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By James England via concealednation.org
Not too long ago, we did an article discussing rotating the rounds that go into your everyday carry gun's chamber. What we didn't expect was how prevalent a concern this was in the concealed carry gun community. In this article, we're going to talk in a little more detail on what happens to the round that gets chambered in your concealed carry gun — and a little more on how you might go about rotating it . . .
Ease Up On The Upper Receiver
Everyone likes that "clink-clunk" noise the slide makes when it slams down on a round. That said, the lighter you set down the upper receiver onto the round in the magazine, the lighter the impact on the cartridge casing. If you're at the range and planning on expending that ammo, there's very little to worry about. Modern munitions and most handguns are designed to accomodate those tolerances. The biggest obstacle we run into is the repeated impact of the upper receiver onto the same bullet casing multiple times.
One or twice? No problem. You can potentially keep the same round chambered in your handgun for several months (or longer) depending upon how gently you chamber that round.
Here's the ugly part: every time a bullet gets loaded into the chamber of a handgun, it's going to take the force of the slide hitting it. Every handgun is going to be slightly different in terms of the force it exerts on the bullet itself. There's no all-inclusive set of rules governing when a round should be cycled out. So, we're going to have to use common sense on this one.
Weekly Assessment
Concealed carriers tend to use specialized self-defense rounds. These are bullets designed to expand when they hit soft tissue and, thus, have a greater impact on potential bad guys in a self-defense situation. These rounds are usually quite a bit more expensive than standard full metal jacket bullets so gunowners are understandably more hesitant to "throw away" (shoot at the range) an expensive self-defense round.
When we unload our carry guns — either to clean the, or before a range session — we have a tendency to eject the round and then put it right back in at the top of the magazine. It's expedient and convenient. Before you throw that round right back at the top of the magazine, take an honest look at it.
Three Things To Look
The back of the casing is pretty resistant to impact but, after awhile, you could see dents start to form on the back of the casing. You may also notice dents along the side of the case. These are especially important to note. Dings, cuts, carves, and dents are all signs that a round needs to be cycled out.
Inspect the following points on the round:
- Back of the bullet case
- Sides of the bullet (full 360° turn)
- Indents or scrapes on the primer
Once the round starts showing signs of wear and tear, don't wait — cycle it out. If you're at home or some place convenient, cycle the rounds out of the magazine and then put the "most frequently chambered" round in first. Stack the rest on top.
Ideally, take the round out of circulation altogether. Throw it in a safe container where you keep rounds you intend to shoot at the range.
If it's heavily degraded or bent, decommission it. If you've never had to decommission a bullet, talk to the guy or gal at your local gun shop that handles the reloading. He'll know more about the proper way to fully decommission a bullet that's been severely damaged. This doesn't happen too often.
In conclusion, as annoying as it may be to ditch an expensive self-defense round, it's far better to stay safe. The biggest threat isn't the round going off on its own, it's usually a failure to fire or failure to eject. None of the above are ideal for a concealed carrier using his or her handgun in self-defense.
108 Responses to Setback: Why It's Important to Cycle Your Concealed Carry Rounds
A good point and well stated. Thanks.
I take it back. Only the title of the article is worth reading . Setback is undesirable but the article never discusses that.
Well, I've got a habit of locking the slide back, dropping the round in the chamber, then letting the extractor clip over the rim of the cartridge rather than "slamming it home". I've even been known to pull out the calipers once in a while – so far that technique doesn't shove the bullet into the case after a few years.
I thought the same thing. Here, I'll fix it for you: You can eyeball bullet setback (i.e., how far down in the casing the round has been pushed by impacting the feed ramp) by lining it up next to fresh ammo. If it is noticeably shorter, get rid of it or shoot it off on a range day. Stop carrying it. Setback can cause a dangerous increase in pressure that could kaboom the barrel, your hand…etc.
With a Five Seven, I am not comfortable without measuring the OAL of any rounds I remove from the chamber. I remove the chambered round almost every day for drawing and laser dry fire practice. Due to their construction my rounds are almost never damaged. Due to careful rechambering they are also rarely shortened. If it is one of my hand loads that is short, I disassemble, resize, reload and put it back in the rotation.
Agreed. But I'd like to suggest using an FMJ round as your chambered shot; not only is it cheaper, but it's safer for you in the advent of an accidental discharge. The rest of your mag would consist of your favorite defensive ammo.
How is a bullet that gets 3-4 times greater penetration ever 'safer'. If anything, use a hollowpoint, those are practically less than lethal rounds at handgun velocities.
Less shrapnel if the bullet impacts something hard? I would be more worried about the fmj passing through and rather than little pieces falling off. A ND is a ND, keep the finger off the bang switch.
"but it's safer for YOU in the advent of an accidental discharge. "
Key word here is YOU.
A defensive round will destroy your own ass. FMJ will make a much cleaner, more recoverable wound.
Aside from increased tissue damage defense ammo also reduces the chance of over penetration. I'd rather take a gamble on whether or not the defense ammo expands properly than use FMJ knowing it won't expand well.
I have been cycling mags as well as the top round on each mag weekly for awhile now. I also chamber my rounds as slowly as possible. By doing this I can usually go 1 to 2 years before I need to get new carry rounds.
I take a fine black sharpie and mark underneath the case rim a line that tells me the round has been chambered, I make sure not to chamber it again if I can help it and replace my carry ammo at least once a year. This system has worked well for me.
I don't understand why people chamber and unchamber rounds a lot. I carry with a round chambered, and very rarely ever have to unchamber a round — cleaning and practicing. If I clean after practice, that generally doesn't require unchambering a self-defense round. I'll unchamber a self-defense round maybe three or four times a year.
When I practice, I'll fire the currently-chambered self-defense round, and sometimes at least one magazine of self-defense ammo, before moving onto the FMJ.
So… do you leave your gun on you while you shower and sleep, or do you leave a loaded gun unattended in your house?
I have one of those big steel thingies with the dial on the door.
For the children.
I have no children.
In the rare instance one might be in the house, I have mini-vaults. If they're in the house, the firearm is on my hip.
I irregularly check to make sure the round is in battery. The deck gets shuffled when I compete in a match.
Unless required by law, loading and unload seems like playing with a certain part of your anatomy without purpose. I'm told females can get a round off without being noticed or having an ND.
You unload your firearms and lock in a safe when you for a shower??? Get professional help.
I shower with my gun. A home invasion could happen at any time, and it saves me from having to clean it. 😉
Like the Gov. says, I have a safe. I have several safes, including some strategically placed push-button handgun safes. Any gun I think I might need in a pinch, which includes all my carry guns, is kept loaded in the safe.
Shall I fill your mind with frightening thoughts of the cocked-and-locked 1911 in the safe?
Isn't that how you're supposed to clean a Glock?
Don, now you're just getting too fancy for a glock.
I have three "unattended" firearms in my house, sometimes four. But I have no children or grandchildren, so there is no one to protect but me, and I am unconcerned
I unchamber rounds daily because my EDC gun is stored in the safe on a rod that inserts into the barrel. I used to leave a round in the gun but, after a while I realized that the tip of the round was just barely making contact with the plastic tip on the end of the rod. (It's an M&P Shield). Over time the weight of the gun was bearing down on the round just enough to crimp all of the soft serrations in the hollow point together. I was walking around with an FMJ in the chamber and didn't know it until I looked at the round one day. Lesson learned.
These rounds are usually quite a bit more expensive than standard full metal jacket bullets so gunowners are understandably more hesitant to "throw away" (shoot at the range) an expensive self-defense round.
Absolute worst case is maybe a buck a round. Just fire your chambered round. It won't break the bank. You practice weekly? A buck a week extra.
Unless you do all your training at <7 yards you should bite the bullet (so to speak) and blow 3 rounds of your carry ammo to start every range day and make sure they're hitting exactly where you want them to. Cheap FMJ ammo is often loaded to lower velocities and their point of impact might not be the same as your carry ammo. Cold, clean barrel, three shots, just like a DGU. Small price to pay.
Yes and yes
I pocket carry, and only go to the range 3-4 times a year. So I shoot all the ammo that has been loaded in my magazines, and then switch to practice ammo. Usually, I put my ears on, and draw and shoot just like I might have to someday. Lint usually flies everywhere the first few shots. But it goes bang, which builds confidence that it will do so when called upon.
Also a good argument for cleaning your EDC even if you haven't shot it, just because it's been riding around on your hip or in your pocked for a while.
Succinctly: Solution in search of a problem.
I usually discard unwanted ammunition in a bonfire. It's great to watch people scatter like cockroaches.
I used to save them up for a beach fire: before starting the fire, bury them a couple inches down in the sand under it. They'll bake off as a surprise.
I say "used to" because the local state police and sheriff have decided that rounds set off in a beach fire is good reason to arrest people. Now they're just plain campfire rounds.
I always fire all my loaded rounds every time I go to the range, unless I'm going multiple times a week.
Ruger SR9c, even with the short magazine = 11 rounds of Hornady Critical Defense @ $1.40 per round, or $15.50.
Not everyone can afford to just blow off full power EDC rounds at that rate. Pop off the first two or three in the mag, that may be more realistic.
As for me, I unload the Hornadies from the mag and leave them in a pile, then load up my range ammo. When I am finished I reload the mag in random order so the chances of the same round going into the chamber are about 10:1. Problem solved at no expense.
Thanks to California, 11 rounds is the most I'd ever burn through anyway. I can handle $15 a month extra.
Dood, you need to shop around for your ammo ( http://ammoseek.com/ ). You can get that stuff for less than half that.
