He was a clergyman of the Lutheran Church. He graduated from Pennsylvania College in 1851, and after completing his Theological studies at the Gettysburg Seminary, entered the ministry in 1855. He spent the first five years of his ministry in Pennsylvania, as pastor of the Lutheran Church of Johnstown. In 1860 he moved to New York State, where the greater part of his ministry was spent as pastor of several of the best churches of his Synod. Owing to the severity of the climate of New York, he moved to Pennsylvania a few years before his death, and died while pastor at Dickinson, Pennsylvania in 1881. As a pastor Rev. D. Swope was zealous and laborious, taking a deep interest in all of his parishoners. As a preacher he was earnest, plain, eminently practical and biblical. He evinced sincere reverence for the church of his choice, and her doctrines, and carefully and conscientiously practiced her usages.
David was born on 25 December 1824. He was the son of
Adam Swope and
Lydia Spangler. He married
Clara J. Gilbert on 5 November 1856. David died on 21 November 1881 at age 56.