Swift, Lewis P.

Lewis P. Swift was born in Perry County, Indiana, where he received a common school education before leaving at a young age to pursue the lumber business. A self-made mechanic and millwright, he built lumber mills across the country, including facilities in Cheboygan, Michigan, and Quincy, Illinois. He arrived in Fresno, California, on February 5, 1893, and partnered with Charles B. Shaver to establish the Fresno Flume and Irrigation Company sixty miles northeast of Fresno.

In the mountains, Lewis founded the town of Shaver, constructing a massive sawmill alongside a school, dwellings, a general store, and a forty-eight-mile flume leading to a new box factory in Clovis. Married in 1888 to Ella C. French of New Orleans, Louisiana, he was the father of two daughters, Lewella and Gertrude, and became well known for his inventive labor-saving devices and generous support of his workers. Following his death on January 29, 1901, his pioneering lumber enterprises in Shaver and Clovis remained lasting monuments to his foundational role in Fresno County.