The following information has been provided by Lee Culwell.

The oldest Caldwell ancestor we have traced is James Caldwell (b. January 10, 1803). He moved to Fayetteville, AR from Tennessee in 1834 with his wife, Almedia Nixon Caldwell and their six small children. Child number seven, Elizabeth, was born the year following their move to Arkansas and child number eight, Hezekiah, was born just a little over a year later. About two weeks after the birth of the eighth child, his wife passed away. This left him with eight small children under the age of ten. About six months later, James married Nancy Lamar. Together they had nine children giving James Caldwell a total of seventeen children, fourteen of them boys.
 
 

The children of James & Almedia Nixon Caldwell NAME BIRTHDAY GENDER Thomas July12,1826 M   Francis Marion Oct / Dec.? 1827 M   William Dec.27,1828 M   John Aug.25,1830 M   Joshua Mar. 14,1832 M   Martha Ann Oct. 9, 1833 F   Elizabeth Oct. 9, 1835 F   Hezekiah Dec. 4, 1836 M

The children of James & Nancy Lamar Caldwell NAME BIRTHDAY GENDER James Nov. 21,1838 M   Andrew Jackson July 16, 1840 M   Sarah Almedia April 21, 1842 F   Martin Van Buren Feb.17, 1844 M   Richard Jasper Newton Jan. 16,1846 M   Allen Wood Jan. 1848 M   Lafayette May 29, 1850 M   Lively Stanford April 24, 1851 M   Dan Wesley April 19,1853 M

      There were two other boys listed in the James Caldwell household on this microfiche. The relationship to James was listed as "relative." We believe these are most likely grandsons:

Will Lafayette-----------Dec. 24, 1858-------M
(this was the "Uncle Will" who raised Henry Gordon)
James Andrew Jackson-May 24, 1860-------M
(we believe this to be Bonnie Culwell's Gandfather)

James lived  near Goshen, AR (at Richland Creek) which is a few miles east of Fayetteville, AR, until the Civil War broke out. He seemed to be a prosperous man. The tax and census records show him having acquired a considerable amount of land and slaves.  Sometime around 1860-1861, he moved to Fannan County, TX. When the war was over in 1865, he moved back to Goshen, AR and continued to acquire land. He passed away in 1880 and is buried in the Goshen Cemetery.

FRANCIS MARION CALDWELL

James' second child, Francis Marion, born in 1827 (most likely in Tennessee where his father seems to have been living at the time), married Phebe Williams in June 23,1848. Francis is listed in the 1850 census as a school teacher and as having only one son, James. He is listed in tax records up until 1856 as having owned land, cattle, and horses . It seems that he probably went to Texas before his father did (later records show he had children born in Texas at that time); however, we have been unable to find any other records mentioning Francis Marion Caldwell. Phebe Williams Caldwell (P. Caldwell) is listed in the 1870 census with several of their children, but there is no mention of Francis M. Caldwell. Following is a listing of the children of Francis Marion and Phebe Williams Caldwell. Keep in mind that there could be other children that had already left home at the time the census was taken.
 
 

Judging from the fact that "M.C." was listed as being born in Arkansas and "R. W." was listed as being born in Texas, it appears that Francis and Phebe moved to Texas sometime between 1855 and 1857.  Perhaps James followed him to Texas when the war began.

We did find a Francis M. Caldwell in the 1900 Texas census, born in December 1827 in Tennessee, age 72. Living with him is a wife, Elizabeth, age 51, five children ages 12 to 26, and a brother Thomas, age 62, born in Tennessee in September of 1837. Could this be our Francis M., the school teacher? If it is, his brother Thomas should be age 84 instead of 62, and bom in July of 1826.

FRANCIS M. (F.M.) CALDWELL

Francis M. and Phebe Williams Caldwell had a son, bom in Texas in 1859, whose name was also Francis M. [hereafter referred to as F.M. to avoid confusion]. The middle initial "M" may represent a name other than Marion since there is never any mention of a Jr. suffx in any of the records we have found on F.M.

F.M. was listed in the 1870 census with his mother and other siblings. In the 1880 census, taken in August, we found F.M. listed as a laborer working for a widow lady, Lucinda Orrick (age 55), south of Ozark, AR. We think this may be the Lucinda who was married to Joshua Caldwell in the 1850 census in Washington County, Arkansas. We think there is a good chance that Joshua is a brother to James. That would put F.M. working for his great aunt.

In December of 1880, he married "Oma" (nickname) Choate. Her two given names were Navina and Naoma; however, we do not know in what order they were. F.M. and Oma had four children:
 

NAME	BORN	DIED
William Newton "Uncle Bill" Caldwell	July 14, 1881	Jan 8, 1959
Henry Gordon Caldwell	Dec. 23, 1884	Feb. 19, 1961
Francis Manville Caldwell	1886	Unknown
Connie M. (Moore)	Sept. 22, 1888	April 17, 1930

We have not been able to fnd any more information on F.M. at this point. Family lore tells us that he moved back to Texas, married an Indian, and raised another family; however, we have been unable to document any of this. Shortly after the birth of the fourth child, Naoma become sick and passed away in the state hospital. F.M. had a cousin, named Will Lafayette Caldwell (known as "Uncle Will"), who married Naoma's younger sister, Clara Etta Choate. They had no children of their own, but took F.M. and Naoma's four children to raise. Uncle Will and Aunt Et are listed with the three younger children in the 1900 census in Piney Township, Cleburne County, AR. The oldest son, William is listed as a border with someone else, which means he was probably working for someone and staying with them.