Family History Report

Descendants of John Caldwell (1787-1871) and Rebecca Hedges (1799-

1877) of Ohio County, West Virginia

Submitted by direct descendant Fredrica W Kinnard

© Fredrica W Kinnard, Lockhart, TX, USA, July 2017

All right reserved

My great grandmother, Ida Mary “Nellie” Caldwell Rosenman Lovece, was born in

West Liberty, Ohio County, West Virginia in 1872. She is the reason I began to

search for Caldwell family history.

She came to Texas with her parents, William Henry “Dad” and Clarinda “Granny”

Hupp Caldwell, and her siblings in the mid-1880’s. Her siblings were Flora Bell

“Dibby” Caldwell, James W. Caldwell, Harry John Caldwell, and Eva May “Betty”

Caldwell. The family traveled first to East Texas where Dad had purchased some

land sight unseen. The family became ill with fever, so they moved to Kerrville,

and then to Rio Medina, west of San Antonio. Dad and Granny finally settled near

the Texas coast town of Dickinson. Ida Mary “Nellie” married Isaac Rosenman in

San Antonio, Texas. Her only child, Esther May “Peg” Rosenman was born in San

Antonio when Ida Mary was seventeen years old.

From 1944 until her death in San Antonio in1962, Nellie lived first with her

daughter Esther, my mother’s mother, near the town of Lockhart, Texas, and then

with my parents, my siblings, and myself in San Antonio. Nellie told me stories of

her life in West Virginia with her parents. One story she told was about her

younger sister Eva May “Betty” Caldwell. One day when Nellie and Betty were

working in the family garden, Betty became tired and wanted Nellie to finish her

share of the chore. Dad chided Betty with the phrase that became a family staple:

“Hoe your row to the end, Betty.” When I was a teenager, Nellie would ask me to

play my guitar and sing Stephen Foster songs for her. Her favorite song was “Carry

Me Back to Old Virginny,” because she said it reminded her of home. I sang it so

often that I still remember the tune and the words at MY advanced present age of

73 years.

William Henry “Dad” Caldwell, August 26, 1846 – January 12, 1928

photo from tintype – location West Virginia

Married Clarinda Hupp on March 14, 1866

William Henry “Dad” Caldwell

from tintype

Clarinda Hupp Caldwell, October 8, 1848 – February 9, 1933

Dad and Granny in the 1920’s in Dickinson, Texas

Children of William Henry and Clarinda in descending birth order:

Flora Bell “Dibby” Caldwell Huston Bolton, May 11, 1867 - November 1, 1941

James W Caldwell, February 6, 1869 – February 6, 1946

Ida Mary “Nellie” Caldwell Rosenman Lovece, April 17, 1872 – February 19, 1962

Harry John Caldwell, July 23, 1876 – September 19, 1962

Eva May “Betty” Caldwell McColloch, November 8, 1878 - May 15, 1974

Many questions about their lives in West Virginia came to my mind once I was an

adult, but it was too late to ask. It has only been recently that I have been in a

position to find some answers. When I had the occasion to travel to the Carolinas

and the Virginias in May, 2017, I decided that I would drive to Wheeling and West

Liberty to conduct some research.

After searching the Web, I found Linda Fluharty of WVGenWeb. She shared with

me the links to several of her genealogy websites. I discovered a wealth of

information on those websites. The lists of names from cemeteries around the

area of Wheeling and West Liberty were particularly useful.

Unfortunately for me, I had limited time and funds to stay in the area. I went first

to the genealogy research room of the Ohio County Library in Wheeling. I was

dismayed when I arrived there to find the building undergoing repairs for a major

water leak, and to find the librarian assigned to the reference room

understandably distracted. I did, however, find documentation that proved my

great grandmother’s belief that “Dad” had worked at the courthouse at one time,

as several Wheeling City Directories listed a William H. Caldwell as a County

Commissioner for the Richland District in the 1870’s.

