Swart
Jewelry Timeline:
1869 – Opened (S. Linn St., West Bay City)
1891
– Built the Swart Block
1905 – Stephen Swart Died
1906
– A.T. Swart Jewelry opened by Aurthur T. Swart
1909 - Closed
Founder: Stephen Swart “Was
One of the Best Known Jewelers in the State …” (Bay
City Times, September 11, 1905, 1)
Stephen Swart was born in
Lapeer County in 1845. At the age of eight, his family moved to Goodrich, Genesee County, where he worked in his father’s
general store. He served one year in the Civil War with the Union Army under the Eighth Michigan Infantry. In 1868,
Swart married Charlotte Woodruff, and they had four children. The family moved to West Bay City in 1869 and opened Swart
Jewelry on S. Linn St.