If you blow off the first one or two, then you can save all the rest, since none will have ever been chambered. And get yourself a few extra mags, just for range day. That way you won't have to unload all of those precious Hornady's.
Here ya go.. even from this "not cheap" place it is $0.82/rd; if you are spending $1.40 each you must be ordering 1 box and paying shipping too. I don't purchase ammo here, it's just the first one that came up from the search …
Yet another example of the superiority of the revolver. Keep a round in all six chambers. No worries.
Until 5 or 6 rounds are not enough.
Two revolvers!
It's tricky finding a comfortable IWB holster for this, but problem solved. 🙂
Seriously, I am fully-aware of the saying "nobody in a gunfight ever wished they had less ammo." I carry both revolvers and semi-autos, depending on various factors, but my life just ain't dangerous enough that I feel really concerned when all I have is 5 rounds of .38 +p plus six rounds in a speed strip.
Do they make those in .357 magnum?
Odds of a civilian in the USA, especially those places where a carry permit is obtainable, needing more than 5 rounds of just about any caliber (but especially .357) are akin to winning the lotto and being struck by lightning on the same day. But if you're really worried about it, with practice speed loaders can be extremely fast. I settle for six in the cylinder and 6 in a speed strip, and I'll being looking for cover to reload. You could easily carry 3 or 4 speed strips since they're nowhere near as bulky as magazines.
^ +1
My thought's exactly. R-E-V-O-L-V-E-R. Done.
"New York Reload" ?
#1 Revolver until empty, drop, #2 Semi-Auto until empty
Perhaps – but if you shoot hard-recoiling rounds that aren't properly crimped, you can have a failure in the opposite direction from setback – the bullet moves forward as the gun recoils (actually, inertia makes the heavy bullet want to stay in place, as the gun and fixed cartridge case recoil away from it.) The end result is that you can have bullets sticking out the front of the cylinder far enough to prevent it from rotating. Unlike a semi-auto, where a quick tap-rack-bang is generally enough to fix most issues, a jammed revo cylinder is usually fight-stopping.
For self defense in a revolver, buy or make high quality, well-crimped ammo!
I agree. I've started carrying revolvers more and more. I can clean my LCR a couple times a week (quite job of unloading the cylinder, running a patch down the barrel, and a quick wipedown) and not have to worry about setback. I also don't have to worry about keeping rails lubricated (although any semi-auto used for defensive purposes should be able to reliably run a few magazines dry.)
The word "setback" was not mentioned in the article.
A scratched case won't blow up your gun.
Bullet setback is what you want to watch for. Get out your calipers and measure the oft-chambered rounds against some fresh ones. A bullet set back a bit too far can make pressure increase dramatically. Kaboom.
Another thing to remember is that if you chamber a round and then top off the magazine, there will be two rounds in that cycle.
Huh? The top off round is sitting in the mag with all of the other rounds, not in the barrel. Not being chambered, it isn't being subject to the forces that cause setback.
Two rounds. It works like this:
1. Start with an empty gun and a loaded magazine.
2. Insert magazine, chamber round(1).
3. Eject magazine. Top off with loose round(2). Re-insert magazine.
4. Next time you clear your weapon, round(1) becomes a loose round.
5. When you reload and chamber, round(2) goes into the chamber, and, typically round(1) tops off the magazine.
6. Every time you repeat that procedure, round(1) and round(2) exchange places in chamber and top of magazine.
I shoot my carry mags every 6 months. I seldom rotate the top round. I have never had a failure when I burn the ammo before replacement and have been doing it for 15 years. I think we underestimate the robustness of modern ammunition.
How many times have we heard "Don't ride the slide," yet this article seems to advise just that. I guess there are different schools of thought.
My thoughts exactly. Years of sling-shotting the slide home before I put my carry piece in a holster, and I've never seen wear and tear on a defensive round. I've noticed tarnishing on the bullet's jacket, or on the case (if brass), but no bullet deformation or setback, and no damage to the rim or primer. About every 6mo I'll use those rounds at the range to simulate a real DGU. But in that 6mo period I probably chamber the same round 100-150 times.
Yes, there are two schools of thought on chambering a round in a semiautomatic handgun: the one presented in this article, and the one that's actually correct.
Anner and Stinkeye are absolutely correct. No adminstrative, pussy-footed gun handling please. And for 1911 aficionados, don't be dropping a shell in the chamber and letting the slide slam home on in; that plays Hell on the extractor. Pretty much any autoloader should be charged from the mag, then drop the mag and top it off.
The article has nice sentiments, but didn't address the title subject, and is full of quaint but archaic techniques.
Although I have heard it said many times, and in gun stores, that one should never use the "slide release" to load a pistol, Kahr in fact not only recommends but insists upon it in their owner's manual. Riding the slide will result in a failure to full chamber a round, and slingshotting is somewhat iffy. "Oh, it will wear down the slide release!" Oh yeah? Well heck, it is a cheap and easily replaced piece of metal.
BTW, if you ease the slide down too gently you could leave your pistol out of battery and not even notice. Until it's time to go bang, then it will be pretty obvious.
Yeah I agree with you. I think that aspect of the article above is bad advice, and the whole thing is kinda meh.
My work Glock 22 gets unchambered at least once a week and I keep the same two rounds that alternate betwen being in the chamber (one that gets ejected replaces the round loaded from magazine). I slingshot every time, and it slams home full force.
These rounds get shot twice a year. No issues, ever.
I've never noticed setback in my carry rounds but it was so bad in my AR 5.56 that after only chaimbering the same round twice, the entire bullet would get shoved inside the case. I had a chat with regularguy90 and he said sounds like bad ammo. This happened with all brands of ammo so I thought my gun was defective. He said that was unlikely. I started manually placing the first round in the chamber but regularguy90 said that would "bash the fuck out of your extractor". So I started letting the bolt forward gently then using the forward assist to set the extractor.
Then out of concern for my pistol carry ammo, I started doing the same with my Glock. I put the plus 1 round in the chaimber by hand then let the slide down gently. Then I push the slide into battery to set the extractor.
Anyone see a problem with this method?
Sounds reasonable, but I'd try it a few times at the range just to make sure you're not risking a malfunction.
If your arsenal of guns for serious purposes do not include a 1911, then yeah no problem as long as you ease down the bolt/slide. The stripping-and-shoving-it-up-the-feedramp-against-friction-and-mag-spring motion is a very strong cushion and that's why it's inadvisible to just drop the action like it's not designed for.
I shoot 1911s for fun and 2011s for comp and those are the guns you never do this to, because the nose of the extractor claw is rounded, which will be bashed heavily by the case rim, instead of shaped like a chisel (DLSports has a fix). And those internal extractors are not designed to over-exert to the range of motion caused by dropping over the rim. So i just do the load, drop mag, top off, reload thingy for all my guns including Glocks and ARs.
I dunno about springfield XD, i've done it several times just because i can, never had any ill effect.
Why are you single-loading a cartridge? Load from the mag, then top off the mag. That's the correct way.
I load the first round like that so I don't have to take it out of the rotation.
I know how to load from the magazine. I only do it manually when returning my hollow points into the gun after target practice.
I do the same with my SIG and AR. I'm cheap and it's always worked.
I only had the issue with Varmint tipped rounds, I ended up reading they were designed for bolt action guns and not the harsher action of the AR platform. So I discontinued their use and haven't had an issue since.
Yeah I first noticed it with Hyper 75 grain match ammo.
Since then, I only use 55 grain 5.56 NATO that was designed for the AR. But it still happens if loading the same round more than twice from a topped off mag.
No cartridge ever cycle through my defensive guns twice. If it's been ejected out of a chamber, it goes to a small bin, where they'll be used as range ammo, always. How much is a kaboom gonna cost ya in a deadly scenario? All it takes is one to kill me either by itself or by its consequence. Not risking it.
Just make the most out of your practising and you'll walk away feeling ok.
I replace my concealed carry ammo every 3 months. I'll use it for target practice then load new ammo. And I always leave a round chambered, when I am cleaning my gun I cycle the round that gets chambered for these same reasons as the article discusses.
I always change out all of my CC rounds once a year. The gun and all of the extra mags see a lot of temperature change daily and that can lead to expansion and sharp humidity swings that can damage the bullet. If you can't justify spending $30 for a box once a year to make sure you have fresh ammo, you are doing yourself a disfavor. Also, load up 3 mags and fire the remaining when you put the new stuff in to help determine if you may have a bad batch or will have some feed problem with your most important tool.
Easily solved by simply firing off a round through the ceiling every time you come home.
Properly placed over time, you receive a complimentary skylight. Winning!
Sweet! This is the sort of handy advice that keeps drawing me back to TTAG!
Um. "Slowly chambering the round" is called "riding the slide." It's a no-no and a well documented cause of malfunctions. This article is rather questionable…
Article didn't mention setback.
I shoot 1x per month or more, and will usually shoot about 2 (or 3) rounds of my defense ammo each time. They are the 2 or 3 that I cycle during the course of that previous month. When I remove a round from the chamber I put it 2 or so deep into my mag, and cycle them that way during the course of the month. That way I'm cycling 3 rounds. I dry fire practice regularly (1-2x per week).
Helpful article even if it never deals with setback which is IMO the most important thing to pay attention to. A nifty trick I learned to monitor setback is take two new rounds that have never been chambered before and set them on either side of the round that you are concerned about, runs straight edge across the top of the 3 rounds, if the straight edge isnt touching the middle bullet it is best to either rotate it to the bottom of the mag or toss it in the range bin. In addition to that test, if I have to chamber a round multiple times I take a look at the meplat (the rim of the hollow point cavity) and if it looks like it is deformed I rotate the round to the bottom of the mag.
