USA > West Virginia > West Virginia and its people, Volume II > Part 1
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93
GEN
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 02264 6779
GENEALOGY 975.4 M61W V.2
ARTHUR INGRAM BOREMAN, FIRST GOVERNOR D; WEST VIRGINIA
WEST VIRGINIA
AND ITS PEOPLE
BY THOMAS CONDIT MILLER AND HU MAXWELL
975.4
VOLUME II
1. 2
NEW YORK LEWIS HISTORICAL PUBLISHING COMPANY
1913
OF WEST
V
* STATE
IRG
NIA.
MONTAN! SEMPER · IBERI
COPYRIGHT LEWIS HISTORICAL PUBLISHING COMPANY
1913
1205998
Family and Personal History
Dondepec d - 40,00 (B)
CALDWELL The name of Caldwell is an honorable one in Ameri- can annals. No family made a brighter record for patriotism and personal bravery during the war of the Revolution, and in the trying pioneer times when the states were coming into shape on new soil. From the Lakes to the Gulf and from the Atlantic to the Pacific, this family now extends, growing out of the sturdy parent stock. They have left their imprint wherever the Eng- lish language is spoken, at all times and under all circumstances, and it may be truthfully said that their record has been an enviable one.
The earliest mention of the Caldwell family relates to three brothers John, Alexander and Oliver-who were seamen on the Mediterranean, in the latter part of the fifteenth century. These brothers had an estate named Mount Arid, near Toulon, in France. During the reign of Fran- cis I. of France, they in time of religious persecution, being Huguenots, were forced to leave France for a refuge in Scotland, in which country they purchased an estate from a Bishop named Douglass, near Solway Firth. This purchase was made with consent of King James I. of Eng- land, on condition that "the said brothers, John, Alexander and Oliver, late of Mount Arid," should have their estate known as "Cauldwell." and when the king should require, they should each send a son, with twenty men of sound limbs, to aid in the wars of the king.
An heirloom is a cup, from which it is seen that the estate took its name from a watering place. The cup represents a chieftain and twenty mounted men, all armed, and a man drawing water from a well, with the words underneath, "Alexander of Cauldwell;" also a fire burning on a hill, over the words "Mount Arid," and a vessel surrounded by high waves. Joseph, John, Alexander, Daniel, David and Andrew, of Cauld- well, went with Oliver Cromwell (whose grandmother was Ann of Cauldwell,) to Ireland, of which he was the lord governor. After his promotion to the protectorate of England, they remained in his interest in Ireland until the restoration of Charles II.
John Caldwell, son of the above named John Caldwell, in about 1742 settled in Lunenburg, now Charlotte county, Virginia, where he was sub- sequently joined by relatives, forming what was known as "Caldwell Settlement" for many years. His son, James Caldwell, was the cele- brated "Fighting Parson of the Revolution." He was born in Charlotte county, Virginia, about 1743, graduated from Princeton in 1759, and was ordained in 1762. He served as chaplain in the army of the Revolution, and acted as commissary to the troops in New Jersey. He was killed by a shot from a sentinel, at Elizabethtown Point, New Jersey, Novem- ber 24th, 1781. It is of him that Bret Harte wrote :
"Nothing more did I say? Stay one moment; you've heard Of Caldwell, the Parson, who once preached the Word Down at Springfield? What, No? Come-that's bad, why he had All the Jerseys aflame! And they gave him the name Of 'the Rebel High Priest.' He stuck in their gorge, For he loved the Lord God-and he hated King George !"
"Why, just what he did! They were left in the lurch For the want of more wadding. He ran to the church, Broke the door, stripped the pews, and dashed out in the road With his arms full of hymn-books, and threw down his load At their feet! Then above all the shouting and shots,
Rang his voice-'Put Watts into'em! Boys, give'em Watts!'
6
WEST VIRGINIA
And they did. That is all. Grasses spring, flowers blow, Pretty much as they did ninety-three years ago. You may dig anywhere and you'll turn up a ball, But not always a Hero like this, and that's all."
Space cannot be given in this work for even a brief mention of the different and numerous settlements of Caldwells in America, and of their intimate and honorable associations with the ecclesiastical, military, civil, industrial and commercial affairs of their country.
However, as they were among the very earliest pioneers in the settle- ment of the Northern Pan Handle of Virginia, it is proper to give some account of the Caldwells who settled at what is now the city of Wheel- ing, in Ohio county, West Virginia ( formerly Virginia).
