Many outstanding names appear in the history of Okeechobee County, men and women who literally braved the wilderness area to begin building the county, and one of the most prominent of these early pioneers was the Rev. Joel Wesley Swain.

Rev. Swain, the son of a Lowndes County, Georgia blacksmith, Morgan Swain and his wife, Elizabeth Wooten Swain, was raised in Georgia and while still there, married Martha Smith of Clich County, Georgia.

Rev. Swain, a Primitive Baptist minister, moved his family to Florida in the late 1860s and initially settled in Hillsborough County. From 1868 to 1878, he served at the Mt. Enon church in Plant City. His church for those ten years was a log structure.

In 1878, he moved his family to what was then Brevard County, settling in Fort Drum. Seven and a half acres he purchased were donated for use of the community. On two and a half acres, he built the first church and also the first school. The remaining five acres were donated for use as a cemetery to be named St. Martha, in honor of his wife. Rev. Swain served the church he built until his death on February 3, 1900. His wife preceded him in death in October of 1894 and both are buried in the cemetery at Ft. Drum. Martha Smith Swain was interred in a red brick vault.

Following the construction of the school, Rev. Swain taught the children of the Ft. Drum area for several years. The only one of his pupils still living in the area is known to all as Aunt Merida Raulerson. Interviewed several years ago, she recalled, "Rev. Joel Swain taught me the ABCs in the Ft. Drum school."

The Swains were parents of five children, J. Morgan, Martha Elizabeth, Charlton, Thomas Manning and Redden Wooten Swain. Many of their descendants still reside in the Okeechobee county area.

Etta Swain Presley is one of the children of Redden Wooten and Lizzie McLaughlin Swain and presently resides in the city of Okeechobee. It is she who has shared her memories of her grandfather for this article.

Mrs. Presley remembers her grandfather preaching at the church during her childhood. Her job on Sundays often was to keep the small children occupied outdoors during the services.

Today, she remembers those days with love and fondness, and a certain pride of being from a family that helped make Ft. Drum the thriving community it was in the late 19th century.

Note from the contributor, Melissa Dyals: Rev. Swain's middle name was Wooten, not Wesley