by Myra Vaverchak (Author)
"The Village of South Canaan, in the very large South Canaan Township, was first settled after the Revolutionary War in 1783 by Hans Ulrich Swingle. Born in 1731, he immigrated to the American Colonies just prior to the war. Although he spoke German, it appeared that he was originally Swiss coming from a German canton in Switzerland. His Swiss name was actually Hans Ulrich Zwingli, which eventually in the New World evolved into Swingle. And so it was in 1783 that fifty-two-year-old pioneer Hans Ulrich Swingle brought his wife and ten children from Orange County, New York, to what is now South Canaan Township. He bought four hundred acres in the center of the wilderness of South Canaan with no unbroken forest or cleared land or neighbors within many, many miles. He cleared land, built a log house, and conducted church services in his home in German. The first schoolroom lessons were conducted in his house also."