Samuel Bradford Caswell
Samuel Bradford Caswell (1828–1898) was an American mining engineer, and politician in California. He was member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and the Los Angeles Common Council. He was one of the pioneer founders and trustees of the Los Angeles Public Library System to open branches. Personal Caswell was born January 3, 1828, in Taunton, Massachusetts. About 1845, he moved to Fall River and, in 1849, to Wareham, where he was married to Mary Bradford Gibbs the same year. They had one daughter, who died around 1878, and a son, William M. Caswell. He and his family moved to San Francisco, California in the early 1850s and to Los Angeles in the mid−1860s. For many years, Caswell was a trustee in the local American Unitarian Association church. In May 1895, the Caswells made a trip to Europe, returning aboard the of the Cunard Line. Caswell felt a heart pain in the morning of February 3, 1898, but went to work as usual. At midday, though, he returned to his home at the southeast corner of West 5th Street and Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles, the site of the present day Los Angeles Central Library he helped