Ever since I started carrying earlier this year, the carry gun gets chambered (after making sure the breach face is dry and clean to avoid killing the primer) and holstered. When it isn't on my hip it is locked up. I fire the chambered round at the next range trip just as a sort of smoke check of my gear. The bedside table gun gets left in condition 3 as an extra barrier to a sleepwalking ND.
My 38 special Nyclads are somewhere in the vicinity of 30 years old. They have been shooting just fine everytime I've tried – even after sitting in a revolver for years at a time.
Since they are hard to come by I don't test them just because an operator operating says that is the way to operate.
Sorta like testing a match to see if it still works.
Hey check it out! it's that intellectual property thief and editor of dead hooker magazine, Damn Zimmerman!
This article is bad advice.
Most common semiauto rounds head spaces on the case mouth, not the bullet. You can't have setback if the bullet doesn't touch the chamber walls. (Aside from momentarily while being stripped from the mag.) If you get setback your rounds are to long. Google the SAAMI spec and get your calipers out and check the length of your rounds. If your rounds are to long and the slide has to push the bullet back to chamber it you pretty much guarantee a malfunction. I've been checking for setback in all of my handguns and have never seen it except with large bullets loaded longer than spec (that I loaded myself). It would be plain silly for a modern firearm to setback a bullet changing the characteristics of the round. I generally blame setback on out of spec ammo although it is possible some guns may have out of spec chambers. Just measure them and see. If you have setback don't shoot that ammo!
Also, gently lowering the slide is a guaranteed malfunction waiting to happen. We see it with new competition shooters all the time. Slowly drop the slide then pull the trigger and no bang! Slide isn't in battery. Happens regularly. Let those springs do their job. It doesn't hurt the gun or the ammo if both are in spec.
I clean and lube my carry gun every couple of months because of lint. I shoot my carry ammo up once or twice year or so I know it eats it and goes bang. Usually at an IDPA match.
M&P Shield in 9mm loaded with Hornady Critical Defense but I checked my Springfields, Glocks and others. No setback. It stays loaded 24×7.
Hold your horses, not too soon to the conclusion. It has nothing to do with rifling pushing on the projectile.
Get 10min of free time.
Take one of your edc guns (no competition recoil spring), and two cartridges without a cannelure around the bullet shank (that pretty much means any ammo on the market).
Measure everything, make sure within SAAMI spec, or CIP if you feel like it.
Observe all safety rules.
Load up a mag to full capacity, with the top round being one of the two you just picked.
Insert mag – rack the slide like you mean it – drop the mag – eject the round – put the same round back in as the top round – repeat. Do this 50 times over.
Compare the two rounds you originally picked.
If there's no setback i'll eat my hat.
Every time the gun feeds, the bullet gets violently crashed into the feedramp. Adding to this effect, the up tilting motion of the cartridge is resisted by the follower spring, which is at its strongest when the mag is fully loaded, and this resistance is defeated by the camming motion where the slide forces the bullet nose rubbing up the feedramp.
I did this 40 times with Remington Golden Sabers in my SR40C. Yes, the scary kaboom 40 S&W. It set back by 0.001″, maybe… It banged up the brass quite a bit, but the bullet has an immeasurable amount of setback given the variation of the hollow point face. I measured at several clocking angles. I tried the same thing in my Kahr CM40. Again, no setback, but even worse brass damage.
I personally think setback is an overblown internet myth. By the time I have chambered a bullet 40 times the brass doesn't pass my QC check, and gets tossed in my range ammo bag.
It's reliably repeatable in my G21gen4 with all the ammo i would carry. Blackhills, Corbon, Federal, Speer, all 230gr FMJRN standard pressure.
Maybe your ammo is better than mine, or does it have a cannelure on the brass supporting the bullet tail?
If you are about to start a match, you are about to shoot that first round. That's not what this article is talking about.
If you shoot 200 rounds a week with your carry gun like I do, repetitive chamber of the same round can damage that round. It is suggested to rotate that round out of the gun. I just manually chamber it then press the slide into battery. This doesn't cause a malfunction.
I was shooting an old pistol that had fees problems and a bad magazine. I shot a dozen rounds in a row manually chambering each one.
Agreed. Riding the slide is bad, mmmkay…
I unchamber to clean or practice. I sometimes cycle the rounds but sometimes not. I have yet to see any wear or measure any setback, so I'm not really too concerned. If I still EDC'd a .40 S&W I might be more concerned, but my .40 carry ammo was cannelured anyway to prevent just such a thing, and 9mm is much less sensitive to setback issues anyway.
This is more of an issue for those who have to unchamber daily (or multiple times a day), as some police and security forces require. IMHO, that's way too much administrative handling to be worth it or safe.
I carry the 40 every day. Never encountered measurable setback in any of my carry ammo. Even did a 40x chamber test with the same round. Only brass damage. Unless they are doing an extra crimp below the bullets base the upper cannelure does nothing for a taper crimped auto cartridge, only for roll crimped revolver cartridges.
I've still got some PowR'Ball that is in fact crimped below the projectile.
Even so, the only ammo I've ever seen any setback with is Liberty, and it's still good for 20 loadings before I'd ever cycle it out.
Or just load your gun and quit messin with it…..
Dry fire much?
I agree we should minimize the amount of "messin" with loaded guns. Best to just leave it in the holster until the need arises. But we should practice at the range when we can, and dry fire at home between range trips.
If money permits, i'd say buy a dedicated training beater that's identical to the carry piece. My beater stays unloaded at home and only gets hot on a firing range. Use the beater for dry firing to save the slide of the carry gun. Or better yet buy a SIRT, again, if money permits.
When i unload my carry gun, like, once a week, that round goes to the range bag to be used next time through the beater. One box of ammo per year, 2 max. Not really a big deal.
I do most of my dry fire with a revolver. I figure if I achieve good control with a DA revolver trigger, everything else will seem easy, and if I want single-action practice, I can do that with most of my revolvers, too.
Lots of good thoughts here.
I have a C9 and will soon have a 38 spcl. 38 as a back up or primary…. Either one. The 5 round 38 shoots well at 10 yards. The 9 up to 13 yards with a 10+1 . Either ONE would work with the odds of needing more than 5 are higher than I hope to ever need.
Again…the 9 is more for a public shooter than a personal defense and even then I would want to be as close as possible to avoid unintended consequences
I practice several times a week and will soon start several rounds of hollow points and dang the expense. Cheap insurance.
I also clean and rechamber regularly…again for my own piece of mind…small as it may be at times.
Never noticed any setback in my M&P45. Still cycle my carry ammo out though, reasons of temp and humidity swings. 25 bucks for a box of PDX1 is cheap insurance against potential ammunition issues.
Simple but expensive solution. Buy two similar guns. E.g., a CZ-75 full size and a compact, or a G17 and a G19. (Depending on the size gun you carry, of course!) Shoot one at the range, carry the other. The carry gun never gets unloaded. Maybe every six months switch guns.
I'll add, with tongue in cheek, that if anyone barges in shooting up the range during practice, you've already got a gun loaded with defensive ammo, with which to take care of the loser. No need to drill him with 27 hollowpoints looking for the stop.
Great Idea! Wish I thought of it.
As a reloader I can attest you will notice a deep set round as you fire it. But I ha vent had a problem.
Carry ammo should be replaced if its visibly damaged. You should avoid over lubing any defensive weapon to avoid any chance of oil soaking primers. That will require you to exercise your failure to fire drill.
be nice to your edc weapon, mags and ammo, and worry about something else.


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Dr. Melinda Crawford Perttu is an assistant professor of music at Westminster College in New Wilmington, PA where she directs the symphony orchestra, teaches the string pedagogy sequence as well as private violin and viola lessons, and supervises the weekly string master class and string lab. She performs as part of the Westminster Faculty Piano Trio and with the Greenville Symphony. She received her Ph.D. in music education with an emphasis in string pedagogy from The Ohio State University. She also holds an M.A. in music education from The Ohio State University and a B.S. in music education from Duquesne University. Prior to coming to Westminster, Dr. Crawford Perttu taught in the public schools of Calvert County, Maryland, and Fairfax County, Virginia.
Dr. Crawford Perttu is a frequent invited clinician for the American String Teachers Association (ASTA) national conferences and for branches of NAfME, the national association for music education. In addition, excerpts from her recent presentation on the needs of the first-year string teacher were collected and published in Strings. Also, as a U.S. National Scottish Fiddling Champion, Dr. Crawford Perttu has established herself as a leading solo performer, adjudicator, and clinician and has performed recitals throughout the United States. She is a sanctioned Scottish F.I.R.E. competition judge, is the founder and director of the Strathgheny School of Scottish Fiddling, teaches Scottish fiddling internationally to many students over the internet, and maintains a private violin and fiddle studio.

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Do You Know This Girl? Her Story UnfoldsOur Facebook fans have been busy at work uncovering the details of her life. Like us on Facebook to stay informed of updates about our mystery girl and subscribe to our newsletter for details on the opening of the Red Star Line Museum in 2013.
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I'd like to start my last blog off on a personal note of thanks to all our virtual passengers on this voyage of discovery–your contributions, connections and care have turned the search for a mystery girl into a search for the immigrant in all of us.
Today is Columbus Day. Although the day is fraught with issues of colonialism and conquest, the idea of moving toward an unknown horizon is still a powerful one.
