Swearingen, Richard Montgomery, 1838-1898

Born to Richard Johnson and Margaret (Conner) Swearingen in Noxubee County, Mississippi, Richard Montgomery Swearingen (1838-1898) moved to Washington County, Texas, with his family in 1848. While attending New Orleans Medical College in 1860, secession began, causing Swearingen to join the Confederate Army. During the Civil War, Swearingen served as an officer in the Cumberland Gap and Kentucky campaigns, at Murfreesburo, Tennessee, and in the retreat through Georgia. Following the war, he married Jennie Jessie of Sneedsville, Tennessee, and returned to medical school, moving to Austin, Texas, in 1875 to begin his practice. In 1878, Swearingen volunteered his professional expertise with Dr. T. D. Manning in the yellow fever epidemics of Memphis, Tennessee, and Holly Springs, Mississippi. After Manning succumbed to the disease, President Rutherford B. Hayes appointed Swearingen to an investigatory commission on the epidemic, the report of which led to the establishment of the National Board of Health. In 1881, Swearingen became state health officer of Texas, a position he held for several years in addition to the presidency of the Austin school board.

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