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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Saline County, Arkansas published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1889.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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Judge H. T. Caldwell, of the firm of H. T. Caldwell & Co., general merchants at Benton, Ark., was born in Callaway County, Mo., in 1840, and is a son of Maj. Robert A. and Mary R. (Holman) Caldwell, who were born in Bourbon County, Ky., in 1814, and Christian County, Ky., in 1820, respectively. The parents were married in Callaway County, Mo., in 1838, and in 1857 removed to Southwestern Missouri, where they resided until 1861, then changing their location to Washington County, Ark. In 1869 they moved to Sebastian County, where the father died in 1888; the mother still survives. Both parents were members of the Presbyterian Church, in which the father had been an elder for many years. He was a farmer and very prosperous in that calling, and during the Blackhawk War held the rank of major. His father was Capt. Thomas Caldwell, of South Carolina, who moved to Kentucky when a young man, and in 1810 was married in that State. The latter Caldwell was one of the earliest settlers of Callaway County, Mo., having gone there in 1826, and there he resided until his death in 1866. He was an extensive farmer and manufacturer of pottery, and also served in the Blackhawk War with distinction. In Masonic circles he stood high, and in religious belief belonged to the Presbyterian Church, of which he was a ruling elder about forty years. His father, Robert Caldwell, was a native of Scotland, who came to America and settled in South Carolina before the Revolutionary War, in which he afterward served. He also spent the latter days of his life in Missouri, where he was a substantial and highly esteemed citizen. Thomas Caldwell was a cousin of John C. Calhoun’s mother. The maternal grandfather, Henry Holman, was a native of Kentucky, who moved to Missouri in 1826, and died there in 1872. He was a farmer and wheelwright by occupation, and in religious faith a Baptist. He was a son of Edward Holman, a native of Wales, who came to the United States at an early period and served in the Revolutionary War. The latter resided in Kentucky for a number of years, but moved to Missouri in 1826, and lived there until the time of his decease in 1838. Judge H. T. Caldwell, the subject of this sketch, was the oldest in a family of four sons and three daughters born to his parents, and was reared on his father’s farm. He was educated in the public schools of Missouri, and received a good English training, passing an uneventful life until the rebellion, when he joined Company A, of Gen. Fagan’s staff, in which he served for two years, and was assigned to the quartermaster’s department. During the last year of the war he held the rank of major, and had charge of the State pottery factory in Louisiana when Allen was Governor of that State. After the war he carried on the pottery business in Sebastian County, Ark., until 1870, when he moved to Benton, Saline County, Ark., there continuing the same business until 1872. Since then he has engaged in commercial life, and is at this time one of the leading merchants and most popular tradesman in Saline County. The firm was established in 1872, and now carry a fine stock of goods valued at about $4,000, their patronage being one of the largest in the county. Mr. Caldwell was married in 1865 to Miss Sallie Martin, a daughter of Seaborn J. and Sarah Martin, of Georgia, who moved to Columbia County, Ark., about the year 1846, where the father died in 1882, while the mother is still living in that county (now Nevada County). Mr. and Mrs. Caldwell reside in one of the finest residences in Benton, and have an interesting family of five children, all of whom have been educated at the best schools in Arkansas. In politics Mr. Caldwell is a stanch Democrat. He is a member of Benton Lodge No. 32, A. F. & A. M., and Saline Lodge No. 1319, K. of H., being dictator of the latter. He and wife belong to the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, but he formerly attended the old school Presbyterian and Mrs. Caldwell the Methodist Church, and both are liberal contributors to all religious and educational enterprises. Judge Caldwell has been a ruling elder in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church for the past twenty-five years, and superintendent of the most flourishing Sunday-school in the county for eighteen consecutive years. Out of this have grown two other flourishing Sunday-schools, and hundreds of children from the schools have gone into the different churches. This he deems his life work, and in it he loves to labor.

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This family biography is one of 100 biographies included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Saline County, Arkansas published in 1889.  For the complete description, click here: Saline County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

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