This branch of the Caldwells were from Northern Ireland, and are the descendants of one John Caldwell, a merchant at Enniskillen, Ire- land, who was born at Preston, in Ayrshire, Scotland, and died in 1639. The following notes respecting the descendants of this John Caldwell were made in 1895, by Mr. Alexander W. Caldwell, grandson of Alfred Caldwell, the elder, hereinafter mentioned, who was born in Wheeling, West Virginia, but now a resident of St. Paul, Minnesota, that is to say :
"At the Revolution (of 1688-9), Sir James Caldwell's services were of the high- est importance, as appears by the following case enclosed in a petition to King William.
" 'The State of the Case of Sir James Caldwell, Bart.
"'That he staid in Ireland in all the late troubles at and near Enniskillen till the end of the year 1689, and raised and maintained a regiment of foot and two troops of horse at his own charge and kept the same at the great passes at Belleck and Donegal, between Connaught and the province of Ulster, which was of such consequence that it hindered communication between the enemies in the said province of Connaught (which were very numerous) from joining or recruiting those besieging Londonderry.
" 'That the said Sir James Caldwell was besieged by a detached party from Col. Sarsfield of about the number of two thousand foot and three troops of dragoons about the 3rd of May, 1689, and was forced to send to Enniskillen, Castle Hume and other neighboring garrisons for relief, which came on the 8th of May and joined the forces which Sir James Caldwell had, who then fought the enemy near St. James's House and routed them, killing about a hundred and twenty and took seventy prisoners, two cannon, many small arms and about forty horses from the enemy.
" 'That the said Sir James Caldwell also placed his son Hugh Caldwell in the garrison of Donegal over three companies of foot and a troop of horse. being the next garrison to Londonderry the Protestants were possessed of, which was of such consequence that, if the enemy had been masters of it, the whole country about Enniskillen must have submitted to them.
"'That the said Hugh Caldwell had several offers of money and preferment from the Duke of Berwick to surrender the place, but always told him he would defend it to the last: as appears afterwards by the defense he made against the Duke, who attacked him with 1.500 men. hurnt some part of the town, hut was beaten off with considerable loss, which Col. Luttrel can give an account of, as also of the said Sir James's vigilant and faithful behavior in the defense of that country.
"'That the said Sir James Caldwell went in an open boat from Donegal to Major General Kirk, by sea, forty leagues on the most dangerous coast in that kingdom, not having any other way to have communication with him, to acquaint him with the condition of that country, to which he was then a stranger, and to get arms and ammunition from him, which were greatly wanting to arm the naked men in the country. Some time after the said James Caldwell was sent back with Colonel Wolseley, Colonel Tiffany and Colonel Wynne and some ammunition by the said Major General, who then gave the said Sir James a commission to he colonel of foot and a troop of horse independent. as by the said commissions will appear : that within four or five days after they landed their men were forced to fight Lieutenant General Macarty and obtained a great victory against him as has been heard.' (On comparison with Macaulay's account of this war in his His- tory of England, it is found that the battle of Newton Butler is here referred to).
" 'That the said Sir James met Duke Schomberg when he landed at Carrick- fergus and staid the siege of that plac .; and afterwards went to Dundalk with the
7
WEST VIRGINIA
Duke, and staid that campaign with him till about a week before he decamped, which the now Duke Schomberg will certify.
"'That the said Sir James Caldwell expended in money, arms, provisions and other necessaries to support those troops, which were raised for the King's ser- vice, and what he lost by the destruction of his town, houses, iron-mills, stud of horses and stock of black cattle and other essential losses amounted to about ten thousand pounds.
"'That the said Sir James's second son also suffered very much by cattle and provisions taken from him by our own army at Bally Shannon, for the main- tenance of that garrison, without which they could not have sustained.
" 'That the said James Caldwell had after the campaign at Dundalk a regi- ment of dragoons and a regiment of foot quartered in his house and town of Belleck, which did him much damage and destroyed many things which he with so much difficulty saved from the enemy.
"'That also the said Sir James's daughter, Elizabeth, conveyed several quan- tities of powder from Dublin by his commands to Enniskillen and other garrisons thereabout, to the hazard of her life, as may appear by my Lord Capel's report upon a reference to him.' "
"The truth of the above statement was supported by various docu- ments from the Lord Lieutenant and other officers of the King. His majesty, in recompense of his services, bestowed upon him in custodian for seven years the whole of the forfeited Bagnal estate, then let for £8000 per annum; at the end of which time it was to be restored to the- Bagnal family and Sir James was to be otherwise provided for." Richard Ryan's "Biographia Hibernia," vol. I, pp. 364, et seq.
