JUDA/JUDITH was the daughter of Andrew Hill and Catherine Horton.  According to other researchers, she was probably born in Fox Meadows, Westchester County, New York, but I have not seen the records or sources for this information.  Her family must have moved to Fishkill sometime before or during the Revolutionary War.    I have seen her name listed in many different ways in different records – the most frequent being Juda or Judith.   According to other researchers, she was born in either 1756 or 1766.  I believe the 1766 is probably correct.  It not only matches the dates of the oldest female living in Thomas Swartwout’s house, but it makes more sense.  Her last child was born in 1807 – if she had been born in 1756, that would have made her 51 year old, which is probably not reasonable.  Age 41 makes much more sense.

Thomas and Judith got married sometime around 1784.  This date is according to other researchers, but again, I have not seen the sources for this information.  It is probably in the records of one of the local Reformed Dutch Churches, probably in Fishkill.  Their first 2 children were born and then christened in the Fishkill Reformed Dutch Church.  Samuel was born on 10 December 1787 and Andrew was born on 23 February 1790.  The very first census of the new United States of America was taken sometime between February and December in 1790.  Thomas and his family were listed as living in Fishkill, Dutchess County, New York.  Their next son, James, was born on 10 October 1792 in Fishkill, according to The Swartwout Chronicles.  This record is probably from the Fishkill Reformed Dutch Church.

I believe there was another son born next, Thomas Swartout, Jr.  He is not listed in The Swartwout Chronicles and I have not yet located a birth/christening record for him from Fishkill.  But I believe he exists primarily from the 1850 census, where he is living with his presumed brother Andrew.  And assuming that he was born in 1795, his age correlates perfectly to the ages of the children as listed on both the 1800 and 1810 census in Thomas Swartwout’s household.

The next confirmed child is Polly, who was born on 20 December 1797, according to the records of the Marbletown Reformed Church.   So the family must have moved from Fishkill and stayed in Marbletown for a short time.  The family continued their move to their final destination, which was the Shokan area in Ulster County New York.   On 26 October 1799, Juda Hill Swartout, wife of Thomas Swartout, was received upon confession at the Shokan Reformed Dutch Church.  On 31 May 1800, Thomas Swartwout became a member of the same church.

The family was visited by the census taker for the 1800 census.  They are listed as living in Woodstock (which is in the Shokan area) in Ulster County New York.  Their next 3 children were born, according to the records of the Shokan Reformed Dutch Church:  Cornelius, was born on 27 October 1801;  Jude, was born on 23 April 1804, and Sally was born on 15 July 1807.  On 31 May 1804, Thomas Swartwout was elected one of the elders of the Reformed Dutch Church of Shokan, according to the Swartwout Chronicles.

The family is listed on the 1810 federal census, showing them living at Shandaken in Ulster County, New York.  By the 1820 federal census, the family is listed as living in Shandaken in Ulster County, New York.

I believe that Juda died between 1810 and 1820.  Even though the census records do not list individuals by name, they are listed by male/female and then by age.  So in 1810, there is a female listed between the ages of 26-44 (Juda would have been 44).  By 1820, she would have been 54, but there is no older female living in the household.   I have found no burial or death record for her yet.

By 1830, Thomas is no longer listed as head of the household, but shown as living in the household of his son, Andrew.  Thomas would have been 74 years old at this time and it makes sense that he would be living with a son.  The family shows up in Olive, Ulster County, New York.

An interesting note about the locations of their family – in 1800, they’re listed as living in Woodstock; 1810 in Shandaken; 1820 in Shandaken and 1830 in Olive, all in Ulster County.   I believe it is possible that the family never actually moved during each of these census years.  I think they may have been on the same piece of land, but the name of the area kept changing.  If you start with Olive and work backwards – Olive was formed from Shandaken and Marbletown in 1823.   Shandaken was part of Woodstock until 1804.

On 11 September 1832, Thomas applied for and was granted a pension for his service in the Revolutionary War.  At that time he stated that he was living in Olive, Ulster County, New York.     The day before that, on 10 September 1832, he attested to his brother William’s service in the Revolutionary War.  In fact, on William’s application, he states that his lieutenant’s & captain’s “commissions were destroyed by the little children of Thomas Swartwout about 19 years ago” or about 1813.

In 1836/1837, The Swartwout family moved to Michigan.   Thomas Swartwout, the father, moved with his son Andrew and his family.  Also moved, I believe at the same time, were son Samuel Swartwout and his family, son James Swartwout and his family, and son Thomas Swartwout.   We know that they moved around this time from a Thomas’ revoluationary pension records, and government land records), but the most descriptive source of all was what was written in their son Zetus’ obituary.  We do not know exactly why they moved, but there was a general migration trend in the 1820s through the 1840s from New York to Michigan.  Michigan was a place where land was opening up and being offered for sale by the federal government.   Thomas may have received a bounty land warrant for his revolutionary war service, which may have also been a reason why they moved to Michigan.

So the Swartwout family came to Michigan around 1836 or 1837.  They came from Olive in Ulster County New York.   They travelled the land by ox team and then crossed Lake Erie by boat.  They arrived in Michigan about the last of April, 1836.  When they arrived in Michigan, Andrew & his family built a double log house was built, which was considered very unusual and convenient for pioneer days.  The house was situated about ¾ of a mile west of the Four Corners (now Cement City).  The house was placed on the Woodstock (Lenawee County) side of the county line in the center of a large tract of land bought from the government.  Records from the Bureau of Land Management indicate that Andrew purchased/received 226.36 acres in Lenawee County from the Federal government.  The log structure remained the home for 15 years, when a  house was erected across the road in Jackson County (1851).  A log school house was built just east of the cabin home in 1837, where the children attended school.  Elder Swain conducted church services in the old log school house for 12 years.  This church was of the old school Baptist faith.

In 1840, the family shows up on the federal population census schedule as living in Woodstock, Lenawee County, Michigan.

On 12 September 1848, Thomas Swartwout, died.  I have no record to substantiate this, other than the death date taken from his tombstone where he is buried in the Cement City Cemetery, Cement City, Lenawee County, Michigan.  He would have been 92 years old.   In fact, on 01 July 1923, a ceremony was held by the local Daughters of the American Revolution group to place a marker at the grave of Thomas.  It was attended by 2 of his living grandsons at the time, Zetus age 91 and Andrew aged 86.   The Swartwouts seemed to have been blessed with relative healthy and long lives.

Thomas and Juda had 8 known children, all surnamed SWARTWOUT/SWARTOUT: