Encyclopedia Titanica

MRS. FRED J. SWIFT, WAS CLUB LEADER

New York Times

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Ex-Head of National Council of State Garden Units Dies---Officer in Many
Groups
---
NYACK, N. Y., April 30---Mrs. Margaret Welles Swift, prominent
club-woman and widow of Fred Joel Swift, died yesterday in her home here
after a long illness. She formerly resided in Brooklyn and later in
near-by Grand View.

Descended from seventeenth century New England settlers, Mrs. Swift was a
daughter of the late Charles H. Barron and the late Mrs. Julia A. Welles
Barron. She received Bachelor and Master of Laws degrees from New York
University and lectured on law to women's clubs, but had never
practiced.

For thirty-five years she was president of the Fortnightly Library Club
of Brooklyn and she was a former president of the Brooklyn Woman's Club.

One of Mrs. Swift's chief interests was gardening. She was president
from 1933 to 1936 of the National Council of State Garden Clubs,
one-time editor of the council's bulletin, and a founder and former
president of the Federated Garden Clubs of New York State and the Garden
Club of Nyack. In 1940 she received a silver medal from the state group.

Mrs. Swift was one-time president-general of the Colonial Daughters of
the Seventeenth Century and a member of the Thursday Class of Nyack and
Sorosis, a women's club in New York. She had been prominent also in the
State Federation of Women's Clubs.

An advocate of votes for women, she served at one time as a Village
Trustee in Grand View. Mrs. Swift was a member of the Women's Republican
Club of Nyack, and the Women's National Republican Club in New York.

In 1920 she was chairman of the New York State Women's Wood Committee,
which supported the unsuccessful candidacy for the Republican nomination
for President of the late Maj. Gen. Leonard Wood. She campaigned for
Herbert Hoover in 1932.

In the first World War, Mrs. Swift frequently entertained soldiers who
were strangers in New York. She had been active in charitable
organizations.

Surviving are two sisters, Mrs. H. S. Ford and Mrs. Barron Berthald of
Upper Nyack.

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Margaret Welles Swift

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Citation

Encyclopedia Titanica (2007) MRS. FRED J. SWIFT, WAS CLUB LEADER (New York Times, Saturday 1st May 1948, ref: #5548, published 10 May 2007, generated 6th December 2024 08:57:59 AM); URL : https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/mrs-fred-j-swift-was-club-leader.html