In April, 1841, the court, in vacation, met at the Courthouse. Among the grand jurors was David Swor. In October, 1881, Mrs. Stone of “Swor’s Prairie” gave birth to a baby with only one leg, one arm and one ear. On page 219, Goodspeed is talking about the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mentioned is R. McMaster assigned in March 1878 to take the Neosho charge, then including Newtonia, Erie, the south half of the old Seneca Circuit, viz: Swor’s Prairie, Banneck and Pool’s Prairie. Classes were attached at Swor’s Prairie in March 1879.
Little is remembered about David Swor. It is said he was probably the first settler, therefore the “prairie” was named for him.
A copy of the original deed follows this introduction. The Swars Prairie Baptist Church was already in existance at the time of this deed. Ola Lawson said the small log church was west of the present sanctuary.
Land was originally purchased from St. Louis & San Francisco railroads. One citizen could buy one acre, thus the three men, Roark, Crabtree and Smith each bought an acre and sold all three acres for $5.00 and deeded it to the trustees of the Swars Prairie Mission Church and their successors. The lots are forever free. Every other section of land - some were homesteaded and some were deeded to the railroad. This was a government promotion for the railroad.
The three acres deeded by the above mentioned was not all for the cemetery. One acre was for the church sanctuary and two acres set aside for the cemetery. (Goodspeed records p. 245 show the railroad property in lands in Newton County in 1873 was 124, 136 acres valued at $1.50 per acre).
The first person to be buried in the cemetery was John M. Martin - 1879-1881 (P36 on the church record map). He was the infant son of Jimmy and Tennessee Golden Martin. The second burial was Charley H. Kelley - 1879 - 1882 (Q36 on the map). He was the child of Marian Kelley.
Lawton Lawson was Trustee for the cemetery in 1988 at the age of 88 years. Originally Jimmy Martin was in charge. He started a notebook, Mr. Martin died in 1915. His son, Virgil Martin acted as sponsor of the cemetery, but did very little record keeping. He died in 1956.
In the 1930’s, during the WPA era, a project was formed to clean up the cemetery. There were two mound of dirt on the church lawn. Cars had driven over this and was unsightly. It was moved to the NE corner of the cemetery to begin the job of leveling the land. Sprouts were cut, great piles of rock, dirt and debris was left after graves had been dug. This was all moved to the SE corner. Lawton Lawson couldn’t remember the men who brought their wagons except himself and Lloyd Mailes. But, five to six men brought wagons to remove this dirt. There was no money to pay them. However, they did receive groceries and clothing for their labors. Lawton remembered that Virgil Martin set fire to the cemetery a few times to rid the underbrush. Lawton was very opposed to burning.
In 1961, Lawton and Ola Lawson made a plat of the cemetery. While Lawton was mowing and cleaning, Ola attached a piece of brown paper to a cardboard and began plotting the cemetery. Their son, Vernon Lawson, a professional engineer, made a true to scale “Plat Plan”, July 31, 1965. Vernon revised the Plat Plan in May 1971, May 1974, July 1981, June 1983 and May 1988.
An additional acre was purchased from Mr. Darrell Fisher in 1978 for $750.00. That increased the cemetery acreage to 3 acres. The Swars Prairie Cemetery is fenced and maintained by donations, bears a flag pole, a beautiful wrought iron entrance gate with a decorative fence across the front.
In August, 1988, Dorothy Lawson Sherwood and Isabel Lawson Culkin (daughters of Lawton and Ola Lawson) documented the entire cemetery. It had previously been recorded and updated in 1982, but was very incomplete.
Swars Prairie Baptist Cemetery is possibly the cleanest and most well-groomed cemetery in the entire area. It is a real source of pride for all concerned.
Researched by Isabel Lawson Culkin
9-7-88