James I. Sweney is a well-known figure in banking circles in Mitchell County. He has been identified with the Mitchell County Savings Bank since 1880 and in 1915 was elected to its
presidency, so that as its chief executive officer he is largely directing its affairs and shaping its policy, for which responsible work his long experience has well qualified him.
He was born in Warren County, Pennsylvania, May 7, 1850, and mention of his family is made in connection with the sketch of J. H. Sweney on another page of this work. He came to Iowa in with his parents, who established their home in Osage, and through all the intervening period he has been closely identified with this section of the state. He acquired his early education in the schools of the county, supplemented by study in the Cedar Valley Seminary.
Putting aside his textbooks in 1869, he then accepted the position of deputy county treasurer under his brother in 1870 and remained active in that capacity for two years. Later he went to Dakota Territory, where he assisted in platting the town of Dell Rapids, after which he returned to Osage and opened an abstract office, which he conducted with fair success until 1880. In that year he purchased an interest in the Sweney Brothers Bank, of which he became cashier.
In 1906 the bank was reorganized under the name of the Mitchell County Savings Bank. Mr. Sweney continued to act as cashier until January 1, 1915, when he was elected to the presidency and is now acting in that capacity in such a manner that the interests of depositors and stockholders alike are carefully safeguarded. Thirty-seven years' connection with the banking business in Mitchell county establishes him as a foremost financier and one whose reliability is never called into question, while his enterprise finds proof in the growing success of the institution with which he has so long been identified.
On the 28th of January, 1874, Mr. Sweney was united in marriage to Miss Sophia A. Tucker, a daughter of the Rev. C.T. Tucker, a Baptist minister of Mason City, Iowa. In 1912 Mr. Sweney was called upon to mourn the loss of his wife, who passed away on the 27th of September of that year, leaving four children: Guy Irvine and Bruce Tucker, who are both residents of Peoria, Illinois, where they are engaged in business as members of the Independent Gasoline Company; Paul Dailey, who is connected with the Mitchell County Savings Bank as assistant cashier; and Faith S., the wife of H. C. Hill, a newspaper man.
In community affairs Mr. Sweney has ever taken a deep and helpful interest, standing at all times on the side of progress and improvement. He served as village councilman for six years and exercised his official prerogatives in support of all well-defined plans and measures for the public good. He has likewise filled other local offices, and for nine years was a member of the school board.
In 1881 he was made a trustee of the Cedar Valley Seminary and the following year was made treasurer of the seminary, in which position he has continued to the present time, acting as trustee of the school for a longer period than anyone connected with it. His religious faith is that of the Baptist church and for more than thirty years he has been its treasurer, while in all departments of the church work he is deeply and helpfully interested. He belongs to the Knights of Pythias and to the Modern Woodmen camp, serving for twenty-nine years as banker of the latter and for twenty years as exchequer of the former.
Almost his entire life has been spent in Osage and his fellow townsmen bear testimony to the fact that his entire career has been upright and honorable, that he has been progressive in business, loyal in citizenship and faithful at all times to every trust reposed in him. He can thus, without invidious distinction, be termed one of the foremost citizens of Mitchell county.
Transcribed by Gordon Felland - Sept. 2003