Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 5.djvu/553

 VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

937

was a clerk in the employ of Overbey & Acree. In i8S6 Mr. Acree retired from the firm, Mr. Swanson succeeding him as partner, the reorganized firm trading as Overbey, Swanson & Company. In i8go William G. Swanson was admitted, and un- til 1904 the business was conducted under the firm name of Overbey & Swanson Brothers. In the latter year the business passed to the sole ownership of J. P. and W. G. Swanson and has since that date been operated as the Swanson Supply Com- I'any. grocers and dealers in farmers' sup- plies. The business is a very large and im- portant one and under the particular atten- tion of J. P. Swanson, who is also president of Swanson Brothers Company, wholesale grocers. This company is also an out- growth of the firm of Overbey & Acree, es- tablished in 1880. In 1886 the firm became Overbey & Swanson. later Overbey & Swanson I'.rothers and in 1910 was incor- porated as The Swanson Brothers Company, J. P. Swanson, president, \V. G. Swanson, secretary, treasurer and general manager. The Swanson Brothers Company are gen- eral wholesale grocers, jobbers and manu- facturers agents, covering Virginia and North Carolina territory, both companies well managed and prosperous.

John P. Swanson is also president of the Park Place Mercantile Company, located at Schoolfield. two miles from Danville : is president of the South Atlantic Lumber Company of Greensboro, North Carolina, wholesale lumber manufacturers ; director of the Arctic Ice Company ; director of the Commercial Bank of Danville and inter- ested in other Danville activities. He is a Democrat in politics, a member of the Main Street ^Methodist Episcopal Church, the Tuscarora Club and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He is a man of ability and energy, highly regarded and popular in his community.

Air. Swanson married. March 11, iSgi, Annie, daughter of Morris Kent Estes, of Livingston. Nelson county, Virginia, a for- mer sheriff of Nelson county, now deceased, and his wife, Dora (Kidd) Estes, also de- ceased.

William G. Swanson. Among all the de- scendants of the Swedish emigrant, Sven Ganderson, who settled in Philadelphia in 1635, from whom sprang the Swansons of

Virginia, none has more capably filled his station in life than William G. Swanson, of Danville, Virginia, born at Swansonville. Pittsvlvania countv, \'irginia, September 7, i860.'

Me was educated in the public schools of Swansonville, a village named in honor of John Swanson, the early settler. This school, the educational home of all the Swanson boys, was then conducted by Celestia S. Parrish. the noted educator. After finishing the course of study there he entered the Uni- versity of Alabama, where he completed his studies in 1880. He began business life as a clerk in the dry goods store of Turner Brothers in Danville, later spending three years in business for himself at Swanson- ville as a merchant. He then accepted a government position as chief clerk at White Rock, Indian reservation in Utah, remaining there four years. He then located in Dan- ville, and entered the wholesale grocery and retail farmers supply business of the Swan- son Supply Company, the latter dealing with farmers principally and under the manage- ment of John P. Swanson. The Swanson Brothers Company, a strictly wholesale business, is under the management of Wil- liam G. Swanson, secretary, treasurer and general manager, although the brothers are mutually interested and harmonious in the management of both companies. Both are prosperous companies, ably managed and fill important places in Danville's com- mercial life. William G. Swanson is also secretary of the Park Place Mercantile Com- pany, of which he and his brother, John P.. are the virtual owners, is largely interested in the South Atlantic Lumber Company, of Greensboro, North Carolina, and in the Dudley and Clement Lumber Company, of Greensboro.

A Democrat in politics, Mr. .Sw'anson, during President Cle\-eland's second admin- istration, accepted the appointment of In- dian agent, at the White Rock agency in Utah, but retained all his commercial in- terests in Danville. He continued in charge of the agency for six months, then resigned and returned to Danville. He is a member of the Main Street Methodist Episcopal Church, the Knights of Pythias. Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Danville Country. Merriewold Country and Tusca- rora clubs. He is unmarried.