History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/4/Joseph H. Sweney
JOSEPH H. SWENEY was born in Warren County, Pennsylvania, on the 2d of October, 1845. He came to Iowa when a young man and graduated from the regular as well as the law course of the State University. Mr. Sweney has been engaged in farming and banking but gives most of his attention to law. In the War of the Rebellion he served three years in Company K, Twenty-seventh Volunteer Infantry. After the war he was for four years colonel of the Sixth Regiment of the National Guards and was promoted to Brigadier, and Inspector-General of the State. In 1883 he was elected on the Republican ticket State Senator for the Forty-first District, composed of the counties of Howard, Mitchell and Worth. He was in 1886 elected president pro tem., of the Senate. Mr. Sweney was reëlected to the Senate at the close of his first term, serving eight years, most of the time being on the judiciary, railroad and military committees. In 1888 he was elected to Congress in the Fourth District, serving one term. He was nominated by the Republicans in 1890 but was defeated at the election by the Democratic candidate.