Wilson Swain Caldwell

Life and Orange County connections

Storylines this person is part of, in date order. Each has its own page.

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 14 dated events in the chronology →

1. 1865 Wilson Caldwell walks out with President Swain under a white flag to meet approaching Union troops When Union troops approached Chapel Hill in 1865, Wilson Caldwell walked out under a white flag with President David L. Swain, Judge W. H. Battle and others to meet the incoming cavalry and seek protection for the town and the university. People: William Horn Battle, David L. SwainSearch the index · Carolina Story: Wilson Caldwell (1841-1898), Slavery and the University
2. 1868 Governor Holden appoints Wilson Caldwell a justice of the peace In 1868 Governor William W. Holden appointed Wilson Swain Caldwell a justice of the peace. Caldwell had been enslaved by university president David L. Swain and had worked at the university since boyhood; he taught school for a time before returning to the university in 1875. People: Wilson Swain Caldwell, William W. Holden, David L. SwainDocumenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. 2, pp. 558-559
3. July 1868 (by July 22) Governor Holden appoints about forty temporary justices of the peace for Orange Governor W. W. Holden named about forty men as justices of the peace for Orange County, among them Washington Duke and Wilson Caldwell, to serve until the townships set up under the new constitution could elect their own. The appointees were called to the courthouse in Hillsborough on July 25 to be qualified. People: William W. Holden, Washington Duke, Wilson Swain CaldwellSearch the index · Hillsborough Recorder, July 22, 1868, p. 2
4. 1869 Wilson Caldwell resigns from the university and founds a school for Black children In 1869 Wilson Caldwell, who had worked at the university as an enslaved servant and janitor, resigned and started a school for children of color in Chapel Hill. People: Wilson Swain CaldwellChapelboro: Celebrating the Life of Wilson Caldwell
5. August 1870 Students of the Pool university board chiefly with Black families With about fifteen students from away and as many day scholars, the Pool university's boarders lived mostly with Black households, among them those of Wilson Caldwell, John Ashe and Sam Mahew. Spencer noted that all the boys were poor and held free scholarships. People: Wilson Swain CaldwellHope Summerell Chamberlain, Old Days in Chapel Hill (1926), scan p. 214
6. 1875 Wilson Caldwell returns to the reopened university and later heads its labor force When the university reopened in 1875 Wilson Caldwell went back to work there. He became curator of South Building and head of the campus labor corps, and held the post until his death in 1898. People: Wilson Swain CaldwellTown of Chapel Hill: Wilson Swain Caldwell, Old Chapel Hill Cemetery Tour
7. 1884 John H. Caldwell, born in Chapel Hill in 1862, enters the Baptist ministry In a 1938 talk with the Weekly, the retired Black minister said he was born in the brick kitchen building behind the James Phillips home, was schooled in a log house by Wilson Caldwell, James Weaver and London Whitted, married Emma Merritt in 1883 and entered the ministry the next year, driving by buggy to churches around Chapel Hill while keeping his home at the east end of the village for 56 years. People: Wilson Swain CaldwellSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, February 18, 1938, p. 6
8. about 1886 Wilson Caldwell is elected to the Chapel Hill board of commissioners Placed on the Republican ticket without seeking it, Wilson Caldwell, head of the university's labor force, was elected a Chapel Hill commissioner about 1886, defeating Professor Ralph Graves. James Lee Love recalled an earlier race, about 1882 or 1883, in which Caldwell beat Professor A. W. Mangum. People: Wilson Swain Caldwell, Ralph Henry Graves (1851-1889), Adolphus Williamson MangumTown of Chapel Hill: Wilson Swain Caldwell, Old Chapel Hill Cemetery Tour
9. February 15, 1897 Teacher London A. Whitted dies at Chapel Hill London A. Whitted, a well-known Black schoolteacher, died at his home in Chapel Hill and was buried two days later in the Black cemetery at Hillsborough. Chapel Hill's Black community adopted resolutions calling him one of its best citizens, signed by a committee of P. L. LaCour, Anthony Peden, Wilson Caldwell, E. D. Allen and Basil Jones. People: Wilson Swain CaldwellSearch the index · Orange County Observer (Hillsborough), February 18, 1897, p. 3
10. by June 17, 1897 Charity Atwater leaves Chapel Hill to rejoin a husband taken from her in slavery Charity Atwater, an elderly Black woman and the mother-in-law of Wilson Caldwell, left Chapel Hill to join her husband, now Robert Warren of Oskaloosa, Iowa. As Robert Kirby he had been taken to Tennessee as a slave; after the war he went to Iowa with a Union general, prospered, and sent money for her to come. People: Wilson Swain CaldwellSearch the index · Orange County Observer (Hillsborough), June 17, 1897, p. 3
11. soon after 1898 Chapel Hill's Congregational church sells its building and leaves the village The Congregational church, which Wilson Caldwell had joined and where Battle gave Caldwell's eulogy in July 1898 at the pastor's request, sold its church building and schoolhouse and left Chapel Hill soon after Caldwell's death. People: Wilson Swain CaldwellSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. II (1912), p. 559
12. July 8, 1898 Wilson Caldwell dies and is buried in the Chapel Hill town cemetery Wilson Caldwell, head of the university's campus workforce, died on July 8, 1898 and was buried the next day in the Chapel Hill town cemetery, now the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery; Kemp Battle gave the funeral address.In the index: Old Chapel Hill Cemetery (Chapel Hill, N.C.) · DigitalNC: The News and Observer, July 12, 1898, p. 3 (Wilson Caldwell Dead) · Also: Chapelboro: Celebrating the Life of Wilson Caldwell