Bob Swain Hill.

If you lived in Rockport, KY in the time frame that I have been alive, you will know about Bob Swain Hill. There are a few hills in this world that most everyone has heard about including "Nob Hill" in California, "Pork Chop Hill" in Korea, and the "Black Hills" in South Dakota and there are lots of other hills that some of us have heard of, but Bob Swain Hill, in Rockport, is one hill that most all of us that have ever lived in Rockport know about. It is just an ordinary hill on Main Street, not very high, nor very long, that has been around, probably since the dinosaurs. I am not sure if any dinosaurs lived in this part of Kentucky, but if they did, they traversed that old hill. In my pre-teen years in Rockport, Bob Swain Hill was the first hill that I became aware of and to a youngster on a bike or a sled, it was one giant hill. In those days in the forties, one reached a new level of growing up once they rode a bike up Bob Swain and another level when they rode back down the hill. Ha, a cousin of mine rode a motorcycle up the hill and then back down the hill on one wheel, but that is another story. On a few occasions, winter weather has been such that Bob Swain Hill has been ice and snow covered that lasted for a few days. Most of us older natives have been able to ride a sled from the top of Bob Swain Hill to the railroad crossing. That was one sweet ride. The younger generation has just about gotten away from sleds and now prefer those plastic disks and toboggan- like riding devices. To me, that is their loss.

I never knew the person that Bob Swain Hill was named after, nor have I ever heard much about him. Presently, I do not know of anybody that even knew him. At that, I will expound on my knowledge of Robert Ingersol Swain and may even tell you a little more than I know.

Robert (Bob) Ingersol Swain (1889-1978) was born and raised in the Slaty Creek area near Prentiss, KY of parents Percipial A. Swain and Willemina Angelia Swain along with 5 other siblings. Some few years or so after the turn of the twentieth century, Bob married Floy Keown and they settled in the Prentiss area in their younger years. Bob became a "Metal Finisher" and a father of four children, all daughters. In the late nineteen twenties, Bob moved his family to the "Mawh Porter" place and opened a garage just below his house and the family settled in for life in Rockport. This small town was "booming" in this time frame. Main Street was a major highway, and soon this hill, where Bob's house was located, would became known as Bob Swain Hill.

Natoma Swain, Bob and Floy's oldest daughter, graduated from Rockport High School in 1932. Two other daughters would soon graduate from Rockport High School, one in 1933 and the other in 1936. The youngest daughter went to school in Rockport, but Bob and Floy moved to Central City in the early nineteen forties and she finished her high school education in Central City.

Floy Swain died in 1970 and Bob Swain died in 1978. Both are buried in Sunnyside Cemetery in Beaver Dam.

And now, you know the rest of the story.

See you........
jrd