James M. Swormstedt died in Norwood on October 12, 1912. He must have been incredibly disappointed that Norwood was still here, in fact that the Earth itself still existed, because he had predicted the end of the world on multiple occasions.
Swormstedt came from a long line of devout Methodists. His uncle, Leroy Swormstedt, managed the Methodist Book Concern in Cincinnati, a major publishing house whose profits supported pensions for retired ministers. James’ father, Lorenzo Swormstedt, was a prosperous dry goods merchant in Madison, Indiana, where James was born in 1839.
As a young man, James traveled upriver to Cincinnati where he pursued a variety of occupations, including a short-lived partnership in a drug store. For most of his career, he worked as a bookkeeper in the insurance firm of Law & Gansel, agents for several European underwriting companies. In 1865, James returned to Madison to marry Ellen Woodburn, and the couple settled into a rural cottage on what later became Myrtle Avenue in Walnut Hills…