AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF UPTON SWINGLEY
(MT. MORRIS PIONEER)
Upton
Swingley 1834-1919
Compiled by Frances Hand Mann,
as taken from Upton's article in the "Star", a Rockford semi-weekly,
March 12, l900, and his Brief Chronicle of Dec. 20, 19l6. Additional memories provided by Howard Swingley. Notes added by Gordon Merritt.
Upton Swingley’s Residence
from The 1872 Ogle County Atlas
I was
born in Washington County, Maryland, September 18th, 1834. My father,
Nathaniel Swingely, was also born there November 9, 1807, and my mother Eliza Sharer, was born April 1, 1809 in the same county. She was the daughter of John Sharer [and
Nancy Newcomer Sharer].
Capt. Nathaniel Swingley Eliza Sharer Swingley
My
father, with his family of five, 3
boys -- John Henry, Upton, Nicholas -- and two girls -- Ann Elizabeth and
Urilla -- moved to Ogle Co., Ill., in 1838. He located between Oregon and Mt. Morris,
about one mile out from where the present town of Mt. Morris is located. There were six children born in Illinois, two
of them being twins. There were no towns
in this part of the country at that time, and we had but few neighbors.
...Who among all these
gray-haired men and women can ever forget the open hearted reception they
received when they came forty years ago.
No house was ever too full -- there was still room for another -- often
an utter stranger. People were welcomed
to the house and to the county, and all its beauties and advantages were
enthusiastically displayed. Every house
was in some sort a tavern, and no charge... [Hon. Robert R. Hitt, of Mt.
Morris, The Ogle County Reporter, "The Old
Settlers...Reunion..." 6 Sept
1883].
[(...the first settlers of Mount
Morris township were determined that their children should not want for
educational privileges. In conformity
with these views, Messrs. Hitt and Swingley engaged A. Quimby Allen to
accompany them west, when they returned for their families in 1838 . Soon after they established a school, with
Mr. Allen as teacher, in an old log-house which they erected in the grove...
This house was torn down many years ago.
It was the first school in this section of the country, and was called the
Pine Creek Grammar School, under which rather presumpuous title it was the
first step toward the
founding of Rock River Seminary.
The pupils in this school numbered twenty-six, among whom where Margaret C.
Hitt, Later Mrs. D.J. Pinckney; John W. Hill, now and influential citizen of
Oskaloosa, Iowa; George Hitt, now deceased; Andrew W. Hitt, Joseph Hitt, John
Hitt, now Deputy Collector of Customs, Chicago; Robert S. Hitt, of Chicago;
Hon. Robert R. Hitt (congressman); Martin R. M. Wallace, later a judge of
Chicago; Elizabeth Reynolds, Caroline M. Reynolds, Ann E. Swingley, later Mrs.
(JCT) Phelps; Urilla Swingley (Mrs. Francis Clark, Chicago); John H. Swingley,
Upton Swingley, Augustus N. Ankney, afterward a leading citizen of Clinton,
Iowa; Ann M. Ankney, later Mrs. William Watts, deceased; Clinton Helm, later an
eminent physician of Rockford; James C. T. Phelps, afterward a farmer near
Rochelle (rather, he was a leading merchant, banker, business man in various
cities and towns, deceased); James Reynolds, the Worden boys, Richard McClain's
children, and Nathaniel A. Ankney and Peter Householder, both residents of
Mount Morris today. The school continued
under the direction of Mr. Allen for nearly a year, during which time the
scheme for locating the Rock River Seminary here was accomplished. ...the first term of the seminary opened in
November, 1840. In the spring of 184l,
the Pine Creek Grammar School was taken under the wing of the seminary, being
conducted under the management of Mrs. Fannie Russell, as the Primary
department of that insititution. For
some reason it was discontinued in 1843... (Mount Morris Past and
Present,Compiled and Published by Kable Brother, Mount Morris, Ill. Mount
Morris Index Print, 1900. p.118.)]
In 1839, the cornerstone for the Rock River Seminary was
laid. This institution was located out
in the open country, and around it was afterwards built up the town of Mt.
Morris. My father donated twenty acres
of land to the Methodist Church for the site of the Seminary (similar to a high
school).
[...on the fourth of July...It
was a picnic like this. The six families
living near and farming this community had baked and worked in every way
preparing many days for the coming crowd.