As our "mystery girl" blog ends with this installment, I think it's fitting that we post it on Columbus Day, a day that celebrates an explorer who knew that there was more over the horizon than dreamt of by his culture's philosophy.
Our mystery girl moved to an unknown horizon on her journey across the Atlantic on the Red Star Line.
After she got to her destined shores there were unlimited new horizons ahead of her.
Part of why our search for this little mystery passenger is so powerful is the fact that there is a part of us all that is like that brave little girl, facing an unknown "edge of the known universe" and gamely plunging off the edge.
Although we are still unsure of her identity (although we hope that will change in the near future), we can be sure of one thing. Whatever she did or dealt with in life, she would have brought her journey with her–the memory that horizons reached do not send you tumbling into limbo–they bring you closer to new challenges and to further shores.
Bon Voyage!
Gretchen Kelly
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You Can Go Home Again
Our blog series has focused on immigrants who found a new life in a new world after a journey across the Atlantic on the Red Star Line.
There is one class of passengers we haven't yet talked about – the ones who went back.
Not all the immigrants on the Red Star Line and other immigrant ship lines decided to stay. Some took the journey and went back home to collect other family members or came to work when work was available and went home in the interim. These "birds of passage" might cross several times or more before settling down and taking citizenship in the U.S., Canada or South American destinations. Others went back for a variety of reasons…and never returned. Some statistics say a full one third of all immigrants to the United States returned home and stayed there. This trend began early in the history of immigration. Three of the 100 passengers on the Mayflower eventually went home to England.
A friend of mine has family that crossed the Atlantic, settled in Chicago but ultimately saw several family members decide to go back to the "old country." Another ancestor of immigrants I know had family that weathered the loss of several businesses and a farm and decided that the streets were not paved with gold. They also returned home and never looked back.
Other reasons for the return of the immigrant were even more difficult to deal with. Some passengers made the crossing and were sent back without their consent because of health or ethnic quotas.
In our own time the UK newspaper, The Observer recently reported a mass exodus of construction workers from Ireland back to their home countries of Romania, Poland and other nations. The flight back home is being causes, says the report, by lack of jobs, high cost of living and in some cases by a rise of racism.
Families traveling on the Red Star Line might have encountered similar circumstances in the United States and Canada from 1905 when our mystery girl made her crossing, to the 1930's when the Great Depression turned the "streets of gold" into the less shining prospects.
My own grandfather, who was a skilled cabinet maker began taking odd jobs during the depression—at one point working as a waiter at the Waldorf Astoria. He once told my mother, "I call everyone I work with "boss" because everyone wants to feel like they are in charge, no matter who they are." He finally decided that his dreams of success in America would have to be deferred to his children.
However we choose to look at the "success" or "failure" of our immigrant connections, we can be proud of both the ones who stayed and the ones decided to return. Perhaps our mystery girl was a bird who sought refuge by flying home?
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Lampion bat HängedekoItem #: 18185
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Appeal Process Undergraduate Petitions Committee
Any undergraduate student may appeal for variations in the general education requirements and other university-wide academic regulations by submitting a typed petition to the Committee on Undergraduate Petitions. A student has a right to appeal the decision of the Committee through the Office of the Provost.
Petitions must be accompanied by supporting statements or other documentary evidence which the student judges pertinent to the petition. Petitions should be addressed to the Committee on Undergraduate Petitions, in care of the Registrar, and should include the student's name, student number, address, major, class, telephone number, and name of adviser. A petition form is available in the Office of Records and Registration and on the Records and Registration website.To be considered at a regular monthly meeting, petitions must be received by the Registrar at least one week prior to the published meeting date of the Petitions Committee. The Registrar forwards the petitions, along with any supporting documents, to the Undergraduate Petitions Committee and relays to the student the decisions reached by the Committee.
Faculty Conference
Not specified
July 2004


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I made several smoothies in San Diego on FOX TV including an Almond Buttered Banana Freeze.
Watch my 6-minute video segment here.
Almond Buttered Banana Freeze + Açaí Recipe (adapted from Ani's Raw Food Essentials) Makes 4 servings
Almonds provide calcium, protein, and vitamin E, bananas are loaded with potassium, and açaí is full of antioxidants and healthy omegas. This easy smoothie is a great post workout fuel – it helps increase circulation and blood flow to stressed muscles, while building lean tissue.
- 2 bananas, sliced
- 1/4 cup raw almond butter
- 1 tbsp raw cacao powder
- 3 to 4 cups Organic Sambazon Açaí Juice
Combine the banana, almond butter, and organic Sambazon Açaí Juice in a high-speed blender and blend until smooth. Best served immediately, but will keep for a couple days in the fridge.
I'm using my favorite blender, the Personal Blender. It costs about $69, and you can find more about the Personal Blender and find organic ingredients at www.GoSuperLife.com.
Tags: acai, almond, ani phyo, Ani's Raw Food Essentials, antioxidants, banana, Beauty, blend, blended, dairy free, eco, fox, Gluten Free, green, Health, healthy, juice, raoul martinez, raw food diet, recipe, san diego, smoothie, TV, Vegan, Vegetarian, weight loss, wheat free


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May 14, 2010
Box Score | Notes | Photo Gallery | Video Highlights
Site: Ann Arbor, Mich. (Wilpon Baseball Complex)
Score: Michigan 4, Northwestern 3
Records: U-M (30-18, 11-8 Big Ten), Northwestern (21-28, 10-9 Big Ten)
Attendance: 1,384
Next U-M Event: Saturday, May 15 -- vs. Northwestern (Wilpon Baseball Complex), 1:05 p.m.
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The University of Michigan baseball team clipped Northwestern, 4-3, on Friday night (May 14) at the Wilpon Baseball Complex, home of historic Ray Fisher Stadium. With the win, U-M maintains at least a share of first place in the Big Ten. U-M and the Wildcats were two of four teams that entered the weekend with identical 10-8 marks in conference play.
Junior leftfielder Ryan LaMarre (Jackson, Mich./Lumen Christi) had two hits, including a triple, scored twice and drove in the game-winning run with a two-out single to center in the seventh inning. Senior/junior second baseman Anthony Toth (Lorain, Ohio/St. Ignatius) led the Michigan offense with three hits while factoring into nine outs in the field.
Freshman centerfielder Patrick Biondi (Woodhaven, Mich./Divine Child) reached base to lead off the first inning for Michigan and advanced to third on a hit-and-run, before a groundball by LaMarre knocked the rookie in from third. A sacrifice fly to deep left by sophomore designated hitter Coley Crank (Pinole, Calif./Pinole Valley) kept the scoring going in the first to put U-M up, 2-0.
The Wildcats took a 3-2 lead by scoring a single run in the second, fourth and sixth innings. LaMarre answered in the bottom half of the sixth, lacing a ball to right-centerfield for a standup triple. Senior catcher Chris Berset (Vienna, Va./Heights School) tied the game with a single to leftfield to plate LaMarre.
Northwestern tried to regain the lead in the top of the seventh, moving a runner to third twice. A groundball to the right side looked good enough to score a run, but senior first baseman Mike Dufek (Scottsdale, Ariz./Desert Mountain) fired home to Berset to prevent the run. More impressive Michigan defense prevented a Wildcat lead as Toth made a diving stop on a groundball up the middle with a fire to first to end the Northwestern half.
Textbook baseball put Biondi on third as he walked and moved from first on a hit-and-run by Toth. LaMarre did his job with a single to center to grab the U-M lead at 4-3 in the seventh.
Junior pitcher Tyler Burgoon (Defiance, Ohio/Defiance) came on in the eighth for a two-inning save, including a game-ending strikeout at the end of the ninth with a runner on first.
Michigan continues its weekend series with Northwestern on Saturday (May 15) at 1:05 p.m. at the Wilpon Complex. The game will be streamed for a fee on BigTenNetwork.com.
Contact: Ryan Sosin (734) 763-4423
Sign up for Michigan Insider to be the first to learn about 2018 Michigan baseball ticket opportunities.


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Note: This essay contains links to ten genealogical charts that supplement this work. Simply click on the link and you will be taken to the corresponding portion of the chart page. To return to the essay, click on your back button in your web browser.
A Turning Point
A man who became Lizzie Borden's next-door neighbor two and a half months after her acquittal might well have changed history if in November 1892 he had said "no" to Alice Russell, instead of "yes." At that time Lizzie had been held for a little more than three months, biding her time in the Taunton jail, ten miles north of Fall River. The Grand Jury, which had been listening to witnesses and weighing evidence presented to it by the prosecution, was itself sitting in Taunton. But now it had temporarily adjourned. Upon reconvening a few days later, the influence of that "yes" spoken to Alice only days–or perhaps just hours–before would resultin their bringing an indictment against Lizzie Borden for the murders of her father and stepmother.
Victoria Lincoln related the essentials of this pivotal event quite well:
When she [Alice Russell] returned to Fall River after testifying in Taunton as she had before, she decided to go to her lawyer, Mr. Swift. . . . Up to now, she confessed to Mr. Swift, she had told the truth and nothing but the truth, but not the whole truth. Only she was very fond of Emma. What did Mr. Swift think she should do?
Mr. Swift advised her to get in touch with Mr. Knowlton immediately. When the jury reconvened, Alice told for the first time about the burning of the dress. She was wretched about it, I have been told, but at least she began to get some sleep again. The Grand Jury brought in their vote: twenty to one for a true bill. Lizzie would be tried in New Bedford six months later.
Mr. Swift
What if Mr. Swift had been of a different opinion and had dissuaded Alice from telling the Grand Jury about the burning of the dress? It seems quite possible that the twenty-two men on that jury might then have decided they did not have sufficient evidence to indict Miss Borden. Considering the decisive role of this man whom Victoria Lincoln calls only AMr. Swift," it is somewhat surprising that his name is not mentioned even once in most accounts of the case.
A few more "swifts"
The word itself – "swift" – as a surname and otherwise – figures in the case at several points. For example, Aswift" is the English meaning of Quequechan, the name given by the Pocasset Indians to the river that flows through Fall River. [see the box labeled "A few more "swifts"]
Within the same year in which Lizzie was tried and acquitted, Edwin Porter wrote and published the first book about the entire affair, The Fall River Tragedy. He spoke of the murderer as having been swift: "He could not have proceeded more swiftly nor surely had he lived in the modest edifice for years." Porter said the blows that Abby and then Andrew suffered were swift: "It was not the result of spite as first thought, but the blows were fast, swift blows of somebody who had a reason for doing it."
David Kent, in Forty Whacks, was impressed by how swift the Fall River Herald was in getting news about the murders into print, only two hours after they were first known by anyone outside the immediate household.
Another Swift, mentioned in nearly every book about the case, was Augustus, one of the twelve jurors at Lizzie's trial. Augustus could have hung the trial jury and forced a re-trial by saying "yes," but his actual role wasn't nearly so decisive as that Ayes" spoken to Alice Russell. Augustus Swift, "a Protestant and a deep believer in circumstantial evidence," according to David Kent, was accepted onto the jury in part because the prosecution attorney Hosea Knowlton thought him a AGood man. With us." But without the Swift who became Lizzie's next-door neighbor, also a Protestant and apparently a believer in circumstantial evidence as well, Swift the jury member might never have been called to serve!
The Mr. Swift Alice consulted sometime between the 21st and 30th of November in 1892 (the Grand Jury having adjourned on the first of these dates and reconvened December 1st expressly to hear Miss Russell's further testimony) was Marcus George Barker Swift. Named after his two grandfathers, Marcus Swift and George Barker, he was born in Raisin, Michigan (40 miles SW of Detroit) three years – lacking 11 days – before the birth of Emma, Lizzie's older sister. (By the way, he and the juror, Augustus Swift, were 5th cousins once removed.)
Alice Russell
Andrew's Uncle Ladowick (also a Borden) had been the first to live in the house Alice and her mother occupied for more than a decade (96 Second, immediately to the south of 92, the Bordens' home). He was probably there from the time of his first marriage in 1833 until his death in 1874. His widow (and 4th wife), Ruhama (Crocker) Borden, continued there until her death in 1879. That same year Alice Russell (whose father had died in 1878) moved in with her mother. Eleven years later, her mother moved out (1890), and the next year Alice also moved – around the corner to Borden street, occupying a small house Police Officer Philip Harrington had just vacated. (Perhaps my reader is aware of how soon Harrington, who had gone to high school with Lizzie, was convinced of her guilt – and how he worked to persuade others). Shortly after Alice's departure, Dr. Kelly and his family moved to 96 Second street and were neighbors of the Bordens the year of the murders, 1892.
Consider that Alice, three years younger than Emma and six older than Lizzie, resided next door to the Borden sisters for twelve years (her age during that time was 25 to 37). Over those years, Emma went from her 28th to 40th year, and Lizzie from her 19th to 31st. Because Lizzie's closest companion from birth was her sister Emma, nine years her senior, it is probable she was more comfortable with women older than herself, the exception being those young enough to be like daughters to her. Alice, Emma and Lizzie were quite likely all three good friends of one another (this is, of course, what Alice testified). Len Rebello tells us that, according to Agnes DeMille, Alice was – like Lizzie – a redhead; this too might have reinforced their friendship. I stress these things because Alice's behavior consistently showed her close ties to both Lizzie and Emma. She had received a visit from Lizzie for about two hours the evening before the murders. She then stayed with the Borden sisters for four nights after they had occurred. And she testified at the inquest and preliminary hearing, before the Grand Jury and at the trial.
Alice put off consulting anyone about the burning of the dress as long as she could, in part because she must have wanted very much to believe Lizzie and Emma about there being nothing to the incident, but also because she did not want to make life more difficult for them (or herself) by telling anyone about it. If Mr. Swift had not been persuasive, or if he had believed there was no need for her to disclose what she knew to those twenty-two men sitting in Taunton, her preference would have been to keep it to herself. Had she done that, there is a definite possibility Lizzie would never have been indicted.
The Grand Jury
Though we don't know whether any of the men on the Grand Jury knew Lizzie, considering their names and where they lived such acquaintance is not unlikely. Elisha Buffinton resided in Fall River. Lizzie's next door neighbor, Adelaide Churchill was a Buffinton by birth. Gideon Babbitt of Berkley (a village half-way between Fall River and Taunton) could have been related to the David Babbitt who had married Lizzie's cousin Hannah Borden. John L. Baker of Seekonk (immediately west of Swansea) may have been a relation of the Baker who married her cousin Mary Howe. Another member of the jury was Joseph P. Chace of Somerset; Lizzie had many cousins of that surname. Likewise she had many cousins named Cook, and one of the jurors was Samuel H. Cook of New Bedford. Arnold D. Gardner was of Swansea, where Lizzie had many relatives and friends of that surname. Andrew J. Hathaway from Dighton could have been related to any number of Hathaways who were cousins of Lizzie and Emma. Then there was Alcott F. Lincoln of Raynham; a cousin of Lizzie's had married Miner S. Lincoln of Boston (about 25 miles north of Raynham). Henry S. Lovell of New Bedford may have been related to Leander N. Lovell, Lizzie's 3rd cousin. Leonard K. Macomber of Dartmouth may well have known Lizzie, as she had several cousins of that surname and some of her closest friends were Macombers as well. Joseph G. Morse of Fairhaven could have been her relation, considering that her own mother was a Morse. And, finally, William Randall of Easton might have been related to a Lydia Randall who married one of Lizzie's cousins.
Thus, based on concrete knowledge, we have twelve of the twenty-two jurors with possible ties to Lizzie. Just as the twelve-man jury acquitted Lizzie on all counts little more than six months later, it seems not the least improbable that the Grand Jury might have done the same, had they not learned about the burning of that dress.
Other ways Mr. Swift touched Lizzie's life
In August 1893, the month before Emma and Lizzie moved to their new home on French street, Marcus Swift acted as counsel for Mrs. Sarah Whitehead, the half-sister of their now deceased stepmother, Abby Borden, in the business of getting whatever Mrs. Whitehead could from the Borden sisters. One can't help but wonder if Sarah (with Abby's full-sister Priscilla) would have received the "45 Fourth Street property, personal belongings and bank deposits of $4,000" if Mr. Swift had not been on the scene.
Not only did Marcus G. B. Swift have a great impact on Lizzie's life by persuading Alice to tell the Grand Jury about the dress burning; he became the next-door neighbor of Lizzie and Emma a mere two months after the trial ended. Though his wife, Mary Duncan Milne, was Lizzie's 4th cousin once removed, it seems doubtful these two ladies, eighteen years apart in age, ever knew of their kinship. However, they may have become friends after a fashion. After all, Mary's father, Alexander Milne, a Baptist minister, was born and grew up in Scotland – one of Lizzie's favorite places on Earth. When the Borden sisters bought the house next to theirs, three (and possibly four) teenage boys were living there as well (all being sons of Marcus and Mary). James, John and Milne were nineteen, almost sixteen and fourteen. If Orson was still living, he would have been seventeen in 1927. But the Swifts' kinship to Lizzie doesn't stop there! Mary Duncan Milne's youngest brother, James Thomas Milne, married Mattie Gardner, whose father was Samuel Borden Gardner! Like James and Orson, Mattie too was Lizzie's 5th cousin.
Interestingly, Lizzie and Marcus G. B. Swift were related as well – half-6th cousins once removed! How might it have affected Marcus Swift during those moments when he was advising Alice Russell, if he had known Lizzie was related to both himself and his wife, and also to his wife's sister-in-law? Would he have felt a duty to protect Lizzie at the expense of encouraging Alice to tell prosecuting attorney Knowlton what she had seen?
One example of how knowledge of kinship can affect attitudes and behavior occurred recently when I was in Newport, Rhode Island at a home on Washington street where Lizzie had visited years ago. Although my own kinship to Lizzie is even more tenuous than that of Mattie Gardner or the Swifts (with Lizzie and myself being 7th cousins 3 times removed), during a discussion with about ten others in the parlor of the Covell "Villa Marina" my mention that Lizzie and I were cousins "though quite distant" totally changed the dynamic of the conversation. Now everyone was "all ears" because perhaps they felt that in some sense Lizzie herself had entered the room!
Marcus G. B. Swift also served on a committee appointed to discuss accusations that Arba Nelson Lincoln had made against Judge Josiah C. Blaisdell. The Judge, of course, had presided at the inquest, this being the only forum where Lizzie Borden ever testified. Arba Lincoln, 5th cousin to Victoria Lincoln's father, lived at 25 French street. In March 1893, he was forty-three years old, a lawyer and Special Justice of the 2nd District Court. Judge Blaisdell was seventy-two. Lincoln resigned from his position with this court because "he failed to receive fair play" from the Judge and "he could not remain in his position as associate justice without violating his self-respect." Besides Marcus G. B. Swift, members of the committee also included Andrew Jackson Jennings, attorney for the Borden sisters, among others. On April 10, 1893, Blaisdell sent his letter of resignation to Governor William E. Russell (probably no kin to Alice – she was, however, only three years older than the governor). The committee met two days later. Blaisdell's resignation was effective nine days after that.
