Nathan F. Swan (1834-1915) was born in 1834 in the town of New Sharon in Franklin County, Maine, to Isaac and Lydia Swan. As a child his family moved to Mount Ayr in Ringold County, Iowa in 1844, and in 1862 Swan moved to Colorado Territory and registered a homestead in Elbert County. During this time, Swan worked as a rancher according to census information and other sources. He also later became involved as a guide to silver prospecting parties in both Texas and Nevada. Single his whole life, he lived with his nephew's family in Colorado Springs in 1910. Swan died in east Cache LaPoudre, near Colorado Springs, in 1915.