Carolyn, It would be impossible for me to express those very important ideals in self development in a more relevant fashion that you have today! You speak of one of my heroes - Walt Whitman - and by your choice you evoke in me a kind of bonding that defies description.... I believe that I always looked forward to seeing my father in law. Upon reflection I realize that he simply never was in the business of judging others behavior and ideas. He fully expected to like all others and of course they always liked him. He was a "county" Doctor in Henderson County IL. His pay for many years (early 1930s especially) was melons, potatoes, venison and the like. He never kept books on what was owed or who had paid with what and when. Children and young people were listened to when ever they spoke to him and he would laugh with everyone as if the joke was absolutely new! This unassuming fellow they had for a doctor was a keen observer of people and their lot and oftimes he would pull out bills from his pocket and asked folks if they would hold 20 bucks for him for a couple of months as he found it difficult to get to the bank! Loans were not really loans so the joy of seeing him was always insured! Elmer Taylor Swann MD kept a diary during his training and participation in WWI. He was a graduate of Lawrence College in WI and taught school for 4 years before enlisting in 1918 He was placed in a training group for Medics in Texas and then shipped to France. Every day he entered something into his diary until he was hit by German shrapnel while carrying a soldier back from no-man's land at Chateau Thierry. The diary was found by chance by a friend and returned to him 8 months after he had recovered from his very serious wounds and was home with his parents. I have been reading and studying it for family names and places as I try and develop both context and connections in my wife's neat family. It turns out that Dr. Swann has written his own memorial and I will share some selected entries now: "We are not able ,this year, to get to either of our parents grave sites who served in the 1st WW. however I was reading my father-in-law's diary (Elmer Taylor Swann M.D. b. 1892 d.1968).and his accounting of his involvement and wounding in the Chateau-Thiery engagement. I thought that I might share a few entries - I have been mesmerized whilst reading! [E.T Swann was trained in a field recovery team ( finding and treating and bringing back wounded and dead to their lines) This involved much exposure to enemy fire so members appear to have almost blocked out the dangers of their job! E.T. Swann and his team were placed with a French Unit temporarily and therefore the entries reflect this to some degree - although both American and French soldiers show up due to their closeness and common purposes. He identifies his unit as " Medical Detachment 127 Infantry 32 Division"] "Thursday July 18, 1918 Hot or cloudy by spells - Observation Balloons up from both sides. Few Avions flying about for exercise. Sit out under a tree watching rockets and illumination bombs until midnite - A mighty interesting sight! Oebisher and Lee pay me the 65 franks they owe me." "Monday July 22, 1918 Up at 6 bells but didn't leave until 11:30 - so goes military rulings. Very hot march to Mollivars where we entrained at 5:00pm left at dusk Hit Belfort before going to sleep Scenery beautiful Slept on floor of boxcar had plenty room and straw to stretch out and sleep soundly. We Medics had half of car - Supply Co. had rations in other side with a Sergt & Corporal. Beaucoup d'mange!" "Thursday July 24, 1918 Slept very hard - had 5 blankets for 2 of us on some straw. Brown and I bought a bunch of eats at French Canteen. Got a haircut -fine- 1frank at A Co. Boucoup poker games, many disagreements, C.S. Alexander looked as tho a train had run over him when he came out of the game. Downtown tonite - visited a British Canteen conducted by two English ladies - very sociable! Rain tonite Town has been aero-bombed" "Aug 3rd Awakened up on a hill up and out of Chateau Thiery - Little to eat so Sawyer and I hike 5 kilometers to 3rd Division Commissary where , after closing hours, a I.M. Capet sells us a lot of canned fruit and American crackers. Fine* Fine* He was a real fellow! Got halfway back to find our Regt. leaving. Brown had made up and thrown my pack in the Reg. trunk. A hard and jerky march to a big woods. heavy scent from dead horses and men. Germany driven out of there 36 hours ago. They are using little infantry" "Friday Aug 3, 1918 Germans on the run.. where