In February 1902, Marcus G. B. Swift died. It may be that his widow needed to sell off some property to meet expenses, but in any case later that year Lizzie bought "11.67 square rods on the east side of Belmont Street" from Mary D. Swift. It was to be "kept and continued open and free from any building or buildings." At that time Lizzie almost certainly did not yet own a car. She probably had not thought about the exact use she might make of this lot, perhaps only acquiring it because it adjoined her property and was available for purchase. Gertrude Stevenson, in an article she wrote for the Boston Post in 1913, had this to say: "A few years ago she discarded her carriage and handsome pair [of horses] for the finest limousine that money could buy." Thus it was perhaps about 1910 that she decided to build a driveway and/or garage on the lot behind the Swift property. Ms. Stevenson provides us with details about this matter not found elsewhere:
It was a strange circumstance that led this woman to choose a home adjoining that of the man who later became the chief prosecuting officer for the commonwealth, Atty James M. Swift. [He was attorney general of Massachusetts from 1902 until 1914.] The Swifts owned a lot of land at the rear of their own residence [meaning a normal size lot behind their house, not a whole bunch of land], joining the Borden property at right angles and facing Belmont street, which Miss Borden bought some years later.
The deed of this purchase discloses a clause restricting Miss Borden from ever erecting a structure of any description upon it. With the acquisition of a new automobile, however, Miss Borden made preparations to build a garage on the land she had purchased from the family of the attorney-general in spite of the clause forbidding any such construction. Much to her annoyance the Swifts held her to the letter of her deed; at least, that is the inference generally drawn, as she finally built her garage on the other side of her house on a lot which she had purchased some time before. Originally there was a house on this lot, but Miss Borden had had it removed and the land converted into very attractive grounds.
The original plan for the garage called for an entrance facing Belmont street and a driveway across the land which the Swifts had formerly owned. The restriction in the deed, however, prevented the construction of even as much as a concrete path. Therefore, Miss Borden was obliged to keep that portion of her property devoted to grass lot and have the entrance to her garage from French street and across the lot which she preferred to keep as a smooth lawn.
Her vexation at being held to the conditions of the deed was immediately expressed in a 10-foot lattice fence separating her house from the Swift home. She also had built a low iron fence separating the two lawns and defining her property line. She declared that the high fence had been built between the houses to save herself from the annoyance of the curious scrutiny of tradespeople delivering goods at the adjoining houses.
When she died, the lot was sold by her long-term business agent, Charles C. Cook, to James' younger brother, John T. Swift, at that time treasurer of the Citizens Savings Bank and president of the Swansea Dye Works.
Marcus G. B. Swift's Ancestry
Because this family of Swifts had such an impact on Lizzie's life, and were her neighbors the entire time she lived on French street (34 years), I have found it fascinating to learn a few things about them and their ancestry. One might expect they had simply resided in New England a hundred years or more, with a Swift ancestor having come over from England in the 17th or 18th century (like the famous Jonathan Swift's ancestors, those of Marcus had been in Yorkshire in 1500). Marcus' ancestors traveled from Sandwich, on Cape Cod, to Kent, Connecticut (1 1/2 miles from New York State), to Wyoming Valley (around Wilkes-Barre), Pennsylvania (150 miles W of Kent), then Palmyra, New York (150 miles NW of Wyoming Valley), and from there to Michigan, near Detroit (nearly 300 miles W of Palmyra).
For some unknown reason, it was Marcus G. B. who moved back east, to the state the emigrant Swift ancestor had chosen as a young man, about 1640, when he came to America from Bocking, county Essex, England. (Bocking is now a suburb of Braintree, ten miles north of Terling – the village where Thomas Cornell [grandfather of Innocent Cornell], ancestor of both Lizzie and the founder of Cornell University, was born in 1594.)
Orson Ross Swift, his father
Marcus G. B. Swift's father, Orson Ross Swift, was licensed to preach by the Wesleyan Methodists at the age of 21 and then preached for five years. At that point he decided to study medicine, becoming a medical doctor and practicing medicine until his death at the early age of thirty-four. But I suspect Orson never saw Fall River, Massachusetts. He had been born in Palmyra, New York in 1821. With his first wife, Mary Elizabeth Barker, Orson had two children: Marcus and Camilla (who married a fellow named Dubnar [likely Dunbar misspelled] of Northville, now a suburb of Detroit). Their mother died in December 1854. Marcus was three months from his sixth birthday; his sister was no older than 4 1/2 and may even have been a newborn. Their father was only thirty-three at the time of his wife's death, and he would be dead sixteen months later. However, needing a woman to take care of his two children, one or two months after his first wife's death he married a second time. Her name was Jane Elizabeth Brink, and, like her stepdaughter's future husband, was from Northville. Whether she had a hand in raising Marcus and Camilla, I don't know. But in the 1890s she was living in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada.
Though Marcus' father was born in Palmyra, New York, Orson's father (also named Marcus) had moved on to Michigan by the time Orson was four (c1825). Work took precedence over school, but Orson was still able to receive an education. In 1842, at the age of twenty, he was attending school at Ypsilanti (13 miles SW of Northville, quite near Detroit), when he was called home because of his mother's death. She was in her forty-ninth year. (Born Anna Osband in Palmyra – also the birthplace of both Marcus' father and grandfather – her father, Weaver Osband, had been born in Tiverton, Rhode Island, a few miles at the most south of Fall River. Before moving west he had served in the Revolutionary War.)
Orson returned to Ypsilanti Academy for part of the winter of 1843-4 and also occupied himself preaching at various Wesleyan Methodist churches which made up a Acircuit" in the vicinity.
At The Wayne, Michigan Local History Network I found the following:
He became popular from the first. His manner was attractive; he was fluent and enthusiastic. He threw his whole soul into his work. His emotional nature impelled him to efforts beyond his endurance. His physical strength began to fail him, and he determined to turn his attention to the profession of medicine. In 1847 he commenced to study and practice medicine with Dr. Bailey at the Valley, near Adrian [4 miles SW of Raisin]. This profession he followed quite successfully the remainder of his life. He also maintained his official position in the church and preached occasionally, but never on a charge.
He practiced medicine in Nankin [then a township, now Westland, MI, a suburb of Detroit, between Ypsilanti and Northville] from 1848 to 1852, when he removed to Northville [7 miles NW of Nankin], and from thence to Detroit in December 1854 [the month his mother died]. He became a member of the firm of Moore, Swift & Co., druggists, for a few months and then he removed to Bryan, Ohio [35 miles SW of Adrian].
His health soon broke down entirely, and he was removed to his father's house in Nankin, where he died April 3, 1856, aged 34 and one half years, of consumption, undoubtedly induced by his extreme efforts in public speaking.
Orson was a man of positive convictions, and never lacked the courage to express them. As a student he labored hard, but was more enthusiastic than profound. As a speaker he was impassioned to a marked degree; his thoughts flowed rapidly, and he spoke with much force; and as earnestness is always magnetic, he wielded a large influence in whatever cause he engaged.
As a business man, he was unfortunate, and he died under a cloud of financial embarrassment. He left a wife, and two children by his first wife.
Like so many sons, Marcus G. B. Swift appears to have unconsciously tried to balance his father's "excesses" (his religious passion, financial mismanagement and expending himself attending to the medical needs of his neighbors). By contrast, Marcus became a lawyer, did quite well financially and appears to have had no more than "average" religious inclinations). However, it is quite probable that the legacy of his father and grandfather as preachers contributed to his decision-making process at the time he advised Alice Russell.
Marcus G. B. Swift himself
Marcus G. B. Swift had four uncles and at least one aunt. When his father died, his stepmother of little more than one year seems to have taken a back seat in the raising of her two step-children, if indeed she continued in the same household with them, as Marcus and Camilla went to live with the youngest of their uncles, John Marcus Swift, who with his wife Emily and 16-month-old daughter Mary was living in Northville. Emily was not only their aunt by marriage; she was also the younger sister of their deceased mother. John had begun studying and practicing medicine with his older brother in 1853, about three years before Orson died. At Orson's death, John Swift was twenty-four, his wife almost twenty-five. Marcus quite likely lived with them until he enlisted as a private in the Civil War at the age of sixteen (1864, Detroit), telling the U.S. Army that he was eighteen! One year and eight months later (26 May 1866), having actually been eighteen for only two months, he was mustered out . . . in Houston, Texas! Next he attended Adrian College (in Adrian, Michigan) and graduated from the University of Michigan Law School in 1872. Christmas Day of that same year he and Mary Duncan Milne (both 24 years old) married in Fall River.
How did they come to know each other? Well, Mary's maternal grandfather, Thomas Osborn, was a younger brother of Weaver Osband, whose daughter was Marcus' grandmother, making Marcus and Mary second cousins once removed! When her parents married in 1837, it was in Tiverton, Rhode Island. But Mary was born in New York State (Schodack, not far south of Albany); then, four years later the Milne family was in Sand Lake, NY, but that too is just east of Albany. Not long after she and Marcus married they were in Ithaca, Michigan (about 80 miles NW of Detroit), as this is where their first son, James Marcus, was born, ten months after they tied the knot. Two and a half years after James' birth they were back in Fall River, where their second son, Orson Alexander was born in April 1876 (and, like his father, also named for his grandfathers); probably Orson died at a young age, since I've found nothing else about him. Their son John Tuttle Swift was born in November 1877. Then, in May 1879, their last child, Milne Barker Swift, was born (unlike James and John, who both became lawyers, Milne became a physician, then a surgeon, and moved to Orlando, Florida!).
