| James Parks Caldwell "True to Principle" March 27, 1841 - April 5, 1912 |
| Born: March 27, 1841 A.B., Miami University: 1857 teacher, Mississippi: 1858-59 principal, Palmetto Academy, Panola County, Miss.: 1860, 1865-66 Private and First Lieutenant of artillery, Confederate States Army admitted to the bar, Mississippi: 1866 attorney, San Bernardino, Calif. and Los Angeles: 1867-75 edited newspapers in Ohio practiced law in Gulfport and Biloxi, Miss.: 1887-1912 Died: April 5, 1912 Buried: Biloxi Cemetery, Biloxi, Miss. |
| There are two particular points easily remembered about Founder James Parks Caldwell: He was only 14 years old when he helped launch Sigma Chi, and he was the only one of the Founders on the side of the Confederacy in the War Between the States. His everlasting fidelity to principle, despite opportunity for personal gain, lends a most memorable quality to the lineage of Sigma Chi.
Although born and raised in the North he had gone to Panola County, Mississippi, in 1858 and made his home there. So it was perfectly natural that he should join the forces of his adopted state. Four of the other Founders (Bell, Cooper, Lockwood, and Runkle) were in the Union Armies. At Shiloh, Caldwell and Runkle were in the opposing armies. The little cross-roads village of Monroe, in Butler County, Ohio, was the birthplace of James Parks Caldwell. This event took place on March 27, 1841, making him the youngest of the Founders by four years; Scobey, the next youngest, was 18 years old. He was the son of Dr. William W. Caldwell and Isabella H. Parks Caldwell. They had eight children, four sons and four daughters. After practicing medicine in Monroe for 17 years Dr. Caldwell moved to Hamilton, Ohio (only 10 miles distant). He practiced medicine there until his death in 1892. He was a long-time friend and associate in Hamilton of Dr. William H. Scoby, the father of Franklin Howard Scoby. Young Caldwell tooks to books like a duck takes to water. By the time he was 13 years old the principal of the local academy at Monroe told Dr. Caldwell that the boy had covered everything that could be offered there. This, in spite of the fact that the course included considerable Latin and some advanced mathematics! Apparently he entered Miami with some advanced credits because he was graduated from there in three years. Sigma Chi was founded in the room then occupied by Caldwell and Runkle on the second floor of the building on the corner of the public square in Oxford, the building now regarded as Sigma Chi's birthplace. The college story is completed in the records of Dr. Caldwell by this proud entry: "Parks graduated on Friday, May 15, 1857, aged 16 years, one month and 18 days." Following his graduation, Caldwell began to study law in the office of Judge James Clark at Hamilton. Meanwhile he considered a move South. Judge Clark had some family connections in Panola County, Mississippi, and Caldwell made plans to take up teaching there. The entry in Dr. Caldwell's journal again tells its own story as the boy took his first long trip away from home: "J. P. C. left Hamilton October 7, 1858, for Mississippi. Reached Memphis October 16. Left Memphis for Panola, October 21. God bless my dear son." Caldwell, in a short time, became principal of the Palmetto Academy, located a few miles west of Como, and was so engaged when the war broke out. Caldwell enlisted at the age of 20 in the Confederate Artillery. His active service took place in Mississippi and Louisiana at Iuka, Corinth, Shiloh, and Port Hudson. He was captured in July 1863, became a prisoner of war and so remained until the close of the war. Much of his time as a prisoner was spent at Johnson's Island, in Lake Erie, near Sandusky, Ohio. It was here that occurred the incident known to all initiates: "While a prisoner of war, he was offered his freedom on condition that he renounce his allegiance to the Southern Confederacy, but fidelity to principle caused him to remain true to the Southland." At the war's end Caldwell came back to Hamilton for a while. But the call of the South returned him to Mississippi and he was again principal of Palmetto Academy in 1865 and 1866. In the latter year he was admitted to the bar in Mississippi. He later decided to go to California, and seems to have alternated at Los Angeles and San Bernardino between the legal profession and journalistic work. Being a bachelor, he was again overcome by wanderlust and he re- turned to Mississippi, then to Wyoming and finally, in 1888, back to Mississippi "for keeps." His remaining years were spent in Mississippi City, Gulfport, and Biloxi, in all three of which he stuck to the practice of law and made quite a name for himself. He was a recognized authority on land law, particularly as to problems of title going back to the days when the Gulf Coast was under the control of France and Spain, first under one and then the other. His death came on April 5, 1912, at Biloxi. In his room at the Kennedy Hotel were found the latest issues of The Sigma Chi Quarterlyand Bulletin. He was laid to rest in the old and beautiful Biloxi Cemetery on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico. A group of distinguished members of the Fraternity gathered in this cemetery in 1930 at the dedication of the Founders' Memorial Monument. |
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