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Rock County, Wisconsin

Biographies

"Lucien B. Caswell"

The second Congressional District of Wisconsin is represented in the National Congress by
Lucien B. CASWELL, of Fort Atkinson, who was born at Swanton, Vermont, November 27, 1827, and was the son of Seal and Betsey CASWELL, residents of that State. When Lucien was but three years of age his father died. In 1837, he, with his mother and stepfather, Mr. Augustus CHURCHILL, removed to Wisconsin and settled near the place where he now resides, a location then far out in the wilderness, ten miles from any white settlement. He obtained an education at different academies and at Beloit College. After leaving College he studied law under the late Matt CARPENTER of Wisconsin, and in 1851 was admitted to the Bar. In 1852 he commenced the practice of his profession and has continued it to the present time. He served as District Attorney in 1855 and 1856. In 1863, 1872, and 1874, he was a member of the State Legislatureof Wisconsin. From September, 1863, to May 5, 1865, he was Commissioner of the Second District Board of Enrollment of that Slate. He was a Delegate to the National Republican Convention1 held at Chicago in 1868. He was elected to the Forty-fourth, Forty-fifth, and Forty-sixth Congresses, and was re-elected to the Forty-seventh Congress as a Republican, by a vote of 16,041 against 14,390 Democratic, and 435 Greenback votes. In the Forty-fourth Congress he made speeches in favor of the Centennial Appropriation Bill, also against the Electoral Count Bill. In the Forty-fifth Congress he served on the Committee on Pacific Railways, and made a speech in favor of the extension of the grant of lands to the Pacific Railroad Company. During the same Congress, and since, he has made speeches upon the questions relating to the coinage of Silver, also upon the various Appropriation Bills, and many other important subjects of national legislation.
Since the year 1863 he has been engaged in National Banking, and for the last fifteen years has
been largely interested in manufacturing. He has always carried on various kinds of business in connection with that of his regular profession. In the Forty-sixth Congress he was a member of the Committee on Patents, and of the Committee on the Mississippi Levees, and was appointed a member of the special Committee on the revision of the Pension Laws.
The life of Mr. CASWELL affords an encouraging example to young men who are leaving their
comfortable homes in the East to make their way into the far West, where new lands, new climates and new opportunities offer them fame and fortune, if they will make the sacrifices and endure the hardships that for the first few years must attend the life of the pioneer.
 
[Taken from "Public Men of To-Day" by P. C. Headley; (c)1882 S. S. Scranton & Co., Hartford; pp. 329-330]

This page last updated November 27, 2007
 
©2007 WIBiographies-Rock County
 
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