His youngest uncle . . . and foster-father
Marcus' uncle and foster-father, John Marcus Swift, was eleven years younger than Orson, making him only sixteen years Marcus' senior. Since John Marcus Swift didn't have a son, it seems likely he and little Marcus developed a mutually satisfactory relationship. Dr. Swift had only received his medical diploma from the Eclectic Medical Institute at Cincinnati, Ohio (200 miles south of Detroit) two years before he took on the responsibility of raising his brother's children. "[P]revious to his graduation, he located in the village of Northville. He brought his wife and all his effects in a one horse wagon, owning neither horse nor wagon." He would practice medicine for eleven years before receiving his M.D. degree in 1864 (from Rush Medical College in Chicago), when he was thirty-two. However he did not have to attend classes at Rush. Rather, the degree was conferred upon the recommendations of an M.D., a professor and "other medical men of note, in consideration of his valuable contributions to current medical literature, and original treatment of diseases, particularly diptheria."
Besides being a successful medical doctor, Dr. John Swift was also "uniformly successful" with his business investments. As one biography has it, "He might have been rich but for the fact that his munificent charities, public and private, have absorbed a full moiety [i.e., a full half] of his accumulations." He also enjoyed singing, "being himself a fine singer, and mingling much in society." Considerably more could be said of our Fall River lawyer's uncle and foster-father. For example, John Swift earned the label of "the little nigger preacher" while still a boy, because he stood up for freeing the slaves. But now we will move on to the illustrious grandfather of Marcus G. B. Swift, father to Orson and John.
Grandfather Marcus Swift
Marcus G. B. knew his grandfather, because the old man did not die until his grandson was nearly seventeen years old. Born in Palmyra, New York in 1793, his own father (another John Swift) had been a brigadier-general during the War of 1812. Hailing from Connecticut, General John Swift was killed during the attempted re-capture of Fort George at Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada in 1814. When Marcus was twenty he became a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and was soon licensed to preach. A few years later, with a wife and four children to support, he experienced "a sudden reverse of fortune" which "caused him to seek a new home in the wilds of Michigan." He located a tract of land in the present township of Nankin, Wayne County, reaching Detroit on October 9, 1825.
Here follows a very interesting tale, better written than any summary or paraphrase I might have created:
At this time, but two teams of horses were employed in moving emigrants to the interior, and neither team was just then available. A row-boat conveyed the emigrants, by way of the Detroit and Rouge rivers, to a point near the present village of Dearborn [just east of Westland], and the remainder of the journey was made by the aid of three Indian ponies. Mr. Swift, with his wife and four children, and the family of Luther Reeve, who accompanied him, found quarters at the house of Benjamin Williams, some three miles from their location. His cabin, consisting of but one room, accommodated all the party until the following spring. Without money, team, or human aid, except his two boys [Osband & George], aged respectively eight and twelve years, Mr. Swift got out the timber and all the accessories for building a log house. The house was completed and occupied the following March, having been erected with no other help than that of the few settlers, who lent willing hands to roll up the logs for the body of the house. Before the building possessed door or window, it was dedicated to Almighty God by prayer and singing. Mr. Swift's was emphatically a life of faith; and, as he undertook no enterprise upon which he could not ask the divine blessing, he trusted implicitly to God. His moral standard was high, and he would brook no deviation from it. This is illustrated by his refusing to shoot a fine buck which strayed into his enclosure on Sunday, during a time of great scarcity of food. The fact that the next day the buck returned, bringing with him two of his fellows, and that Mr. Swift shot the three, may be regarded as a reward for his faith, or a happy accident, according as one's belief inclines him. Mr. Swift believes the animals were mercifully sent. The same attribute of trust led him, during a time of threatening want, in the summer of 1826, to ask credit of an acquaintance and trader in Detroit, for supplies to the amount of twelve dollars, upon a full statement of his circumstances. Pay day came, but no money; trembling and disconsolate, Mr. Swift resolved to see his creditor and tell him his extremity, when he unexpectedly received a letter from his native place with an inclosure of thirteen dollars.
By 1833 he was riding the Oakland circuit, preaching before Methodist congregations separated from each other by as much as 125 miles. He would cover this circuit every four weeks, preaching 31 times each month. For two years' services he received $125 Aand almost every known article except money." Though he only continued in this demanding capacity for a few years, he preached for the rest of his life whenever called upon, being especially renowned for his funeral sermons. In 1841 he was among the founders of the Wesleyan Methodist Connection which split off from the Methodist Episcopal Church over slavery (the Wesleyans, with 170 preachers and 8,000 members, were against it). In fact, AHe was substantially the father of Wesleyan Methodism."
Our Fall River lawyer was unfortunately not at his grandfather's side (or even nearby) when this grand old man died. Five months earlier young Marcus had enlisted as a Michigan Volunteer with Company E, 4th Infantry Regiment Reorganized to fight in the War Between the States. Here's the way an online biography describes grandfather Marcus Swift's last days: "In 1865, while preaching in the Baptist Church at Northville, then his residence, he was taken with a chill; and, being removed to the home of his youngest son, Dr. J. M. Swift, expired, February 19, after an illness of six days." Before expiring, however, he had quite a lot to say which was recorded for posterity. Perhaps my readers will be thankful for not finding most of it recorded here. He did say one thing that I think should be shared. He was referring to the abolition of slavery and the North winning the Civil War: "I have lived in a glorious age, and my eyes have seen the powers of darkness give way before the reign of liberty and equality." As we know, the powers of darkness only seem to give way. They continually return in many guises, including that of the mystery murderer of Abby and Andrew Borden.
John Swift, "The General"
Born in 1761 in Kent, Connecticut, John Swift served as a private in Capt. Lathrop Allen's company, Colonel Elmore's regiment, Connecticut troops during the Revolutionary War. Only fifteen years old in 1776, he was twenty when Cornwallis surrendered in 1781.
Back in 1662 King Charles II had granted a strip of land about 120 miles wide in northern Pennsylvania to Connecticut. Then, in 1681 the King granted essentially the same land to William Penn and his followers. But neither group saw fit to emigrate to that area until the 1700s. Before the Revolutionary War, people from Connecticut had tried to settle the area only to discover that Penn's followers, called Pennamites, had gotten there first. One author describes them as "peace-talking but rifle-bearing Quakers." Since those from Connecticut were AYankees," the first series of armed battles between these two parties is called the First Yankee-Pennamite War (1769-75). After the Revolutionary War ended, many more settlers from Connecticut decided to migrate, or return, to that same area; John Swift went with them. Of course this resulted in the Second Yankee-Pennamite War (1783-86). (The two wars together are called the Pennamite Wars.)
Finally, Congress settled the question about who had the right to the Wyoming Valley land in favor of the Pennamites, forcing the folks from Connecticut to move on (later those from Connecticut were given the right to remain, but by then John Swift and others had moved on). In the winter of 1788-89, acting as advance agents for their fellow dissatisfied pioneers, John Swift joined with Colonel John Jenkins to go northwest of Wyoming Valley about 150 miles to purchase ATract 12, Range 2, now Palmyra," not far east of Rochester, New York; in March they began to survey it for farm lots. This fledgling community was first called Swift's Landing, next Tolland, and then Palmyra. Trouble between the Indians and Jenkins and his associates ended their interest in Palmyra, so John Swift bought Jenkins out. He then went back to New England to encourage migration to his tract in Palmyra. During the summer of 1789 Swift returned, building a log house with a store house at the junction of what is today Main and Canal Streets in Palmyra.
Before the close of the same year Webb Harwood, the second permanent settler, brought in his family from Adams, Massachusetts [NW corner of the state]. Gideon and Edward Durfee of Tiverton, Rhode Island, came on foot from Albany. Fast on them followed – mostly in bateaux – twelve others of the Durfee family. The advent of Gideon Durfee was most opportune. He payed in coin for his 1,600 acres, thus enabling Swift to meet his indebtedness to the Phelps and Gorham company, and to secure a warranty deed of the town.
Palmyra held her first town meeting and elected her first officers at the house of Gideon Durfee, in April 1796. That same year Louis Philippe of France stopped on his return from Niagara at the log tavern that had been opened by Gideon Durfee.
It was Gideon Durfee's daughter, Hannah, who married Weaver Osband. Hannah and Weaver were the parents of Anna, who married Marcus Swift, son of John Swift and grandfather of Marcus G. B.. So Gideon Durfee was one of Marcus G. B.'s eight great-great-grandfathers, while Weaver Osband was a great-grandfather.
Beside the Durfees, Rhode Island sent Isaac Springer, William, James and Thomas Rogers, Festus and Isaac Goldsmith, Humphrey Sherman, Zebulon Williams, Weaver Osborne [Osband], David Wilcox, and Nathan Harris, father of Martin Harris.
Many a thrilling tale of conflict with the Indians or abounding wild animals is told. The former were so feared that a block house was begun on the brow of Wintergreen hill. It was not finished, for the victories of Mad Anthony Wayne set the pioneers at rest.
Having served as a general during the Revolutionary War, Wayne was commander in chief of the American armies from 1792 to 1796. During that period he defeated the Indians so decisively that a treaty was signed in 1795 with the chiefs of eight tribes of Indians.
