My Genealogy Hound

ANDREW ROBESON CALDERWOOD, attorney at law, Greenville; another of the old settlers of Darke Co.; born in Montgomery Co., Ohio, Sept. 14, 1818, and was a son of George and Margaret (Robeson) Calderwood, natives of Huntingdon Co., Penn. They were married Sept. 14, 1811; in the fall of 1817, they removed to near Dayton, Ohio, and from there, in 1832, to Darke Co., where George Calderwood died Sept. 7, 1849; his wife survived him until Aug. 12, 1873, when her decease occurred. George Calderwood was of Scotch parents, and, though uneducated, was a man of sound judgment, great firmness and very courageous; of large stature and possessed an iron constitution; he was kind and generous to a fault. Margaret Robeson descended from Scotch, Welsh and Irish ancestry, and was a woman of remarkable good sense, fine natural talent and great kindness. Our subject was employed in early life-upon the farm, digging ditches, mauling rails, etc.; his education was meager; being called upon to serve as juror, he was so inspired by the eloquence of some of the attorneys in the case that he resolved to become a lawyer, and at once commenced the study of the same, being admitted to the bar and commenced the practice of law in 1851. Was elected Probate Judge in 1854; after serving three years, he entered the Union army as Second Lieutenant; was promoted Captain of Co. I, 40th O. V. I.; resigned his commission on account of injuries received from being thrown from a horse; on regaining his health he was recommissioned as Captain by Gov. Tod, and, by Col. Cranor, assigned to the command of his old company; after six months’ service, in the above position, by loss of his voice and previous injuries he was again compelled to leave the active service of the army and acted in the capacity of recruiting officer until the close of the war, after which he again resumed the practice of the law. On Dec. 3, 1876, he assumed the editorial control of the Sunday Courier, a leading organ of the Republican party of Darke Co. He has been three times elected Mayor of Greenville, and, in 1868, the Republicans of Darke Co. presented his name in the Fourth Congressional District of Ohio, his opponent, Mr. McClung, being nominated by a small majority over Judge Calderwood. He has a liberal share of the practice in this county, and enjoys somewhat more than a local reputation as a criminal lawyer; at the forum, his abilities are best shown; he has an original faculty of developing a subject by a single glance of the mind, detecting as quickly the point upon which every controversy depends. There is a deep self-conviction and emphatic earnestness in his manner and a close, logical connection in his thoughts; he wears no garlands of flowers to hang in festoons around a favorite argument, yet for impromptu appeals and eloquence he stands among the first in his profession, and, by his great knowledge of human nature, he is acknowledged to be one of the best judges of a jury at the bar.