And it was an immense crowd for that time, perhaps five hundred, some
coming for over forty miles. Those of us
who were then children can't forget the glories of that day -- the beginnings
of this institution, now a prosperous college, then a little school of twenty
children in a log cabin a mile west of here.
How grandly the teacher, Mr. Quimby Allen, marshalled the little
fellows, and how proudly we marshalled behind him as he carried the flag...
(The Ogle County Reporter, Sept. 6, 1883, page 1, "The Old
Settlers...Reunion..." Speech by Hon. Robert R. Hitt).]
When the corner stone of
"Old Sandstone" was laid... a procession was formed of scholars of
the Pine Creek School, was headed by their teacher A. Quimby Allen, who by the
way was the most successful teacher of his day... The Trustees of the new
institution marched in front of the scholars.
Captain Nathaniel Swingley, well known to many of the audience,
conversing with a fellow trustee... Turning towards the little folks who were
in the procession, he exclaimed: "I predict that a president of the United
States will yet be chosen from among these boys. [Speech by John Hitt, Thursday,
July 1, 1886, The Ogle County Democrat", Oregon, Illinois].
...From these halls have gone
forth men who have been judges, governors, senators, and congressmen, (and
would-be congressmen), ministers, teachers...
[Col. B.F. Sheets of Oregon, The
Oregon County Reporter, "The Old Settler... Reunion", Sept. 6, 1883,
p. 1].
When five
years of age, I started attending a school about a mile west of the present
site of Mt. Morris, which was composed of the children of four families. My father had the teacher, A.Q. Allen, to
come from Maryland, and he stayed at our house, and took us children to school
and back in a wagon with board wheels.
After
attending school here for about three years, I was sent to a school located at
Phelps' Grove. about two miles east of our home, which I attended until I was
about eleven years of age. In this
school, we had no desks. Our seats
consisted of slabs, which were first cut off a log, with stakes set in for
legs. In the wintertime we were allowed
to take those seats out, turn them upside down and coast on a hill nearby,
until we broke several of the seats, then the teacher put a stop to it. When we could no longer use these seats, we
brought sleds from home. At the foot of
the hill was a large open spring. One
day a Negro girl wanted my sled to coast down the hill. I wouldn't let her have it, but insisted on
riding, I let her get on the sled in front of me and down the hill we went. I steered the sled into the spring, and then
slipped off. She got a good wetting, and
I got a good thrashing for it.
In 1845,
my father moved with his family to Brawdie's Grove, two miles north of where
Creston is now located. Our nearest
neighbors then lived seven miles to the north of us. A family by the name of Flagg lived at
Hickory Grove, where Rochelle was later built.
To the south of, the nearest neighbor was at Paw Paw, twenty miles away;
to the east, Huntley's Grove, twelve miles, where DeKalb is now located.
At that
time this part of the country was infested by a band of robbers and horse
thieves, known as the Driscoll Gang.
They became so desperate, that a Vigilance Committee was organized to
rid the country of them, and Mr. Campbell who lived at Campbell's Grove, now
known as Lindenwood, was chosen Captain of the Committee. The Driscolls lived at Driscoll's Grove,
later called South Grove. There were
several boys in the family. One Sunday
evening two of these boys went to Campbell's house, called him out, and shot
him dead in the presence of his wife.
This so
aroused the country, that the Vigilance Committee went to the home of the
Driscolls and arrested the father and one son, William, neither of whom had
taken a direct part in the shooting.
They were taken to Oregon, which was then composed of a couple of
houses, but was called a County Seat.
They were tried, convicted, and executed in one day; the execution
taking place in a grove east of Daysville.
They were stood blindfolded on a mound and shot by twelve men belonging
to the Committee. This determined action
cleared the country of robbers.
Brawdie's Grove was a very dense one, making a good place to secrete
horses. At one time a hollow tree was
found filled with twenty-three saddles.
My father bought the claim of old man Brawdie, who was brother-in-law of
Driscoll, and who left with the Driscolls.
He paid him $500 for his claim, which consisted of 200 acres of grove,
and then moved his family into the old Brawdie shanty until he could build a
better home.
We had to
go to Driscoll's Grove for our mail, which was carried by a stage running from
Chicago to Galena. This was my job,
riding across the prairie on a pony, but in the winter time I went for it but
once a month.
