold the father of our subject to a Mr. Grumm in Philadelphia to pay his debts. He settled near Lebanon, in Lebanon county, Pennsylvania, where he spent the remainder of his life. After his death his widow came west and died at the home of her daughter, eighteen miles west of Peru, Indiana.
