| Notes |
- [18212.ged]
[sweeze~2.FTW]
Ira was 7 years old, Ernest was 4 years old at the time their mother died. Apparently there was communication between the families, for the two sons were brought to Texas, Ira lived with Thomas Flinn, and Ernest lived with James Franklin. This arrangement lasted until Ira was, about 14 years old, when he became restless, "stole" one of his uncle's horses, rode it west as far as about Vernon or Childress, left the horse there and sent word back to Thomas as to where his horse could be found. He found his way further west to his Uncle Jim's ranch, then took his brother with him, back to Oklahoma, to claim the property that was left by his mother, and was rightfully theirs.
Ernest was killed, 1910, in some problem with a town constable, somewhere in Oklahoma. Aulsy Ernest Sweazea's body was brought to Bellevue, Texas, for burial, and his headstone rests in the cemetery lot of Thomas F. Sweazea, Bellevue Cemetery, Bellevue, Texas.
By this time, some "oil activity" had begun on the property that was left to Ira and Ernest, and Ernest's death probably caused Ira to sell the property and return to Texas.
There he met and married Sarah Emily Guyer, April 17, 1912. Into this union was born nine children.
Ira pioneered in New Mexico, owning, operating, and improving a very fine livestock operation, in the vicinity of Quemado. Very near the ranch is where older maps show a village, Sweazeaville. Sweazeaville is eight miles east of Quemado, New Mexico It was on hiway 60 until the hiway was moved north, changing all activity. Sweazeaville was sold to a man by the name of Hinds. A family was living there in the house and refused to move when he asked them to. So he burned them out. All that remains of Sweazeaville is a concrete foundation. The Federal Goverment got the fellow for burning down a U. S. Post Office. Omega, New Mexico had nothing to do with Sweazeaville. [Myrtle Sweazea Cox, 1998] Ira Sweazea died in Colorado Springs, CO., was brought back to the ranch via train to Holbrook, Arizona. Ira is buried on the home ranch.
The log House that Ira built in 1919 is still standing on the ranch, and is still in good living condition. [1998].
The ranch is now owned and operated by Myrtle Sweazea Cox, daughter of Ira Sweazea. At this time, [1998], Myrtle is eighty two and still going great. I visited with her in the winter of 1998. Myrtle said that when she was a young girl that they would have to drive their cattle to Magdalena, New Mexico to the railhead to ship them. which was a distance of over 100 miles. I thought that would be fun. But Myrtle said, no it was not fun. Trying to keep the cows from spooking was not an easy job. It took several days to make the drive.
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1885 - 1959 (73 years)
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