The Mandans and Minnitarees looked to an Old Woman Who Never Dies as the force behind growing crops. She lived in the south and sent migratory birds as her emissaries. Each type of bird represented a particular crop — the swan for gourds, the goose for maize, and the duck for beans. When each type of bird arrived in the spring, it was time to plant that crop. (Sir James George Frazer, The Golden Bough ch. 46 § 3)
Among the Chippewa, one of the many taboos applied to menstruating women required that they drink out of a swan bone. (Frazer, ch. 60 § 4)
John Sinclair was captured at the Battle of Worcester in 1651, and deported to America. An article written at the turn of the century identified him with Major John Sinclair, son of Henry Sinclair of Lybster, but the identification is unlikely.
Lineal Genealogy
1. George Sinclair, Earl of Caithness (c1527-1582). He married Elizabeth Graham (c1520-bef 1576), daughter of William Graham, Earl of Montrose, and Jonet Keith.
2. John Sinclair, Master of Caithness (bef 1543-1575). His mistress was Bessie Rorieson Gunn (c1550-?).
3. Henry Sinclair of Lybster (bef 1575-c1614). He married Janet Sutherland (c1580-?), daughter of William Sutherland of Duffus, and Elizabeth Sinclair.
***
4. John Sinclair (1634-1700), of Exeter, New Hampshire. He married Mary (c1637-?).
5. Mary Sinclair (1663-c1758). She married Jonathan Wheeler (c1657-1720), of Byfield, Massachusetts.
6. Mehitable Wheeler (1698-1766). She married Benjamin Wheeler (1695-1779), of Ipswich, Masschusetts.
7. David Wheeler (1730-bef 1810), of Harpswell, Maine. He married Mary Ann Stover (c1736-?), daughter of John and Miriam (Harmon) Stover, of Harpswell, Maine.
8. David Wheeler (c1763-1841), of Harpswell, Maine. He married Mary Clark (c1765-1810), daughter of Josiah and Sarah (Nute) Clark, of Harpswell, Maine.
9. Mary Ann Wheeler (1801-1879). She married Stephen Thomas Luce (1801-1872), of Salt Lake City, Utah.
In heraldic terms, a cattle brand is a badge. The Swanström brand, H Lazy S, was first registered in 1914 with the Wyoming State Livestock Commission by my grand uncle, Hugo Swanström, of Marbleton, Wyoming. He probably had registered the brand a decade earlier with officials in Sublette County. When he moved to California, he allowed the Wyoming registration to lapse. In 1942, the brand was re-registered with a slight variation by my grandparents, Harry and Vivian Swanström, of Farson, Wyoming. The brand now belongs jointly to my mother and me.
Symbolism
The Swanström brand originally probably represented the initials of my grand uncle, Hugo Swanström. When my grandparents re-registered the brand, they chose it because it could also stand for the initials of Harry Swanström, and, because the Lazy S looks like a V, for Harry and Vivian.
References
Wyoming State Livestock Commission, Wyoming Brand Book (1956, 2005).
Anton Walliser (1729-1800) was a German mercenary who served with the 60th Royal American Regiment, and later settled in New York. He was a Loyalist during the American Revolution. He and his family fled to Ontario, where they anglicized their name to Wallace. A generation later they returned to America, settled in Ohio, then moved west into Wisconsin and Nebraska.
Lineal Genealogy
Jacob Wallis (c1704-?). He married Catharina Stensel (c1706-?), of Waldstätten, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
Anton Walliser (1729-1800), came to America as a mercenary in the pay of the British. He married Elizabeth (c1739-?).
John Walliser (c1762-c1852), a farmer in Grenville County, Ontario. He married Christine Fell (c1775-?), daughter of Frederick and Catharina (Kuhlmann) Fell.
David Wallace (1800-1881), a farmer in Lone Rock, Wisconsin. He married Lydia Ann Hitchcock (1806-1865), daughter of Elam and Catarina (Coons) Hitchcock.
John Phillip Wallace (1825-bef 1900), a farmer in Marion County, Iowa. He married Almeda Ellithene Sherman (c1832-1870), daughter of Silas and Abigail (Lindsley) Sherman.
Embrozina Wallace (1851-1924). She married Charles Hamilton Howery (1847-1918), a farmer in Fremont, Nebraska.
In astrology, a prominence of Cygnus is said to give a contemplative, dreamy, cultured and adaptable nature, with ill-regulated and unsteady affections. Talents are said to develop late. There is some love of water and swimming and the arts. Manilus, writing in the 1st century CE analyzed the influence of Cygnus as follows:
“Its down and glittering wings figured by stars. Accordingly he who at its rising leaves his mother’s womb and beholds the light of day shall make the denizens of the air and the race of birds that is dedicated to heaven the source of his pleasure and profit.
“From this constellation shall flow a thousand human skills: its child will declare war on heaven and catch a bird in mid-flight, or he will rob it of its nestling, or draw nets up and over a bird whilst it is perched on a branch or feeds on the ground (swans have a reputation for being hostile to other birds). And the object of these skills is to satisfy our high living. Today we go farther afield for the stomach than we used to go for war: we are fed from the shores of Numidia and the groves of Phasis; our markets are stocked from the land whence over a new-discovered sea was carried off the Golden Fleece. Nay more, such a man will impart to the birds of the air the language of men and what words mean; he will introduce them to a new kind of intercourse, teaching them the speech denied them by nature’s law.
“In its own person the Swan hides a god (as being in the disguise of Jupiter) and the voice belonging to it; it is more than a bird and mutters to itself within. Fail not to mark the men who delight to feed the birds of Venus in pens on a rooftop, releasing them to their native skies or recalling them by special signs; or those who carry in cages throughout the city birds taught to obey words of command, men whose total wealth consists of a little sparrow (for such performing birds).”
