NameJames Ross CALDWELL 914
Birth PlaceClearfield County, PA, USA
Residence PlaceCurwensville, Clearfield Co., PA, USA
Residence MemoThe 74-year old widower is living with his son Merritt’s family.
Residence Date29 Jun 1900916 Age: 64
Residence PlaceCurwensville, Clearfield Co., PA, USA
Residence MemoThe 64-year old widower is living with his son Merritt’s family.
Death Date28 Dec 1928917 Age: 93
Death PlaceClearfield County, PA, USA
Burial PlaceOak Hill Cemetery, Curwensville, Clearfield Co., PA, USA917
OccupationJustice of the Peace; Farmer
OccupationOwn Income in 1910915
Misc. Notes
One of the representative men of Pike Township, a former justice of the peace and now a retired farmer. lives on the place on which he was born, July 7, 1835. He has 112 acres of valuable land lying two miles south of Curwensville, Pa. James R. Caldwell attended school at Bloomington until he was old enough to do his share of the farming in the summer time and partake of the hard labors that attended lumbering in the winter season. For many years before he retired from active labor he followed farming and stock raising and was known as one of the leading agriculturists of Pike Township, and still is a member of Lawrence Grange.
Mr. Caldwell is a stockholder in the Curwensville National Bank [Organized by John Patton (1823) in 1864]. He has traveled a great deal having been east as far as the Atlantic Ocean; west as far as the Pacific Ocean; north as far as the Great Lakes and south as far as the Gulf of Mexico.
Mr. Caldwell belongs to the Masons and the Odd Fellows. He is a Democrat in politics and has filled many township offices, for ten years being a justice of the peace in Pike Township.
918__________
James R. Caldwell, the youngest son, who now owns the old homestead, is one of the most prominent citizens of Pike township. Soon after arriving at the age of 21 he was elected Justice of the Peace, which office he held fourteen years. During his incumbency as ’Squire he united 45 couples in marriage, thus, perhaps, causing more happiness than any other man who ever was a citizen of Pike township. He was married to Harriet Cary, and has one son, Merritt A., married to Nora Gearhart, and one daughter, Rilla.
919____________
[A “James R. Caldwell, Esq.” and “J. R. Caldwell, Esq.” is identified in this source as performing numerous marriages 1862-1865.]
920 __________
A story often handed down by tradition and told by his grandson James Ross Caldwell is: “When William Bloom was called to the military service, two men came to notify him. While he was getting his things together to go with them, his wife cast bullets for his muzzle loading gun and after he left, she went to the field to continue the plowing with an oxen team.”
921____________
Besides carrying on their farming operations, J. R. Caldwell, John Holden and J. H. Shurily have excellent veins of coal opened, which they deliver to Curwensville and other points to supply the local demand.
922____________
According to the Hugh & Jane Boyd Caldwell history I got from the HistSoc, the only children who lived past childhood were; daughters; Elizabeth born 1812, Anna 1813, Jane 1814, Mary, 1815, Margery 1817, Harriet 1837; and sons; Isaac 1819, Bishop 1826, Reuben 1828,
James R., 1835.
729Note: This is six daughters and four sons of the twenty children in all that mother Mary Bloom Caldwell reportedly had.
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