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IndexSamuel Emmet Swinney, born near Whiteside, Missouri, on June 16, 1877, and died on December 16, 1936, and buried at Highland Cemetery, Durant, Oklahoma, was son of John James Swinney who was born in Virginia and came to Missouri when twelve years old. His paternal grandfather, Nelson Swinney, was born and died in Virginia. His mother was Wilhelmina Lyle, born near Whiteside, Missouri, on March 23, 1855, and married to his father in the home in which she was born. His maternal grandfather, Lorenzo D. Lyle, born in Virginia on October 29, 1820, and maternal grandmother, Sarah R. Williams, born in Kentucky on September 5, 1822, were married in Missouri on April 30, 1848.
In 1879, John James Swinney, his father, moved to Texas from Missouri, settling on a farm near Long Branch in Fannin County, Texas, at which time Samuel Emmet Swinney was two years old, who later attended the schools at Long Branch and Savoy College nearby and the Normal School at Denton, Texas. Afterward, in 1891, he matriculated at the University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee, registering in the School of Pharmacy of its medical school, and taking therein two courses.
After his attendance at Savoy College at Savoy, Texas, at intervals between then and his matriculating at the University of the South, he taught school beginning when he was 19 years old, and also acted as a Deputy County Clerk for Fannin County, at Bonham, Texas. After he returned from the University of the South he went to Madill, Chickasaw Nation, Indian Territory, where he was a pharmacist clerk in a drug store and then removed to Caddo, Indian Territory, and entered into the drug business with the late Ira Smith under the firm name of Smith & Swinney, Druggists. Later this business was sold to the late W. F. Dodd, Sam Swinney continuing with him for a while as pharmacist.
In 1907 he became a candidate on the Democratic ticket for County Clerk of Bryan County, Oklahoma, and was elected. He qualified as such at the erection of the state for the term expiring in January, 1911. In 1910 he was re-elected and served for a term expiring in January, 1913. Beginning in the early part of 1913 he became an Assistant State Examiner and Inspector and so continued until 1916 when he was appointed and confirmed as Postmaster at Durant, Oklahoma, and continued as such until 1920. Beginning in 1920 he was associated with his brother Dan Swinney and so continued until 1929 in the drug business at Durant under the firm name of Swinney Drug Company. In 1929 he took the lead in the promotion and organization and construction of the Hotel Bryan in Durant. In 1933 he was appointed and served as Inspector for the Home Owners' Loan Corporation until July 16, 1934, when he was appointed and confirmed as United States Marshal for the Eastern District of Oklahoma, holding such office until his death.