Amanda grew up in the large Corn family of Augusta, Indiana.
She married a farmer named Mathew Swan and together they had eight children. He was injured during his Civil War service (on March 24, 1863) by a musket ball that lodged in his chest during the Battle of Lookout Mountain. As a result, he was never again in good health and died at age 40, leaving Amanda to raise her children alone. She had a military pension.

Additional research shows that the couple divorced, then later remarried each other as Mathew Swan and Amanda Swan on the marriage certificate. Their first marriage was October 28, 1865; second marriage was August 19, 1872.

1900 Federal Census, for Princeton City, Gibson Co., Ind., the family is living on Race Street:
Swan, Amanda, Head, W, F, b. Nov. 1848, 57, Wd., 8 children born; 8 living; b. Indiana; father b. Virgina; mother b. Indiana.
----, Ida, daughter, W, F, b. Sept. 1873, 26, Divorced, 1 child born; 1 living; b. Indiana; father b. Tennessee; mother b. Indiana; teaching public school
---, Walter J., son, W, M, b. July 1876, 23, single, IN TN IN; Brakeman (RR)
---, John H., son, W, M, b. May 1878, 22, single, IN TN IN; Laborer RR
---, Thomas W., W, M, b. Nov 1880, 19, single, IN TN IN; Laborer RR
---, Hershel, W, M, b. June 1882, 17, single, IN TN IN; Caller (Train Man)

In 1920 Federal Census, Amanda was living at 191 Poplar St., Winslow.
Amanda Swan, 70, widowed, IN IN VA
Charles Swan, 8, grandson
also at that address, another widow and family:
Elizabeth Snyder, widowed, 48
Ralph Synder, 13
Ruth Synder, 10

Buried next to Amanda in Winslow's Oak Hill Cemetery is: "C.H. Swan, 1884 - 1924." This is her youngest son Charles Hershel, who was born in 1882, not 1884.

Also buried near Amanda is another grandchild, Marie Jones, who had married Mike Horstmeyer. The stone engraver unfortunately misspelled their last name and carved it as "Hostmeyer."