Sir James Caldwell died in 1716 .- (Burke, vide infra.)
A great-grandson of John, the merchant of Enniskillen, Henry Cald- well, was lieutenant commander of the British army for the defense of Quebec. Charles, his brother, was aide-de-camp to Gen. Wolfe. Sir John of Castle Caldwell, treasurer-general of Canada, died at Tremont House, Boston. 1842. (Caldwell Records, p. 76).
The son of the last mentioned John Caldwell, James Caldwell, Esq., settled at Ross Beg, afterwards called "Castle Caldwell," county Fer- managh, Province of Ulster, and was created a baronet of Ireland. June 23rd, 1683. He married Catherine, daughter of Sir John Hume, Baronet of Castle Hume, county of Fermanagh. (J. B. Burke's "Peerage and Baronetage" (1851), p. 163. See "Caldwell Records" by Augustine Cald- well, p. 76).
A later Sir James Caldwell, before he succeeded to the title and es- tates, was a colonel of horse in the service of the Great Empress of Aus- tria, Maria Theresa, and was by her made Count of Milan, in Italy.
The seat of the Caldwells, at Castle Caldwell, was a very beautiful one. The ruin of the castle itself at this day is one of the sights of Ire- land. On one side of it. towards Lake Erne, were the gardens, and on the other was a beautifully wooded park which extended practically from the ruins of the old castle to the railroad running across Ireland from Bundoran on the west coast to Dundalk on the east. A chapel stood in the park, of which only some of the walls now remain, although the fam- ily graves are still intact in the crypt. On the side of the park, next to the railroad, is the park entrance or lodge, which, owing to the fact that the railroad track passes over the old arch gate, is still in a fine state of preservation.
During the reign of George IV, he and his court were entertained at Castle Caldwell, and the expense incurred by the then Baronet started the loss of fortune that has culminated in the whole estate passing out of the Caldwell blood and name.
A curious relic is to be seen from the railroad, opposite the station at Castle Caldwell, in the shape of a gigantic marble fiddle that was a tomb stone in the churchyard. near the chapel, over the remains of a fiddler,
8
WEST VIRGINIA
who had been in the service of the later Sir James Caldwell. On this tombstone the following is inscribed :
"To the memory of Dennis McCabe, Fidler, who fell out of the St. Patrick Barge belonging to Sir James Caldwell, Bart., and Count of Milan, & was drown'd off this Point, August ye 13th, 1770.
"Beware ye Fidlers of ye Fidler fate Ne'er tempt ye deep lest ye repent too late You ever have been deem'd to water Foes then shun ye lake till it with whiskey flows, on firm land only exercise your skill
there you may play and safely drink your fill."
Four generations of the Caldwells lived in the old castle at one time, a consideration of which causes one to cease to wonder at their loss of property.
A descendant of John Caldwell, the merchant of Enniskillen, and of his son Sir James Caldwell, was his grandson, James Caldwell, who was born in Ulster, Ireland, in 1724, and who settled at Wheeling, Ohio county, Virginia, in 1772. In 1769 such grandson left Ireland with his wife Elizabeth (nee Alexander, who was born in 1737, and to whom he was married in 1752,) with nine children, and on the long passage over, another was born to them. They landed at Havre de Grace, Maryland, in the last mentioned year, and after a short stay in that place moved to Baltimore, Maryland, at which city another son was born, who was named James, and is hereinafter described as James the younger, his father being designated as James, the elder. Among their children born in Ireland was one John, who was a young man when the family arrived in America, and who had received his education before their departure from their old home in Ulster, in the county of Tyrone, near Castle Cald- well, which is situated in the county of Fermanagh, very close to the Tyrone border. This son, John, was an engineer and surveyor by profes- sion. Two other sons were born in this country besides James, Alexan- der. a distinguished lawyer, who became a judge of the United States Court, for the Western District of Virginia, and Joseph, who was born during the Revolutionary War, and who throughout a long life occupied a most prominent and honorable position in the business and social life of Wheeling.
