K. W. Swartz McKinley County, New Mexico

J. W. Swartz, the oldest resident pioneer of Gallup, was born in Pennsylvania in 1838 and was taken to Illinois by his parents at the age of fifteen. Soon after the outbreak of the Civil war he enlisted as a private in the One Hundred and Third Illinois Volunteer Infantry and served three years, participating in the campaign in the Mississippi valley, about Atlanta, the march to the sea and the grand review in Washington. He was mustered out at Louisville, Kentucky, with the rank of first lieutenant. In 1880 he accompanied his brother, A. C. Swartz, to New Mexico, and since the 15th of December, 1881, has been a resident of Gallup, with the exception of the years 1885 to 1890, when he returned to his former home in Galesburg, Illinois, for the purpose of educating his son. Upon his return to Gallup in 1890 he was employed by the Crescent Coal Company for four years, but since 1894 has lived in practical retirement.

In 1866 Mr. Swartz married Delia B. Swain, a native of Glens Falls, New York. Their only child is a son, Frank C. Swartz who was born in Galesburg, Illinois, in 1868, and completed his education in the normal school at Bushnell. Illinois. After coming to Gallup he was employed for thirteen years in the commissary department of various coal companies. In 1896 he established himself in the mercantile business, selling to Palmer Ketner in May, 1904, and afterward starting retail and jobbing business. He has served as town trustee and has been the Democratic candidate for County commissioner.

Mysterious Ruins. About one and a half miles northeast of Gallup, on the summit of a rocky hill, known as "Crown Point," are the ruins of a structure which many believe to have been one of the early Spanish forts erected in New Mexico. The ruins, part of which are in a fair state of preservation, show that this fortification if such it was eighty-eight feet long and twelve feet wide, and constructed of stone. The east and south walls have fallen, but the northwest portion, with its numerous portholes, is in good condition.

This structure was first discovered, so far as can be learned, by A. C. Swartz, formerly engineer in charge of the work of bridge construction on the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad, who ascended the hill from the north side in 1883. In later years his brother, J. W. Swartz of Gallup, found among the stones entering into the structure one in which was cut the name "E. Maynox," and the date 1589. Mrs. J. W. Swartz

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Source: History of New Mexico, Its Resources and People, Volume II, Pacific States Publishing Co., 1907.

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