I
assisted my father in farming his land, which was hard and unprofitable work,
as we had no improved machinery and used oxen.
The land was not even fenced, and at night the oxen were turned out to
graze. In the morning, it was my duty
before breakfast to get the oxen, which sometimes would have wandered off two
or three miles during the night.
Our
nearest market was Chicago, seventy miles away, which was then a town of about
5,000 built on the waterfront of Lake Michigan.
No effort had been made yet toward modern improvement; the streets were
unpaved and often very muddy, and the sidewalks were only made of boards. We drew our grain to Chicago with oxen, which
meant a trip of about ten days. We
carried our provisions with us, and never ate or slept in a house during the
entire trip. We would haul a load of
wheat to Chicago and get fifty cents a bushel for it and bring back such
provisions as we could not raise ourselves.
I was
about twelve years of age when I made my first journey to Chicago. There was just one house between what is now
Oak Park and Chicago, and this was a hotel, which was run by a man who owned it
and forty acres of land. A man named
Trask stopped at this hotel one night.
In the morning the proprietor wanted to trade Trask his house and land
for his guest's four horses and wagon.
Trask laughed at him, saying he wouldn't take his land as a gift.
The
Pottawatomie Indians were located in northern Illinois and used to spend their
summers in the Grove near our home. The
Chief's name was Shabbona, and the town of Shabbona on the C.B.&Q.
[Chicago, Burlington and Quincy] was later named after this chief.
Chief Shabbona
of Potawatomi 1775-1859
In the
spring of 1850, my father, getting the gold fever
in his veins, organized a company of twelve men, most of whom came from the
vicinity of Mt. Morris, to take the trip overland to California. I was fifteen years old at that time and was
included in the number to cross the plains.
We started from Mt. Morris, March 8. My father Nathaniel, and Squire Pitzer were
at the head of the party and with them were ten men hired for a year. They were to give half their profits to the
two leaders in return for being taken out.
Our
outfit was in common, and included eight yoke of oxen and two wagons, four
horses and one buggy and a pony for me to ride.
Uncle
Josh Thomas went to St. Louis and bought our supplies, which consisted
principally of bacon, crackers and hardtack.
This he shipped up the Missouri River, meeting the rest of us at the
present site of Council Bluffs. After
leaving March 3, we got to Kanesville, April 6. Council
Bluffs and Omaha were not thought of then, and the Indians had full possession
of the land. The Pawnee Indians were on
the east side of the river and the Omaha Indians on the west. There was not a white settlement west of the
Missouri River.
There
were 10,000 emigrants camped there at that
time, waiting for the grass to grow: so they could start out on the plains
westward. We stayed there until May 1
and then went south about twenty miles to the mouth of the Platte where we
ferried our goods and swam our stock across the Missouri River. The wagon train contained about forty wagons
and 130 men. My father was chosen Captain
by a vote.
I shall
never forget the first night we camped among the Omaha Indians. We formed a corral by placing our wagons in a
circle the length of a log chain apart, and putting the stock in this
enclosure, we guarded them with two men the fore part of the night and two in
the after part. If fell to my lot to be
chosen to go on duty the after part of the night, which was a very serious
matter for me. I marched back and forth,
thinking every minute that Indians would attack us. In the morning, the boys wanted to know what
I would have done, if the Indians had put in an appearance. I said I would have shot them. They said, "Yes, you would. Your gun wasn't loaded."
Omaha Indians
After
that we got used to Indians and passed through twelve tribes of various sorts
before reaching the coast.
The first
time the Indians came into the camp to beg for something to eat, one of our men
had a dog that he traded to the Indians for a pair of moccasins. They knocked the dog on the head, threw him
on the campfire and roasted him, head and all, and then carried him off to
their camp.
We
journeyed up the Platte River for 500
miles through a country where there were buffaloes in droves by the thousands. We lived on buffalo meat.
The Sioux
Indians were on the Platte River; one of the largest and most warlike tribes,
having about 2,000 warriors. They were very sociable and tried to talk the
English language, but all they could say was what they heard the men say to
their oxen, and this was mostly cussing.
We went
up the North Platte to Fort Laramie and then crossed the Rockies, making slow
progress, averaging about ten miles a day.
