BIOGRAPHY: John T. CALDWELL, Mifflin County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by P. S. Barr 

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The Commemorative Biographical Encyclopedia of the Juniata Valley, Comprising 
the Counties of Huntingdon, Mifflin, Juniata, and Perry, Pennsylvania.
Chambersburg, Pa.: J. M. Runk & Co., 1897, Volume I, pages 529-530.

  JOHN T. CALDWELL, retired farmer, Wayne township, Mifflin county, Pa., was 
born January 21, 1825, in Granville township, Mifflin county.  He is a son of 
Andrew and Mary (Woods) Caldwell.  His father, Andrew Caldwell, was born in 
County Tyrone, Ireland, and coming to America, engaged extensively in farming 
and stock raising.  He owned over 340 acres of land, on which he made great 
improvements.  He was married in Lancaster county to Mary Woods.  They had six 
children, as follows:  William, deceased;  Franklin, also deceased;  Rebecca 
(Mrs. Joseph Strode), of Mifflin, deceased;  Andrew, a resident of Ottawa 
county, Kansas;  Mary A., the widow of Woods Tremble;  and John T.  Andrew 
Caldwell died when his son John T. was quite young.  Mrs. Caldwell died at a 
later period, at Strodes Mills.  She was a member of the Presbyterian church.  
Andrew Campbell was a Democrat.
  John T. Caldwell attended the public schools of Granville township.  He worked 
on the homestead farm for his mother until he was eighteen years of age, when he 
took that portion of the farm situated nearest to McVeytown, and farmed it for 
seven years.  Selling out at the expiration of this time, he came to Wayne 
township, where he bought 265 acres, built on his land a fine dwelling house and 
made other improvements.  He made farming his business for life, giving special 
attention to raising fine stock and dealing in the same.  In 1892 he retired.
  In 1855 Mr. Caldwell was married, in Wayne township, to Mary Koplin, born in 
Mifflin county, daughter of David Koplin, deceased, a farmer, of Scotch-Irish 
descent.  The children are:  Nancy (Mrs. John Parker), residing near Pittsburg, 
Pa.;  William S., a resident of Ottawa county, Kas.;  Alice (Mrs. George Drake);  
David, married Alice McVey, and now resides on the homestead farm;  Sarah (Mrs. 
Isaac Pyle), of Altoona;  and Rebecca J.   Mr. Caldwell's faithful and loving 
partner died on the homestead farm in the year 1884.  Mr. Caldwell is a man of 
sterling integrity and honor and a power in the community, in which he is 
universally respected.  He takes a deep interest in popular education and 
whatever is to the advantage of our social system.  As a school director, which 
position he filled for several years, he did much for the good of the schools.  
He has also filled the office of township assessor.  He is a staunch Republican.  
He is an active, earnest member of the Presbyterian congregation at Newton 
Hamilton, taking a deep interest in church matters.  During the Civil war Mr. 
Caldwell was drafted, and furnished a substitute.  Wayne township contains no 
more worthy or enterprising man than John T. Caldwell.  Left without a father's 
care in early life, he is emphatically a self-made and self-educated man.  In 
the leisurely, retired life which he now leads, he makes frequent trips to the 
west, where he has in the State of Kansas 460 acres of good land highly 
cultivated.
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TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE:  At the end of paragraph one, the author refers to an Andrew 
"Campbell".  I believe that this is a typo and should read Andrew "Caldwell".