Samuel Swasey (1804-1887) was born in Newbury, Vermont, and died in Belvidere, Illinois. He studied law at Dartmouth College and graduated in 1828 before moving to Illinois to work as a teacher. In 1835, he returned to Haverhill, New Hampshire, and served as Haverhill's town selectman and moderator and worked ten years as register of probate. Swasey represented Haverhill in the New Hampshire House of Representatives seven times from 1839-1850, acting as the Speaker of the House in 1842-1843. He married Augusta Holmes, a school friend of Mary Baker Eddy's, in 1842. During Franklin Pierce's administration, Swasey was Inspector of Customs at Portsmouth, New Hampshire. In 1857 he moved to Illinois, where he lived until his death in 1887.

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