The records of Ohio county, Virginia (now West Virginia) show that Col. Robert Woods, county surveyor, surveyed. March 28th, 1781. for James Caldwell (the elder), four hundred acres fronting on the Ohio river and Wheeling creek, including his settlement made thereon in the year 1772, and that the next day Col. Woods surveyed an adjoining four hundred acres for James Caldwell, the elder, on the south of the four hundred at the junction of the Ohio river and Wheeling creek, in- chidiing the said Caldwell's settlement, made thereon in the year 1772. (See Survey Book of Ohio county, Virginia, No. 1. page 44.) These two surveys for four hundred acres each extended from Wheeling creek along the Ohio river to Caldwell's run, and embraced a large portion of the land on which the city of Wheeling now stands. In the same Survey Book, at page 19, it appears that Col. Woods surveyed for Ebenezer Zane a tract of four hundred acres, on the Ohio river, and north side of Wheeling creek, including his settlement made in the year 1774. In the same Survey Book, at page 32, it appears that Col. Woods also surveyed for Jonathan Zane one hundred and forty acres next to and north of the survey of Ebenezer Zane before mentioned, which survey for Jonathan Zane included his settlement made in 1776, and calls for a corner to a tract belonging to James Caldwell, on Wheeling creek.
9
WEST VIRGINIA
It will be seen from these surveys, on the strength of which patents were granted by the Commonwealth of Virginia to James Caldwell. Ebenezer Zane and Jonathan Zane, signed by Patrick Henry, Governor of Virginia, that James Caldwell's actual settlement in what is now the city of Wheeling, was made in 1772, that of Ebenezer Zane in 1774, and that of Jonathan Zane in 1776.
The corner of James Caldwell, spoken of in the Jonathan Zane sur- vey, is on Wheeling creek, in what is now the town of Fulton, James Caldwell having a right to, and subsequently receiving a patent for the land subsequently known as the Steenrod property, extending from the western line of Fulton to the Woods property, at Woodsdale.
James Caldwell, the elder, was a man of great importance in the pioneer days. As will be seen by an inspection of Order Book No. I of Ohio county, Virginia, at pages 1 and 2, on January 6th, 1777, at Black's Cabin (now in the village of West Liberty), Ohio county, Virginia, the first court in that county was organized, under an order of the general assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia, and David Sheepherd, Silas Hedge, William Scott and James Caldwell, were, by virtue of a certain writ of dedimus potestatum, sworn in as justices of the peace, and the said Sheepherd swore in Zachariah Sprigg, Thomas Waller and David McClain as justices of the peace, and the said Sheepherd, Hedge, Scott, Caldwell, Sprigg, Waller and McClain took their seats on the bench and proceeded with the business of the court. Among other things, on the said 6th day of January, 1777, and the day following, such county court proceeded to consider the subject of the organization of the militia of the county, and recommended to the governor of the state of Virginia the names of officers for the militia, from county lieutenant and colonel down to and inclusive of the ensigns.
James Caldwell, the elder, seems to have had a great desire for the acquisition of land, acquiring title to thousands of acres not only in and about the city of Wheeling but in the lower portion of what was then the county of Ohio, in the state of Virginia, along what is known as the Long Reach, now in Tyler county, and Middle Island creek and its tributaries, now in the counties of Tyler and Wetzel. He left a will dated April 22nd, 1802, in which he disposes of his large landed property as well as of his personalty. It is recorded in the office of the clerk of the county court of Ohio county, West Virginia, in Will Book No. I, commencing at page 64.
Besides taking his oath as a justice of the peace of the common- wealth of Virginia, under the appointment of Patrick Henry, Governor of Virginia, James Caldwell, the elder, took about the same time, after the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, an oath of allegiance to the Commonwealth of Virginia, and of repudiation of all fealty to George III., King of Great Britain. While Virginia was in full rebellion against British rule, in January, 1777, as stated, James Caldwell, the elder, took civil office under the rebel government of that commonwealth as one of the gentlemen justices of the peace who constituted the first county court of Ohio county, Virginia, a position which he held thereafter throughout the Revolutionary War. He was active, as one of the mem- bers of that court, in the work of military organization of the people of the western section of Virginia. He was nominally a civil officer, but to be a civilian during such time in the locality where he resided, on the western border of Virginia, meant also to be a soldier engaged in more or less active warfare by day and by night, during the whole war period from 1775 to 1783, and meant in his case that he was one of what has been aptly termed by an able author : "The Rear Guard of the Revolu- tion." During that period the region in which he lived was a constant
IO
WEST VIRGINIA
theater of war with the Indians, armed by the British, and under their influence, and aided by them by frequent co-operating expeditions of Tory forces, and occasionally of British regulars, from the Canadian posts. These Indians were as much the mercenary soldiers of Great Britain as the Hessians and Waldeckers in the East. He took part in the defense of Fort Henry during its siege in September. 1777, together with his oldest son, John Caldwell, who helped build the Fort.