We went north of Salt Lake City to what was known as Sublet's Cut Off
and down the Humboldt River 400 miles to
where it terminated in a lake, Lake Humboldt, seven miles wide and twenty miles
long. It had no outlet but sank into the
sand in the desert. There we met the
worst experience of the trip up to that time. The high water covered the bottoms so the
cattle could find little forage and above the forage there was little but sand
and sagebrush.
From
there we crossed ninety miles of desert to Carson River. The trip took two days and two nights, and
there was no water and no food. Most of
our cattle and horses died there. We had
seven head of cattle and two mules when we reached the Carson River. We killed one of our oxen, stripped the meat
from the bones, jerked it by drying and smoking over a slow fire. This was all we had to eat for fifteen days
while we went 600 miles and crossed the Sierra Nevada Mountains. We had to walk most of the way.
We
arrived in Hangtown in Placer County, which is now Placerville about 150 miles
northeast of Sacramento, on August 26, 1850, which would make about six months on the road. We travelled all night the last night to get
there. We took all forenoon to get and
eat breakfast. This was a mining town,
where there was flour and salt pork for sale.
Flour was
$1.75 a pound, and
salt pork was $1.25 a pound. Our first meal for twelve men cost around $50
[$1690 in value 2021], but it tasted better than any meal I ever ate before.
A miner in Hangtown, wanting to
celebrate a streak of good luck, instructed a cook to fry up a mixture of eggs,
bacon, and tinned oysters -- the origin of the celebrated "Hangtown
Fry". [p.125]
A song: Hangtown gals are plump
and rosy,
Hair in ringlets, mighty cozy,
painted cheeks and sossy bonnets --
Touch 'em and they'll sting like
hornets!
[Johnson, William Neber, The
Fourty-Niners, Editors of Time-Life Books, New York, 1974. p.124.
Hangtown, Gold
Rush
We worked
there for two years cradling gold and made for $15 to $50 a day [$507-1690 in value 2021]. Father and I then joined a company to go on
horseback across the mountains and desert to the Sink of the Humboldt to buy
cattle and horses of the emigrants passing that point. We were gone about three months, returning
with 300 head of cattle, horses, and
mules. We sold them for fancy prices on
the Sacramento River.
Working cradling gold
We
started for home on November 10, 1853 and
returned by way of the Ocean, paying $400
apiece for tickets to New York [$13,520 in value 2021]. We left the boat at Panama and walked across
the Isthmus. We were fourteen days from
San Francisco to Panama, and I was very sick for 13 days. When we anchored at
Panama, we were out about four miles and were taken from the vessel by the
natives in little boats to the shore. We
had to swim the Chagres River, which we did with our clothes on. I had in my pocket while swimming the river,
the watch which I still carry, and it did not stop running.
We took a
boat again at Aspenwall on the Atlantic side for New York, which took eight
days. We were twenty-eight days from San
Francisco to New York. My father was
taken sick on the way with Panama fever.
At that time, they were building the Panama Railroad, and we had a
number of railroad builders aboard the boat, five of whom died of this fever
and were buried at sea.
There was
a railroad from New York to Rochester, which was very fortunate for us, as I
had a very sick father on my hands. At Rochester
we took the boat that went to Detroit. From Detroit we took the railroad to
Chicago and from there to Rockford over the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad,
which was built in 1853.
The rails were made of oak timbers with strap iron nailed on the
top. It took nine hours to go from
Chicago to Rockford.
We stayed
all night at Rockford at the City Hotel, which was located where now stands the
Forest City Bank. As father was still
very sick, we had to hire a wagon, in which he could lie down to get him to his
home. He was sick for about four months
of this fever. We made money out of the
trip, and father bought a thousand acres of Ogle County land when we got back.
As my
schooling had been somewhat neglected, I thought I would take a course in
higher education; so I went to Beloit College in the fall of 1854.
I experienced my first feeling of homesickness here, as I found myself
surrounded by too much civilization. The President of the College at that time
was a man by the man of Chapin. We met
every morning at 6:30 in the Church Chapel for prayers. As this was not very interesting to me, I
decided to enliven the meeting with the assistance of the janitor, a colored
man, we put an old hen into the Professor's desk in the Chapel. In the morning, when he opened his desk to
get out the Bible, the hen flew out and furnished one interesting meeting.
