Buena Vista County, IA
USGenWeb Project

H. E. Swope, who has been successfully engaged in merchandising at Marathon since 1900, was born in Maryland on the 11th of October, 1868, his parents being J. H. and Sarah Jane (Bell) Swope, natives of Maryland and Virginia respectively.  The year 1871 witnessed their arrival in Polk county, Iowa.  The father was called to his final rest in 1876 at the comparatively early age of thirty-seven years, but the mother still survives and makes her home in Des Moines.

At the usual age H. E. Swope became a pupil in the public schools of Des Moines but his advantages in that direction were limited by the necessity of having to contribute to the support of the family.  When a young man of eighteen years he became connected with the grain and live stock business in Des Moines and thus continued until his entrance into the field of merchandising as proprietor of a general store.  In l900 he came to Marathon, Iowa, where he has since remained as a general merchant, his patronage steadily increasing by reason of his well selected line of goods, reasonable prices and reliable business methods.  He likewise owns a store at Webb and one at Varina, Iowa.  His landed holdings include a valuable farm of one hundred and sixty acres north of Marathon, as well as a tract of land in Wyoming, and he is widely recognized as a most substantial and progressive citizen of this county.

On the 30th of August, 1893, Mr. Swope was united in marriage to Miss Jessie West.  Unto our subject and his wife have been born two children:  Lurene and Adelbert, the latter, however, died at the age of three and one half years and is buried at Marathon.

Since age conferred upon him the right of franchise Mr. Swope has given his political allegiance to the republican party.  His fraternal relations are with the Masons and the Woodmen.  He has been watchful of his opportunities, has improved them, and year after year has made consecutive advancement until he is now numbered among the leading and prosperous merchants and business men of his adopted county.