WHITE CO, AR - CAPT. CALVIN CALKINS WALDO - Bio

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SOURCE:  Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Eastern 
Arkansas. Chicago:Goodspeed Publishers, 1890.                         
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Capt. Calvin Calkins Waldo is a successful gardener and fruit grower,
residing in White County, Ark., and like the majority of people who
claim New York as the State of their nativity, he is enterprising,
intelligent and thrifty. He was born in Genesee County, January 16,
1829, and is a son of Samuel and Mercy (Calkins) Waldo, the former of
French descent and a native of Oneida County, N. Y., where he was born
in 1794. The family belong to the ancient and honored Waldenses family,
and first became represented in America in 1650. Robert and Benjamin
Waldo were private soldiers in a Connecticut regiment during the
Revolution, and in the battle of Brandywine Robert was killed by a
Hessian ball. The maternal ancestors were of Scotch-Irish descent, and
were members of the Primitive Baptist Church and were represented in the
Revolutionary War by the maternal great-grandfather of our subject,
Joshua Calkins, who served as commissary in Gen. Washington's immediate
army from 1775 to 1783. He died in 1838, at the advanced age of
ninety-two years. Daniel Calkins, the paternal grandfather, commanded a
company in the War of 1812, and served six months, but afterward died of
disease contracted while in the service, at the age of fifty-seven
years. The parents of our subject were married about 1827, and became
the parents of six children: Calvin C., Minerva S. (born March 31, 1831,
married Joseph Cooper, of Wyoming County, N. Y.), Permelia (born in
1833, and was married to Moses H. Tyler, of Utica, Ind.), Daniel S.
(born in 1835, and married Mrs. Julia Gardner, of Jonesville, Mich.),
Lloyd Garrison (born in 1837 and died at the age of four years) and
Maria (born in 1839, and married Samuel Cooper, a brother of Joseph
Cooper). Capt. Waldo (our subject) received the education and rearing
which is accorded the majority of farmers' boys, and after attending the
common schools he entered the Perry Center Academy for one year, and at
the age of twenty-three years graduated from Middlebury Academy, a
normal school of good standing. During the winter of 1851-52, previous
to graduating, he taught the district school at La Grange, N. Y., and he
afterward taught a four-months' term at Leroy. During the winters of
1853-54 and 1854-55 he taught school at Elyria, Ohio, and in 1856
immigrated to Jeffersonville, Ind., and in February of that year was
united in marriage to Miss Polly Jane Raymond, a native of Columbia
County, N. Y., and a graduate of Mrs. Willard's Female College of Troy,
N. Y. In her girlhood she was a pupil of Mrs. Lyons, at Mount Holyoke,
Mass., and was a teacher in the Methodist school at Bards-town, Ky., at
the time she formed Mr. Waldo's acquaintance, having previously taught
in a female seminary at Murfreesboro, Tenn. After their marriage they
engaged in teaching a select subscription school in Jeffersonville,
Ind., continuing two years. Mr. Waldo having for some time spent his
leisure moments in the study of law was admitted to the bar of
Charleston, Ind., moving the same [p.255] year to Utica of that State,
where he again began teaching, holding the position of principal of the
schools for the period of one year. In 1859 he opened a female boarding
and day school, of which his wife became principal, but deeming the
facilities for practicing law much better at the county seat, he removed
to Charleston, where he followed the practice of law until the spring of
1861. Upon hearing of the bombardment of Fort Sumter he and others began
immediately to raise a company for the three months' service, and Mr.
Waldo was elected orderly-sergeant and reported with his company to Gov.
Morton, but in consequence of the quota of Indiana being full they were
disbanded. Later Mr. Waldo assisted in raising a company for the
Twenty-second Indiana Regiment, then assisted Capt. Ferguson in raising
a company for the Twenty-third Indiana Regiment. For the money expended
and the service rendered in his patriotic and successful efforts to
serve his country in her dire need he has never received one cent in
compensation, or even a favorable notice. In July, 1861, he, with the
assistance of Cyrus T. Nixon, of Charleston, Ind., raised sixty men for
Company F, Thirty-eighth Regiment Indiana Infantry, and owing to Mr.
Nixon's illness reported in person to Adj-Gen. Noble, of Indianapolis,
who assigned him and his company to camp duty at New Albany, Ind. Here
he was elected captain of his company, known as Company, F;
Thirty-eighth Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry, commanded by Col. B.
