William Ira Swain

   Another name for William was W.I.

  General Notes:

William went by W. I. and became famous for W.I. Swain shows. He was apparently the owner of the Swain Ranch near Dwight Kansas. In addition to the money W.I. had in the ranch it was more than likely that some of the money came from W.I.'s sister Annie and from Annie's mother-in-law Swenborg Nelson Swenson from her inheritance from the Nelson family in Sweden.
It is possible that there still is not a clear title to the land that the ranch was located and probably the title is secured with title insurance. Evidently Peter F. and Annie Swenson never signed over their share of the estate.
Most of the ranch was in Geary County, Kansas
W.I. Swain shows were world famous. Snippets of the show and music company can still be found on the Internet in 2005.
He is reputed to have made and lost several fortunes during his life time and may have been a millionaire at various times.
Family legend indicates that he borrowed heavily from his sister Annie Swain Swenson at various times. It is not known whether or not he repaid the loans. He died broke.
It is believed that W.I. served in the Spanish American War and was an officer during WW I however this is likely but cannot be confirmed due to a fire in the records center in the 1970s.
There is a family legend that in 1913 W.I. got in a fight over a show girl with a cousin Fred Tagmier and killed him. Fred was at the time working for W.I. in New Orleans. This was also the story told by W.I.s brother James Elmor Swain who was also working for W.I. at the time. He was never charged for the murder.
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  Research Notes:

The WW I service is hard to verify because most of those official military records were destroyed in a fire of the St. Louis military records center in 1973. ¹

  Noted events in his life were:

• 1880 Census in Kansas.

William married Lyda FACHER.

William next married Theresa RYAN.