The
winters of '56 and '57 I spent in Rockford, attending Burnham's Commercial
School which was over the Chick House.
During that winter a man named Countryman was tried for murdering
Sheriff Taylor and was convicted. Our
school was dismissed for a week to attend the trial and also the execution
which took place about three miles west of Rockford. I graduated from this school with high
honors, receiving diplomas for double entry bookkeeping, engineering, and steam
boating. I made use of my engineering
and steamboat education by working on the farm with my father.
I had
lots to tell those country boys, and they got even with me one time by taking
my silk hat to measure potatoes.
Feb. 2, 1858, I married Frances Louise Potter
and commenced farming on part of father's farm which I bought. I worked this farm until 1875. My daughters, Clara Alice, who only lived
four months, Carrie Bell, Minnie Urilla, Grace, and Lida Louise were born
here. Their mother died Sept. 19th,
1870. Oct. 3. 1871 I married Sophia
Woodward Byers. We went on a wedding
trip to California over the Union Pacific Railroad, which had been recently
completed. This road followed the old
trail that we took when making our trip across the plains. We were in Salt Lake City at the time of the
Chicago Fire, Oct. 8, and while there heard Brigham Young preach.
The
Mormons were holding a semi-annual council meeting at that time, and the
Mormons from all over the valley were attending. The construction of the Mormon Temple was
just being started.
Our son
Upton was born January 12,
1874 and his mother
died Jan. 19, 1874.
Little Lida was not yet 5, and quite
a burden fell on Carrie, about 13 1/2,
Minnie 11.
I married
Henrietta Thomas Brown Feb. 11, 1875. I rented the farm that fall and moved to
Creston to a rented
house while our new house was being built.
Our son, Howard Hamilton, was born January 25, 1876 in the rented house. The new house was a big
pretentious one with five bedrooms and a storeroom upstairs, one bedroom down and with front and back stairways. Even in town we had a team of horses, a cow,
pigs and chickens.
Henrietta
W. Thomas Brown Swingley 1842-1925
My mother
died May 16, 1879 at the age of 70. Our
daughter, Gertrude Alice, was born Feb. 4, 1882. My father died the next year,
Mar. 17, 1883, age 75. [see obituary below].
[Ogle County Marriage
Certificate No. 5763:
Nathaniel Swingley, Creston (72)
married
Almira J. Reese, Creston (60)
Married 15 Sep 1880 by Alonzo
Mewton MG]
In 1892 we moved to Rockford into the home on North Church
Street so that Howard could get more schooling.
---------------------
copied by Frances Louise Hand Mann,
Otterbein, Indiana 47970, a granddaughter, May, 1968. Upton Swingley died June 13, 1919. He was 84 years old.
---------------------
More about Upton Swingley and his life as written by his son
Howard Swingley [1876-1968], November 7, 1966 to Frances Hand Mann:
The land had never been farmed where Nathaniel Swingley
settled with his family in 1838. He had
only a wooden moldboard plow with an iron share to turn that heavy virgin
soil. It piled up on the plow so that
every short distance, they had to stop and clean it. A blacksmith, John Deere, at Grand Detour (30
miles west of the Swingleys) on the Rock River, conceived the idea of putting a
polished steel share on the plow that the sod would slide over. Upton and Nathaniel knew this man, and later
were among the first to use it.
When Upton was in Hangtown, Calif., they knew a man named
[John M.] Studebaker, who found he could make more money making wheelbarrows
for other miners than he could in looking for gold. When he went home to Indiana after five years
he had saved $8,000. He joined his brothers
in making wagons. They made their name well known for wagons, and the company
later was known for making autos.
Phillip D. Armour... at age 20
walked from home, a farm near Stockbridge, NY.
He made it in six months. He
became a digger of ditches. He made
$8,000 in five years. Opened a butcher shop
in Placerville (where his friend John Studebaker was). Armour moved to Milwaukee and his empire of packing
and slaughtering houses became foremost meat suppliers in the entire nation.
[Johnson, William Weber. The
Forty-Niners. Editors of Time-Life
Books, New York, 1974.]
A problem for early settlers was fences. They turned the stock out to graze on the
open prairie, but first they had to fence the crop land. They tried stringing single wires on posts,
but these the stock pushed over. They
tried putting barbs on the top wire, but the barbs just slid along the wire.
