CASWELL - Person Sheet
CASWELL - Person Sheet
NameEdwin Thomas Casswell
Birth10 Oct 1830, Baynton, Trowbridge, Wiltshire, England
Death17 Sep 1896, Ingersoll, Ontario, Canada
FatherJames Casswell (~1789-1842)
Spouses
Birth16 Aug 1839, Ingersoll, Ontario, Ontario, Canada
Death31 Mar 1910, Oxford County, Ontario
FatherThomas Barker
Marriage7 Aug 1856, Ingersoll
 Amelia (1863-1938)
 Adam B (1866-)
 Margaret (1868-1868)
 Susan E. (1870-)
 Charles Edwin (-1956)
 Thomas Bar. (1874-1874)
 Joshua (1874-)
 James (1875-1876)
 William (1878-1910)
 William Martin (-1952)
Notes for Edwin Thomas Casswell
Edwin was recorded in the LDS Ancestral file by Beverley George. I was able to connect the English & Canadian families because of Edwin's son's name & the note in Shirley Mayse's book "Our Caswell Relatives".
Edwin was buried in Ingersoll, as the Ingersoll Rural Cemetery records show.

Edwin Casswell left England and moved to Canada. He established the cheeseman's industry. He is said to come from a family of 16 (Records in family bible in Vancouver B.C.in Library or Museum). Son of James and Susanna Gunstone Slade Casswell, who were married 28 September 1819.

Obituary.
FELL DEAD IN HIS SHOP
Ed. Caswell, a pioneer Cheeseman. Dies Very Suddenly.
Was Sitting on a Box When He Rolled Onto The Floor-Apoplexy- He did Much to Build up the Cheese Industry, and Made a Fortune and Lost It.

Edward (sic) Caswell (sic), provision dealer, Market Lane, dropped dead at 11 o'clock yesterday. A few minutes previously he complained to one of his daughters, who was in the store, of feeling unwell, and he sat down on a box.
He was urged to go home; and was apparantly considering doing so when he suddenly fell over onto the floor and was dead. Dr Drake and Dr Woodruff were hurriedly summoned, but they saw at a glance that it was all over. Apoplexy with which the deceased had often been threatened, had done its work . Deceased was a stout man, and had enjoyed good health. He was over fifty years of age.

The news of the unfortunate affair spread rapidly, and a morbidly curious crowd blocked the lane, despite the efforts of two policemen to keep a passage clear. In the excitement someone telephoned for an ambulance, but of course it was not required.

Hon. Thos. Ballantyne, of Stratford, a warm friend of the deceased was just entering the store. He was almost overcome by the sad facts which greeted him.
The grief of the two daughters, Miss Minnie Caswell and Mrs Winters , of Ingersoll, who were present at the time, and of the boys who shortly arrived, was heart-rending. Mr Ballantyne and Mrs Winters left shortly to bear the news to the widow.

The late Mr Casswell was of English birth, but for the greater part of his life he had been a resident of Ingersoll. He was one of the pioneer cheesemen of the country. It was to men of his push, integrity , and intelligence that the country owes the immense cheese trade it enjoys today. Mr Casswell built up quite a fortune, but subsequently was unfortunate in business, and lost most of his wealth. Three years ago Mr Casswell and his family moved to this city, where they gained a large circle of friends. He was for a time manager of the Canadian Packing Company's establishment here. The family includes Mrs WInters, of Ingersoll, Misses Minnie and Susie and Adam,Charles, Will, and John, at home, and another son who is absent.

Another obituary supplied by Beverly George, reads:-
Casswell - In London on Thursday Sept. 17 1896, Edwin Casswell aged 66 yrs 11 months, 7 days. The funeral started from his residence 516York Street at 12 o'clock, to the railway depot to meet the 12.45 train for Ingersoll for interment.

An article from a book entitled 'Ingersoll, Our heritage'.
Edwin Caswell (sic) was born in Wiltshire, England in 1830 and came to Canada from Trowbridge. Wiltshire in 1849. He was in his early 20's and after arriving in Canada, became a travelling salesman and Public relations man for the Oxford Dairy Industry.

Arriving in the village of Ingersoll, he worked for Barker and Browelt, in the store on King St East. Sometime afterworking at the store, he became deeply involved in the business of cheese. He bought cheese on his own initiative for shipment to large Canadian centres to be sold.

When the first co-operative cheese factory started at Norwich in 1864 , Caswell became a partner with Adam Brown of Brown, Gillespie & Co , of Hamilton, Ontario. They formed their own company and were the first to ship cheese from Ingersoll to England in the year 1865-66.

It seems the first shipment of cheese was lost when the boat was wrecked, their loss was about $3100. They had no suitable boxes to package the cheeses.
Finally, they used remodelled wooden barrels, but they proved quite a drawback because they split open or fell apart by the time the boat reached England.
However, Caswell and Adam Oliver, Ingersoll's first mayor, were conversing in Ingersoll's railway station about the box problem and it seems Adam Oliver did have a solution, he purchased a box manufacturing company from Buffalo, New York, USA. Then, they set up the box making plant in Ingersoll at Adam Oliver's work shop.

Brown and Caswell dissolved their partnership in 1895.Brown left for England, where he made many connections with the dairy industry and with many commercial houses.

Buying cheese involved a lot of travelling and the roads of those days needed much improvement. First Edwin Caswell had to contact the factories to buy the cheese, then back again to box and weigh and get it ready to ship to the market. Competition became very keen and the freight rates and insurance became very high. Quite often the cheese would be piled on the wharf at Toronto, Montreal orHamilton. Then, in turn it became very difficult to inform buyers when the shipment would reach its destination.Caswell, at one time, took 11,000 tons. of boxed cheddar cheese in 30 (sic) railway cars full of the cheese to England and sold it all within 6 weeks.

He made a total of 55 trips across the ocean to further the industry of the dairy business. He exhibited cheese at the Continental Exhibition o f 1874 held in Philadelphia. Here, Caswell ran into more problems. It seems too many area farmers did not want to sell their cheese for exhibit. Caswell and another man, Thomas Ballantyne of Stratford, Ontario, went themselves to the farms collecting cheese and to guarantee the cheese makers they would not lose anything on what was to be shipped to the exhibition.The exhibition was a great success and added to the already growing reputation of Canadian and especially Ingersoll cheese.

Caswell was president in the Dairyman's Association of Western Ontario four times. He retired to London, Ontario, and ran a small retail business until his death in 1896 at the age of 66.The home he lived in, in Ingersoll, is still standing on Charles St West, on the south side.

On Ken Rogers' notes Edwin was recorded as a 'cheese factor of Ingersoll, Ontario', in 1877.

Extracted from a Wiltshire newspaper.
17 Sep 1896
At London, Ontario, Canada. Died Edwin Casswell, the third son of the late James Casswell of Dilton Farm, Westbury, Wiltshire, aged 66 years.
Last Modified 21 Dec 2019Created 27 Nov 2021 using Reunion for Macintosh