John E. Swope

John Swope Dies Here Saturday

John Swope, 76, long time resident and pioneer of Wyoming and western Nebraska, died in the Niobrara Memorial Hospital, Saturday. He had been in failing health for the past six months.

Funeral services were held Wednesday afternoon from the Peet Chapel. The Rev. James Davis, minister of the Lusk Congregational Church, officiated. Harry Lyon, Dan Christian, Mrs. Emerson Bonner and Mrs. A. F. DeCasatro sang "Rock of Ages" and "We Are Going Down the Valley", accompanied by Mrs. J. P. Watson on the organ.

Pallbearers were Bill Hales, Ernest Hales, Dan Jordan, Harry Zimmerman, Donald Kraft and George Walker.

Honorary pallbearers were E. R. Whitman, Maurice Keel, Rulo Roberts, O. P. Harnagel, Orville Dryer and Earl Hales.

Mr. Swope was the eldest son of Charles and Mattie Swope, born April 1, 1887 in Nemaha County, Neb.

In 1905 he and his parents, brothers and sisters moved to Crawford by covered wagon. June 8, 1910 he and Minnie Rasher were married, they homesteaded in Wyoming that Fall, in the Whitman community. They lived in a tent that first winter, until logs were cut and hauled to build a house. They lived on the homestead until the Spring of 1956, when they moved to Lusk.

He is survived by his wife, Minnie; one daughter, Alice Hales and one son, Clarence, all of Lusk, three brothers; Fay of Whitman, Walter of Lusk and Bill of Centralia, Wash., two sisters, Mrs. Herman Leeling of Manville, Mrs. Tom Hamlin of St. Maries, Ida., six grandchildren and one great-grandson.

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