Joseph Glidden who lived in DeKalb, about twelve miles from
the Swingley farm figured out the idea of using two wires; the second wire was
twisted around the wire with the barbs on.
The wire that he turned out was wound on spools and was just like the barbed
wire that is made today.
Upton was a close friend of Mr. Glidden and took Howard to see
his factory. Mr. Glidden took the Swigleys
to his home for dinner and out to his farm to see his horses.
Swingley, Upton, retired farmer;
P.O. Creston; ... commenced farming in 1856, and continued up to about ten
years ago, when Mr. S. rented most of his land out; Mr. S. owns 700 acres of
land in this and DeKalb Counties, all in cultivation, and besides having one of
the finest residences in Ogle County; ...Mr. S. has held the office of
Supervisor, Town Assessor, Road Commissioner; is a Democrat in Politics.
(History of Ogle County Illinois
1878, by H.F. Kett and Co., Chicago, Illinois pp. 737-738.)
[The Rockford Register-Gazette, Friday, June 13, 1919, (A newspaper
owned by the family of his son-in-law, Elliot Bartlett)
Upton Swingley Dead at 84 Years
End Came This Afternoon After Critical Illness of Ten Days
Ogle County Pioneer
Family Came to This Locality in '38 -- Mr. Swingley Rockford
Resident Since 1892
Upton Swingley died this afternoon at 2:45 o'clock at his
residence, 1006 North Church Street. He
had been critically ill for the last ten days.
Heart trouble was the cause of death.
Mr. Swingley was 84 years of age, having been born Sept. 18,
1834, in Washington County, Maryland.
His father was pioneer of Ogle County, settling about a mile west of the
present town of Mt. Morris in 1838. That
was the year before the corner stone of the present Mount Morris Seminary was
laid. It was built in open country and
the town sprang up nearby. The Swingley
family donated twenty acres of land for the site of the seminary.
The hardships of pioneering were known to Mr. Swingley. As a boy he attended the rude district
schools and assisted his father in farming, then a hard and unprofitable labor,
with Chicago the nearest market 70 miles away.
Grain was taken there by oxen, a trip lasting ten days. The farmer received 50 cents a bushel for his
wheat. The Potawatomi Indians spent
their summers in a grove near the Swingley home.
In 1850 Mr. Swingley accompanied his father to the
California gold fields and worked with him in the mines until 1852. They returned by way of the ocean and the
Isthmus of Panama, walking across the Isthmus.
For a number of years, he was a farmer in Ogle county, moving to
Rockford in 1892.
Mr. Swingley leaves a widow and six children. The children are Upton L., Mrs. Elliot
Bartlett and Howard Swingley, of Rockford, Mrs. Charles W. Weller, McFarland,
Cal., Mrs. J.P. Lord, Omaha, and Mrs. Will Hand, Terre Haute, Ind.]
[Mount Morris Index, Mount Morris, Ill. April, l925.
Obituary, Mrs. Henrietta W. Thomas Brown Swingley, died 5
April 1925:
Mrs. Henrietta Swingley Dies At Rockford Home:
Mrs. Henrietta Thomas Swingley, widow of Upton Swingley,
both former well known residents of Mount Morris, died Sunday night at 11:55
o'clock at the home of her son, Howard H. Swingley, 1530 National Avenue,
Rockford.
Funeral services were held Tuesday afternoon at 1:30 o'clock
at Howard Swingley's residence. The Rev.
John Gordon, pastor of the Second Congregational Church, of which Mrs. Swingley
was a member, officiating. Interment was
made in the cemetery of Creston.
Henrietta Thomas was born October 27, 1842, at Hagerstown,
Maryland and two years later her parents moved west, settling at Mount Morris
where she grew to womanhood and received her education at Mount Morris Seminary.
On February 11, 1875, she was married to Upton Swingley, who
died in 1919. Since 1892 Mrs. Swingley
had made her home in Rockford.
Surviving Mrs. Swingley are five children: Mrs. J. P. Lord,
Omaha, Neb.; Mrs. C.E. Weller, McFarland, Calif.; Mrs. Elliott S. Bartlett,
Upton Swingley and Howard Swingley, Rockford.
She also is survived by a brother, George Thomas, and a sister Mrs.
Milton Gezendaner.]
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