Charles M. Swift

Charles M. Swift
Born (1854-03-19)March 19, 1854[1]
Middlebury, Vermont, United States
Died June 1929 (aged 74–75)[2]
Nationality American
Occupation Lawyer, businessman
Known for Founding Meralco, an electrical utility in the Philippines, and several railroads in the Philippines and Michigan

Charles M. Swift (1854-1929) was the American businessman who founded Meralco, the largest electric utility and one of the leading companies of the Philippines, founded as the Manila Electric Railroad and Light Company. A lawyer from Detroit, Michigan, United States, Swift also founded the Philippine Railway Company Inc (now known as Panay Railways) and several other railroads in Michigan.

Swift was born in Middlebury, Vermont and moved to Detroit when he was still a child. He finished school, graduating from Detroit High School, in 1870, and was admitted to the bar in 1877.[3] He made his fortune in mining.[2] He practiced law until about 1893, after which he was involved with building and operating electric trams and steam railroads in Michigan and the Philippines, then a colony of the United States. Investments in trolleys and the Philippines were profitable for him.[2] Railroads in the Philippines and Michigan that he was involved with building include, in the Philippines, the Philippine Railway Company, the Manila Electric Railroad and Light Company and Manila Suburban Railways Company; and in Michigan, the Wyandotte and Detroit River Railway, the Rapid Railway, and the Detroit and Port Huron Shore Line Railway.[1] He was also president and director of the Nepigon Mining Lands Company.[1]

He married Clara Trowbridge in 1886 and later Jessica Stewart Sylvester in 1913.[3] He had no children.[3] He lived for many years in Grosse Pointe, Michigan.[1]

In 1929, he became ill and withdrew all his money from the stock market in order to set up family trusts.[2] He would die in June before the Wall Street Crash of 1929, thus inadvertently saving his fortune from that financial disaster.[2]

His papers are at the Henry Sheldon Museum of Vermont History in Middlebury, VT as part of the Stewart-Swift Research Center, along with papers and documents from his and his second wife's family.[2][3]

He owned two vacation homes in Vermont, both of which still exists. One on Lake Champlain in Ferrisburg, Vermont, he named Grosse Pointe[4] after his hometown in Michigan.[5] The other in Middlebury is currently an inn known as the Swift House Inn.[5]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Addison County Vermont Biographies". Vermont Genealogy Trails. Retrieved 18 November 2015. Source: The Book of Detroiters. Edited by Albert Nelson Marquis Copyright, 1908 - Contributed by Christine Walters
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Albers, Jan. "Museum Offers a Look into the Life of local Jewel, Jessica Swift". Henry Sheldon Museum of Vermont History. Retrieved 18 November 2015.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Jessica Swift family papers, 1776-1982 (bulk 1850-1915)". Henry Sheldon Museum of Vermont History. Retrieved 18 November 2015.
  4. ↑ At 44°14′15″N 73°18′55″W / 44.237364°N 73.315401°W
  5. 1 2 Geist, Isabella (August 31, 2004). "Vermont Valhalla". Forbes. Retrieved 18 November 2015.

External links

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