The family of James Caldwell, the elder, at the time of his emigra- tion, consisted of his wife, Elizabeth; his son, John, born January 22, 1753: his daughter. Ann, born May 17, 1755; Mary, born May 27, 1756: Sarah, born December 28, 1758; Frances, born December 15, 1760; Jeanette, born December 10, 1762: Lovely, born April 6, 1764; Eliza- beth, born August 15, 1765; and Jane, born September 13, 1767, dying young. A son, Samuel, was born at sea, March 10. 1760. during the pas- sage. Four more children were born in America, viz: James, born No- vember 30, 1770, at Baltimore, Maryland: Susanna, born December 30, 1772: Alexander, born November 1. 1774: and Joseph, born August 8. 1777, making fourteen children in all.
James Caldwell, the elder, died at Wheeling, in the year 1804, at his residence on Main street, on the site of the lot now occupied by the resi- dence of Dr. L. S. Spragg. on the east side of such street. between Eighth and Ninth streets, and directly opposite the List family home- stead. His house was removed comparatively a few years ago to make way for the erection of the present residence of Dr. Spragg. The joists were of walnut logs, and the nails used in the house construction had all been forged by hand by blacksmiths, and resembled the nails used in the shoeing of horses at the present time.
His death probably occurred in August of 1804, as his will was ad- mitted to probate on the 3rd day of September of that year, as is shown by order book of the county court of Ohio county, Virginia, No. 9, at page 201.
He was a man of determined temperament, and great courage, as is shown by the fact of his emigration from Europe to this country at so early a date as 1769, bringing with him a wife and his numerous family of children of all ages, and in moving them to what was then the extreme West, and in a country subject to incursions of hostile savages. The records of the county court of Ohio county, West Virginia, contain evi- dence of his resolute character.
After he had been for many years president of the county court, he was, August 2nd. 1802, acting as foreman of a grand jury therein, and the court, desiring the presence of one of his grand jurors, ordered the grand juror to come from the grand jury room into the court. The fore- man, who had been so long a member of this august tribunal, the county court of Ohio county, Virginia, seemed to have had but little respect for the then members of the bench, and positively refused to permit the grand juryman to leave the jury room in obedience to the court's summons. The result was that James Caldwell, the elder, foreman of the grand- jury, was fined for his contempt, by the court, in the sum of three dollars. and required to pay the costs incident to the proceedings. (See Order Book of the County Court of Ohio county, No. 8. at page 192.)
In Order Book No. 8 of the County Court of Ohio county, at page 85. appears an order authorizing the taking of the testimony of James C'ald- well, the elder, in perpetual memory that his nephew. James Caldwell. son of Samuel, was the oldest son of the said Samnel, and in this order it recites that James Caldwell, the elder, was formerly of the county of Tyrone, in the Kingdom of Great Britain. On page So of the same Or der Book, the deposition is ordered to be brought into court, and to be
IL
WEST VIRGINIA
recorded in perpetual memory. These proceedings show that James Caldwell, the elder, came from the county of Tyrone.
Before the Revolutionary War, the British authorities erected, at intervals along the Ohio river, below Fort Duquesne, built by the French at Pittsburg, a number of forts or stockades for the purpose of holding the very desirable valley of the Ohio from the French, as well as for places of refuge in event of Indian forays against the settlers. Among these was a fort at Wheeling, constructed under the direction of Lord Dunmore, Royal Governor of Virginia, by John Caldwell, (son of James Caldwell, the elder), and Ebenezer Zane, the elder, the fortification being laid out by John Caldwell. The west and south sides thereof were pro- tected by precipitous gravel banks which would expose any assailing party to the view and fire from the port. It was first called Fort Fin- castle, but when the Revolution broke out the name was changed to Fort Henry in honor of Patrick Henry, the Rebel Governor of Virginia.
John Caldwell was always fond of the woods, and was a great hunter and Indian fighter. He was badly wounded in the leg on the west slope of Wheeling Hill, when scouting, during one of the Indian attacks upon Fort Henry, and this wound caused him to limp slightly for the balance of his life.
Among the other landed possessions of James Caldwell, the elder, was that portion of Wheeling Island lying south of a line running west across the Island from the center of Wheeling creek, which included all of what is now popularly known as "Stone Town" and the West Vir- ginia "Exposition Grounds. His right to this part of the Island was sold by him to Ebenezer Zane, the elder, who procured a patent for the whole of the Island, after purchasing the right of James Caldwell, the elder.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.