Described by peers as gentle, self-effacing, and ambivalent toward politics, Henry Swift was Minnesota's third governor for less than a year, completing the second term of
Alexander Ramsey, who had been elected
United States Senator. With little time or apparent inclination to effect major change, this un-elected governor concentrated on assuring the welfare of
Civil War veterans. After graduation with honors from
Western Reserve College in his native
Ohio, Swift tutored the children of a slave owner in
Mississippi, an experience that reinforced his commitment to
abolitionism. He returned to Ohio, earned a law degree, and began a career in business and government service. He and his family journeyed to
Minnesota in 1853, settling first in
St. Paul then
St. Peter. With his partners in the St. Peter Land Company, he campaigned, unsuccessfully, to relocate the state capital in their burgeoning Minnesota River town. Swift left his commercial enterprises in 1861 for a state senate seat that propelled him into the lieutenant governorship. He served as governor from July 10, 1863 to January 11, 1864 after serving as the
third Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota when Governor
Alexander Ramsey resigned to enter the
United States Congress. He served as governor between the resignation of Ramsey and the inauguration of
Stephen Miller. After being governor he served two more terms in the state senate and was a reluctant candidate for the U.S. Senate. "I shall be ten times happier with my family in St. Peter than as Senator at Washington," he declared characteristically upon learning he had lost the Republican senatorial nomination in 1865. Four years later, he succumbed to typhoid fever at age 45.
Swift County, Minnesota was named after him in 1870. ==References==