[2] Born in Carson City, Nevada to Mr. and Mrs. E. D. Sweeney, Nevada pioneers, Sweeney attended the local schools and worked in the mines in Carson City, where he became popular with the miners, a popularity that would serve him well in his later political life.
from Saint Mary's College of California in Oakland,[1][2] thereafter reading law to gain admission to the Nevada State Bar on July 30, 1898, at the age of 21.
Sweeney was defeated in a race for the United States Senate in 1910 by incumbent George S. Nixon,[1] and thereafter served as chief justice of the Nevada Supreme Court until illness forced him to retire in 1913.
[2] Sweeney then established a private law practice in Reno and Carson City with state senator H. V.
[4] Sweeney died from pernicious anemia at his sister's home in Oakland, California, after an illness of six months, at the age of 40.