Andrew J. Caldwell, Bienville Parish, Louisiana Submitted by Mike Miller ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ************************************************ ************************************************ Andrew Caldwell. One of the noble and well ordered institutions maintained by the State of Louisiana is the State School for the Blind at Baton Rouge, and as superintendent of the same Andrew J. Caldwell is giving a most earnest and efficient administration, in which he has spared no effort to bring the school up to the best modern standard in scholastic provisions and in the care of those committed thereto. Andrew Johnson Caldwell was born in Bienville Parish. Louisiana, in September, 1879, and is a son of John D. Caldwell, who now resides at Mount Lebanon, that parish. John D. Caldwell was born in the State of Alabama, in 1846, and was about four years of age at the time of the family removal to Bienville Parish. Louisiana, where he was reared to manhood and where he has continuously maintained his home. He was too young to enter service at the inception of the Civil war, but was a gallant soldier of the Confederacy, during the final year or the great conflict between the states of the North and the South. He has been prominently and successfully identified with agricultural industry in Bienville Parish for many years, but is now living virtually retired. He is a stalwart democrat, and he and his wife are zealous members of the Baptist Church. Mrs. Caldwell, whose maiden name was Cordelia Whitley, has been a resident of Bienville Parish from the time of her birth, which there occurred in the year 1850. Of the children the eldest is Dora, who is the wife of John K. McCoy, of Saline, Bienville Parish. Beadie became the wife of William T. Blackewood, now a farmer in Texas and her death occurred at friendship, Louisiana, in 1907; William Augustus us a prosperous farmer near Esterline, Texas; Andrew J., of this sketch, was the next in order of birth. James E. is professor of education and philosophy in Louisiana College at Pineville; Stephen A. holds the professorial chair of economics in the Louisiana Institute of Technology at Ruston; Mattie Lou is the wife of Leo Daniel, who is engaged in the insurance business at Arcadia, this state; and Hattie D. is the wife of Eugene Houston, of Monroe, Ouachita Parish. In the public schools of his native parish Andrew J. Caldwell continued his studies until he had completed the curriculum of the high school at Arcadia, and in 1905 he was graduated from the Southern Normal School at Bowling Green, Kentucky. Thereafter he served four years as principal of the high school at Gibsland, Louisiana; during the ensuing seven years he was principal of the high school at Hammond; and thereafter he gave an effective administration of two years as superintendent of the public schools of the City of Shreveport. He then established his residence in the City of Baton Rouge, where he became a member of the representative firm of the Everett School Supply Company, dealers in school supplies, and he is still an interested principal in this enterprise. In August, 1921, the State Board of Education appointed Mr. Caldwell to his present responsible office, that of superintendent of the Louisiana State School for the Blind, and his administration is fully justifying his selection for this executive and scholastic position. Mr. Caldwell is aligned in the ranks of the democratic party, and he and his wife are zealous members of the First Baptist Church of Baton Rouge, in which he is serving (1924) as a deacon and as superintendent of the Sunday School. In his home city he is affiliated with Capital Lodge No. 399, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and he is an active member of the Baton Rouge Chamber of Commerce. In the summer of 1922 Mr. Caldwell received from the Louisiana State University the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He maintains active membership in the Louisiana State Teachers Association, of which he was president in 1917-18, and he maintains affiliation also with the Louisiana Commission for the Blind, the National Association of Instructors for the Blind, and the National Association of Workers for the Blind, besides which he is a member of the advisory committee of the Louisiana Associated Workers for the Blind. December 29, 1909, recorded the marriage of Mr. Caldwell and Miss Mattie Pope, daughter of the late Rev. Solomon J. and Dora (Mays) Pope, the father having been a clergyman of the Baptist Church. Mrs. Caldwell was graduated from the Southern Normal School at Bowling Green, Kentucky, and prior to her marriage had devoted five years to teaching in the schools of Kentucky. Mr. and Mrs. Caldwell have no children. A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), p. 39, by Henry E. Chambers. Published by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925.