Following my library visit, I ventured across the street to the Ohio County

Courthouse, where I went to look up deed records. Oh my goodness, there were

20+ PAGES! of Caldwell deed records, so I finally gave up on that and walked

across the hall to the Tax Assessor’s office, hoping that they might have old parcel

maps that would give me clues as to exactly where my ancestors had lived. The

computer person who works on maps told me there were no digitized records

going back to the 1850’s, but that I could look at a large map that is displayed on

the wall near the door. Sure enough, on that old parcel map, I found familiar

names around West Liberty in the Richland and Liberty Districts.

Determined to make my way to my great grandmother’s birth place, at least, I

drove slowly through the hills north of Wheeling. When I arrived at the village of

West Liberty, I was surprised that there seemed to be none of the town

infrastructure to which I am accustomed – no gasoline station or grocery store

that I saw. I was searching for a place to find some lunch, so I stopped at what

looked like an eating place, but it was closed. There were a couple of cars parked

at the curb, however, so I ventured around the corner and into a sort-of

convenience store, searching for some snacks. There I hit the jackpot when the

woman behind the counter, Cindy Johnstone, befriended me. As I explained that I

had driven all the way from Texas to this little village of West Liberty, West

Virginia, because my great grandmother was born here and I wanted to see the

area and the graves of some of my ancestors, she said that I had stopped at the

right place. She said she knew just the person who could help me, picked up her

cell phone, and called the local cemetery records person, a man named Earl

Nicodemus. It was not long before Earl walked in with a binder of documents

under his arm. I told him I wanted to see the Caldwell gravesites (which I knew

existed there from Linda Fluharty’s WVGenWeb pages). Earl opened his binder

and showed me the Caldwell records. Since the cemetery is just down the hill

from the corner store where we were, Earl and I walked to it. He consulted his

paperwork, we searched around, and we finally found two of the three Caldwell

gravestones that were listed.

grave marker list showing Caldwell plots

Earl Nicodemus in the West Liberty cemetery

Pictured below is the grave marker of John Caldwell in the West Liberty cemetery.

Sadly, the date on the marker was not legible, but the records shown to me by

Earl Nicodemus indicate that this is the grave marker of the John Caldwell who

was my 3x great grandfather, who died in 1872, who was the father of William

Henry “Dad” Caldwell.

Pictured below is the grave marker in the West Liberty cemetery of a James

Caldwell who died in 1826, and who may have been the uncle of the John

Caldwell who was my 3x great grandfather.

The town of West Liberty, West Virginia, looking more or less southwest

Pictured below is the tree of William Henry Caldwell, my great, great grandfather,

who was married to Clarinda Hupp of Hupp, Cox, and Atkinson descent. It shows

William’s siblings and their parents, John and Rebecca Hedges Caldwell.

When I returned home from my trip to West Virginia, I looked again in my great

grandmother’s photos and found something I had overlooked before. It was a

letter to William Henry from his older brother, Joseph, who had stayed behind in

West Liberty when William Henry moved to Texas with his wife and children. That

two-page letter, pictured next, contains wonderful information about the state of

affairs in West Liberty in 1894.

Pictured below is the tree of Joseph Caldwell showing some of the people he

wrote about in his 1894 letter.

Pictured below is a chart showing the line of descent to me from William Henry

Caldwell.

Pictured below is a chart showing the line of descent to me from Clarinda Hupp

Caldwell.

Can it be that the John Caldwell (1758-1842) whose signature appears on a

document alongside the names of illustrious men of the 1782 siege of Fort Henry

is my 4x great grandfather?

REF: photo I took of a page in a book on the history of Wheeling that I found in the Ohio County Library

Pictured below is a marker at the location of Fort Henry in Wheeling, West

Virginia.

To Anyone who reads this document: If you have corrections or more

information, please contact me at fwk2005@gmail.com.

My DNA is recorded with Ancestry and with 23andme. I would dearly love to find

someone who can help me prove my ancestry beyond my 3x great grandfather,

John Caldwell (1787-1871).