The early paths through the forests were soon made into roads, the first being the Canandaigua in 1793. John Swift, with others, cleared Ganargua creek to its junction with the Canandaigua outlet, and in 1799 it was declared navigable water. This stream (flowing more swiftly because of John Swift's efforts!) was the principal route until the opening of the Erie canal in 1821
The New England settlers of Palmyra could not be long without their school house. In 1793 two were built of logs – one on a site given by John Swift. Palmyra pioneers had their first church building in 1807. The first meeting house in the village – erected in 1811 on land given by General Swift for a Union church – was built almost entirely by the Presbyterians. This same building was used as a town hall. It was of wood, painted white with green blinds, and burned in 1838. Around it, in true New England way, was the church yard – now the old cemetery. Here lie John Swift and Zebulon Williams with many another early comer. This was not the first burying ground in the town, for that was on the farm of Gideon Durfee, east of the village. Here Gideon Durfee is buried [however, both John Swift and Durfee died the same year, 1814].
Palmyra glories in her war record. Her founders were many of them Revolutionary veterans, while there are recorded the names of forty-three who fought in 1812. In this second war with England, General John Swift, a tried Revolutionary soldier, was on the Niagara frontier. At Queenston Heights he led a charge against Fort George [first taken by the Americans on 27 May 1813, it had been retaken by the British in December 1813 and then defended successfully against another American invasion in 1814]. Swift's men captured a picket post with some sixty men whom he did not disarm. One of the prisoners asked: Who is General Swift? I am General Swift, he answered. The miscreant fired and mortally wounded the gallant commander. General Swift was buried where he died, July 12, 1814, but was removed by his fellow citizens to Palmyra. The legislature presented his son [Marcus] with a sword as an acknowledgment of the father's patriotic services; and hung a portrait of the General in New York City Hall.
Swifts Rarely Noted
What about Gustavus Franklin Swift (1839-1903), business partner of David Mason Anthony, Sr. – who was father to David M. Anthony, Jr., the man whom 84-year-old Ruby Cameron of Cherryfield, Maine claimed (in 1984) committed the murders of both Andrew and Abby? G. F. Swift was the founder of Swift & Company, the well-known meat packing company. Born in West Sandwich (now Sagamore) on Cape Cod (where the mutual Swift ancestor of Marcus & Gustavus had died in 1705), he moved to Chicago in 1875 as cattle buyer for the Boston meat market firm of which he was a partner. Tiring of sending live cattle back east to be slaughtered, he commissioned the development of the refrigerated railway car. Two years later his company made the first shipment of dressed beef to the eastern market. In another eight years (1885), with David M. Anthony Sr. and Charles W. Anthony (David's brother) as partners, he started Anthony, Swift & Co.. By the way, Gustavus and Marcus G. B. were 5th cousins once removed.
Charles W. Anthony was the owner of the sloop yacht Mabel F. Swift (another Swift!), which was at Marion, Massachusetts on 27 July 1892 (eight days before the murders), stopping at Blake's Point, with Lizzie among 13 ladies who were cruising with a party of friends (now there's an omen!). Perhaps this connection between Lizzie and the uncle of the young man Ruby Cameron said committed the murders is an essential clue to the ultimate solution! (By the way, though Charles Wesley Anthony was a prime-of-life 53 through most of that year, he would live less than seven more.)
The "Murder?" of Alice's Father
Alice Russell's father died a mysterious death. In fact, one might not be amiss to think he might have beenmurdered. But being an "old whaler," and – like his father and grandfather before him – born and bred on Nantucket Island, nobody paid much attention to how he died. Here is the most complete account (from Fall River Daily Evening News, May 31, 1878) I found:
Sudden Death — Frederick Russell, about 60 years of age, of this city [Fall River], was found dead in his bed at the Sailor's Home [Sailor's Snug Harbor], on Staten Island, this morning. Deceased was an old whaler, and, for a number of years, in the employ of Clark Manchester in this city. Mr. William Manley [Alice Russell's uncle, William Moore Manley II] leaves town to-night to bring the remains to this city, for interment.
Another obituary said he was "aged 59 years and 7 months." As best I can determine, he was actually aged 58 years and 6 months. But how did he die? What killed him?
Alice Russell's mother had another brother, Seabury T. Manley, who married the youngest of eleven children (when she was 19 and he 25) from a Little Compton, Rhode Island family, surname Manchester. Seabury's wife was Cordelia (or, as she preferred, Delia). Both she and her husband became Christian Science Practitioners, studying metaphysics directly with Mary Baker Eddy. She testified at the preliminary hearing and trial, mainly about seeing "a strange man" by the north front gate of the Bordens' home the day of the murders. Perhaps it was David Mason Anthony, Jr.!
Alice's Day in Court
Some have hypothesized that Alice perhaps regretted having visited Knowlton but had been led to him by her sense of moral certitude to carry out her duty. Others believe Alice was worried about committing perjury and that this was her primary reason for consulting Mr. Swift. But as I read her testimony at both the inquest and the preliminary hearing, I find nothing asked of her or said by her that would, under the law, have placed her in jeopardy of perjuring herself if she did not come forward with her knowledge about the burning of the dress. This reinforces my belief that her primary, and perhaps only, reason for speaking with the attorney had to do with her conscience and her desire to do both what was right and what was legal. Why did she choose him? Did they attend the same church? Had he been her attorney on some previous occasion? Did she know someone who recommended him to her?
The dress burning incident will probably never be resolved to everyone's satisfaction. Some still insist that since they "know" Lizzie was the murderer she must have been up to no good that day and therefore was certainly burning the blood-stained dress she had worn while committing the murders. Others, equally persuaded of Lizzie's innocence, are quick to side with the statements under oath of Lizzie, her sister Emma, and Mary A. Raymond, the seamstress who made the dress in May 1892, to the effect that it was a totally innocent act, being only an off-the-cuff opportunity to get rid of a dress that had been spoiled by paint shortly after it was made. Still others, like Alice Russell (and myself), see something curious about the incident but don't feel at all confident it provides anything like proof of Lizzie's guilt.
Here are a few questions to which I would love answers: If Lizzie knew Charles W. Anthony, did she also have an acquaintance with his brother David, and therefore perhaps with David's son, the man whom Ruby Cameron says was the true murderer . . . and Lizzie's lover? Why did Alice Russell choose Marcus G. B. Swift for legal counsel? Who was Mabel F. Swift, after whom Charles W. Anthony named his sloop yacht? Were the Swifts of 9 French street on a calling basis with the Bordens of 7 French? Why is truth so often stranger than fiction? Could there be some priceless kernels of fact in the mishmash Ruby Cameron told reporters? Did Alice Russell and Officer Harrington know each other? Was Lizzie interested in metaphysics, as learned and practiced by Alice's aunt Delia? Does someone who is conscious of having committed murder less than three days earlier burn a blood-stained dress worn during the murders when she knows others can see what she's doing?
Perhaps all of us who enjoy studying this most enigmatic of murder mysteries should be thankful to Marcus G. B. Swift for advising Alice to tell Mr. Knowlton what she had seen. Otherwise, we would each be occupying our time with some other, perhaps less fascinating, hobby!
Click here to link to all genealogical charts
American Local History Network / Michigan / City of Inkster, Wayne County, Michigan
American Local History Network / Michigan / City of Westland, Wayne County, Michigan
Ancestral File / FamilySearch / Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
Biography of John Marcus Swift, M.D.
Boston Post, April 13, 1913.
Early Settlers & the Yankee-Pennamite Wars
Fall River Daily Evening News, May 31, 1878.
Fall River Weekly News, March 22, 1893.
Fenner, Henry Milne. History of Fall River (NY: F.T. Smiley Publishing Co., 1906)
George W. Swift / Orson Ross Swift / John Marcus Swift, M.D. – Transcribed by Patricia M. Dettloff
Gustavus Franklin Swift – Britannica article
History of Salem / Washtenaw County, Michigan, 1881, Page 3
Hoffman, Paul Dennis. Yesterday in Old Fall River: A Lizzie Borden Companion (Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 2000)
Insulting a King: The Naming of Wilkes-Barre
International Genealogical Index (IGI) / FamilySearch / Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
Kent, David. Forty Whacks: New Evidence in the Life and Legend of Lizzie Borden (Emmaus, PA: Yankee Books, 1992)
Lincoln, Victoria. A Private Disgrace: Lizzie Borden by Daylight (NY: G.P. Putnam Sons, 1967)
New Bedford Daily Evening Standard, June 1, 1878, June 8, 1893.
New Bedford Evening Journal, June 13, 1893.
New Bedford Mercury, June 8, 1893.
Palmyra New York / Compiled by the Woman's Society of the Western Presbyterian Church / 1907
Phillips, Arthur Sherman. The Phillips History of Fall River, 3 vols. (Fall River, MA: Dover Press,1944-46)
Pictorial Field-Book of the War of 1812. / by Benson J. Lossing / 1869. / Chapter XXXV. / Civil Affairs in 1813 – Events on the Northern Frontier in 1814.
Porter, Edwin H. The Fall River Tragedy: A History of the Borden Murders (Fall River, MA: George R.H. Buffinton Publisher, J.D. Munroe Press, 1893)
Rebello, Leonard. Lizzie Borden Past & Present (Fall River, MA: Al-Zach Press, 1999)
Wayne, Michigan Local History Network
Westland Township Pioneer History
Wyoming Historical & Geological Society (http://www.whgs.org)–Link bad (02-24-02)
All Things Swift © 2001 Terence Duniho