F. Scribner, but through the latter's instrumentality he was deposed and
a favorite, Wesley Connor, put in his stead. Owing to the
dissatisfaction caused by these proceedings about two-thirds of the
commissioned officers left the regiment, among whom were Judge Gresham,
who was at that time lieutenant-colonel of the regiment. Many private
soldiers also left the company, the Hon. Lee Clow, now of Hempstead
County, Ark., being among the number. After leaving his command Mr.
Waldo returned to Charleston, and during the remainder of 1861 and the
summer of 1862 he was engaged in the practice of law, but in the latter
year was also engaged in assisting the Hon. W. H. English in recruiting
a regiment, which afterward became the Ninety-fifth Indiana Infantry. He
was commissioned first lieutenant, but relinquished his position to one
of the aspirants of the regiment for promotion, and then began assisting
in raising another company, known as Company I, Eighth Regiment Indiana
Legion, and was chosen orderly-sergeant. The only important service
rendered by this regiment was in repelling Morgan in his raid of 1863,
after which it was disbanded and Mr. Waldo removed with his family to
his native State (New York). Here, after a short time, he enlisted as a
private in Company F, Second New York Veteran Cavalry, was commissioned
captain of provost guard, and was on duty at Lockport, N. Y. In November
he reported to his company, at Geisboro Point, D. C., and February 1,
1864, the regiment embarked on a steamer for New Orleans, La., where
they arrived the same month, being five days over due, on account of a
severe storm. He was with Gen. Banks in the disastrous Red River
campaign, and was seriously injured while making a cavalry charge by his
horse stumbling and falling on him, and as a result, was confined to the
hospital at New Orleans for thirty days, after which he again joined his
regiment, and in February, of the following year, he embarked with his
regiment, at Lake Ponchertrain, for Mobile, and while marching overland
from Barancas Island to that city, they met Gen. Clerndon, of the
Confederate service, whom they defeated, wounded and captured. After
assisting in the reduction of Fort Blakely and Spanish Fort, they routed
and captured a Confederate cavalry force, which had annoyed them during
the siege of Mobile. After the capture of the latter city the regiment
was ordered to Talladega, Ala., where Capt. Waldo was detached from his
company and sent to Jacksonville, Ala., as quartermaster's clerk,
remaining until September, 1865. He was mustered out of service at
Talladega, Ala., November 8, 1865, went to Mobile, and there doffed his
suit of blue and donned citizen's clothes once more. He returned to
Utica, Ind., to which place his family had previously returned. Here his
wife suddenly died, as did also a little son, four years [p.256] old,
leaving his home desolate indeed. During the succeeding three years he
followed teaching and such other occupations as his impaired health
would permit, but his health grew no better, and thinking that a change
of climate might prove beneficial, he removed to Jo Daviess County,
Ill., in the spring of 1869, where he followed teaching and prospected
for lead. In 1872 he went to Osceola, Iowa, and was employed by the
Sioux City & St. Paul Railroad Company, in detecting and bringing to
justice county swindlers, in which he was successful. In the latter part
of the same year he returned to Illinois, where he again engaged in
teaching school. The following year he went to Salem, Iowa, and was
there united in marriage to Miss Elvira Garretson, and in September of
that year he removed to Council Bluffs, Iowa, where he purchased a farm
adjoining the corporation, and began market gardening and fruit raising.
This occupation received his attention for about six years, with the
exception of one year which he spent traveling in the interests of the
Howe Truss Company, being present at the Centennial Exhibition in 1876.
Three years later he again settled in Salem, and in consequence of ill
health, again took up teaching as an occupation, and was also engaged in
canvassing for a book. In 1882 he became a resident of Arkansas,
visiting the famous Ravenden and Eureka Springs in search of health, but
returned to Salem in April, 1882, where he was called upon to mourn the
death of his wife, June 3, after an illness of about three weeks. She
left two children: Grace (born in June, 1874) and Frank S. (born in
February, 1876). Since March, 1884, Mr. Waldo has been a resident of
Beebe, Ark., and has confined his attention to market gardening and
fruit growing. He has been a member of several secret societies, but
through indifference, is not an active member of any at the present
time. He is a Republican, and holds a membership in the Missionary
Baptist Church.