James R. Caldwell, one of the representative men of Pike Township, a former justice of the peace and now a retired farmer, lives on the place on which he was born, July 7, 1835. He has 112 acres of valuable land lying two miles south of Curwensville, Pa. His parents were Matthew and Mary (Bloom) Caldwell.

Matthew Caldwell was born June 13, 1787, in Lancaster County, Pa., a son of Hugh Caldwell, who married Jane Boyd who was born in Ireland. They came to Clearfield County in 1805, settling in Pike Township, near Center Church, on land that is now owned by William Lawhead. At this time Matthew Caldwell was a young man and shortly afterward was married to Mary Bloom, who was a daughter of William Bloom, Sr., who had come to Clearfield County as the pioneer of this numerous and prominent family, in 1801. In 1819 Matthew Caldwell moved on the farm in Pike Township, which is now the property of his son, James R., having to cut a road through the dense forest in order to reach his property. He was a man of endurance and enterprise and lived into old age on the farm that he had developed out of the wilderness. His death occurred April 24, 1869, when he was eighty-one years old and his burial was on his own land, and when his wife passed away she was laid by his side. She was born September 25, 1792, and died May 17, 1877, having been the mother of twenty children, as follows: Elizabeth, Annie, Jane, Mary, Margie, Isaac, Samuel, three infants, deceased, Hannah, Nancy, Gary B., Reuben, Lavina, Matthew, Sarah, J. R., Harriet and Theresa. For forty years Matthew Caldwell was an elder in the Presbyterian church.

James R. Caldwell attended school at Bloomington until he was old enough to do his share of the farming in the summer time and partake of the hard labors that attended lumbering in the winter season. For many years before he retired from active labor he followed farming and stock raising and was known as one of the leading agriculturists of Pike Township, and still is a member of Lawrence Grange. Mr. Caldwell is a stockholder in the Curwensville National Bank. He has traveled a great deal having been east as far as the Atlantic Ocean; west as far as the Pacific Ocean; north as far as the Great Lakes and south as far as the Gulf of Mexico. In January, 1868, Mr. Caldwell was married to Hannah Carey, who was born in Jefferson County, Pa., and died August 3, 1872. Her burial was in the Clearfield Cemetery. Mr. Caldwell has two children: Merritt A., who operates one of his father's farms, is in the coal business by lease and stockholder and a director of the Curwensville National Bank, married Nora Gearhart, of Huntingdon County, and they have one child, Attie; and Merilla, who is the wife of W. R. McGowen, of Monessen, Pa. Mr. Caldwell belongs to the Masons and the Odd Fellows. He is a Democrat in politics and has filled many township offices, for ten years being a justice of the peace in Pike Township.

 
Source: Twentieth century history of Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, and representative citizens by Roland D. Swoope; Chicago, Ill. : Richmond- Arnold Publishing, 1911. FHL Film 1035696  

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