Family Stories

John Caldwell Biography

from History of Bourbon, Scott, Harrison and Nicholas Counties, Kentucky, Perrin, 1882

Bourbon County

John Caldwell, auctioneer and salesman; P. O. Paris; is a grandson of William Caldwell, the “pioneer’.  He was a native of North Ireland, and emigrated to America prior to the Revolutionary War, in which he participated, and was wounded at the Battle of Brandywine.  He was among the hardy pioneers who came to Kentucky when the buffalo and other wild game were plentiful.  He located on the Houston, one mile west of the Court House.  Some of the land he then purchased is now occupied by the cemetery and fair grounds.  He was among the first merchants in Paris, and finally he removed to the place above described, and engaged in farming and distilling; lands he then purchased for a mere trifle will now command hundreds of dollars per acre.  He died about the year 1829, aged seventy-five years; he had but one son, Samuel J., who was the father of John; his daughters were:  Ann E., wife of Dr. Joseph Holt, who was well known as a physician and politician; as a stump speaker he was also well known; Sallie married Benjamin Warfield; Betsey, Samuel Hall; Lucretia, wife of Luther Smith, who was the founder of Houston Seminary.  Samuel Caldwell, father of John, was raised in Paris and clerked in a store; upon coming to maturity he went to Cynthiana, Harrison County, Kentucky.  Samuel Caldwell served two terms under Captain Garrard, in the War of 1812; his death occurred in 1831, at the age of forty.  He had but two children born to him, William and John; the former went to California, and there died in 1850.  John was born March 15, 1817, in Cynthiana, and came to Bourbon County when a young man, and has since been well known in the county as an auctioneer, being one of the oldest auctioneers in the county, having no superior as a salesman.

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