we are in midst of machine guns and 77s all is quiet. Water here makes me feel rotten also others. Germans retreating 7 or 8 kilometers with us on their heels. I picked up a German automatic pistol and watch. Weather rainy. Many dead on field, mostly Germans. We move up several kilometers past where Germans were driven from strongpoint yesterday. Woods and fields strewn with men and equipment of all descriptions." [I should add that he nearly had his arm blown off the next day when two of his team were instantly killed they continued to pull the wounded and dead to their lines until he was hit. They received the Croix de Guerre for their bravery and Elmer also got a Silver Star added with two clusters] Dick Matteson College Park, MD

Dear Dick, and Cousins, Thank you so very much for sharing the beautiful personage of Dr. Elmer Taylor Swann. It would appear that he not only wrote his own memorial with his journal, but in Whitman's words, his "very flesh became a great poem." You and your wife are so fortunate to have been within the circle of love that radiates outward from the life of such a generous-spirited person. If you are further interested in the beginnings of writing history (which your father-in-law's journal certainly is) and wish to explore the timeless circles of connection, you might like to read -- or re-read in the context of your father-in-law's history -- Thucydides's "History of the Peloponnesian War," written in 434 B. C. E. It is full of tyrants, barbarians, predators (pirates,) and heroes! All nearly 2500 years ago. It boggles the mind that so little changes if we begin understanding history. http://classics.mit.edu/Thucydides/pelopwar.1.first.html I was going to recommend a Swann webpage that was formerly connected to the Cecil GenWeb pages, but I can no longer get it to come up. Alternatively I will tell you that the beginnings of my Maryland search for answers for my Penningtons came about through reading a genealogy of the Litzenberg family of Greene County, PA. I believe it holds the key to many Maryland interconnected circles of relationships. These Litzenbergs started out in the Philadelphia Perimeter, principally Radnor township of Chester County which became Delaware County. In 1780 George Litzenberg married Grace Coats outside the Quaker faith, which got her disowned. After the revolutionary War they moved near Winchester (Frederick County, VA) where they remained to about 1799 when they returned to the Greene and Washington County PA areas. Their daughter Rachel is said to have married a Levi Pennington during their Virginia sojourn. Another son, George married Rebecca Swan. Levi Pennington and Rachel Litzenberg had only two children, Jacob, b. 1803 and Mary b. 1806. Thereupon Levi vanished from the face of the earth. At least as far as the Litzenbergs are concerned! Jacob married Christina Areford ca. 1825. Some of this Litzenberg/Pennington family went to Knox County, Ohio. Some went to Illinois, near Chicago and also to Fulton County, and some to Missouri. George Litzenberg who married Rebecca Swan ultimately went to Johnson County Iowa where in 1863 he performed the 2nd marriage of the person who has turned out to be my ancestor John Pennington, to Elizabeth Selby. They had also lived in Guernsey/Belmont counties, OH. John served in the War of 1812, enlisting with his putative brother Jesse in western Baltimore County, MD. I believe this Levi (if indeed he was named Levi) Pennington may have connection to Abraham the Indian Trader, to Isaac Pennington who lived in Clinton County, OH, and to Abraham who lived in Highland County, OH. I think the Arefords are likely Alfords who lived in Hampshire County, VA. The original information came from "The Litzenberg Family in America," published in the 1940's, and a devoted descendant, Paul Roos (who lives in Gaithersburg, Dick) has copied all of it into a gedcom and put it at Ancestry.com where it can be seen without subscribing to Ancestry. I wrote a long dissertation that expanded on these connections and sent it to Pennington Pedigrees where it was edited without permission (my dates were changed from genealogical format and put into MM/DD/YY numerals) and cut in half, and the second half was never published. So it goes. I think I will put it up at the website, but in the meantime if anyone wants a copy, I will be happy to provide it. Dick, thank you so much for telling us about your wonderful father-in-law. It makes Memorial Day take on very special meaning for us, within our virtual community. Love, Your Cousin, Carolyn