David Caldwell
Л
pioneer in llio eau.se of early «Mluealioii
in iVorlli Carolina, he lurneil out £ra<l«iates
who late
standing
THE entire .«Into line heard al->ut
I he famous hcadinn-ters. Wil¬
liam Bingham. founder of the
famous “Bingham School" and of
Лате*
II. Ilorner, fnlher of the no
less famous “Horner .School." Most of
и-
know that the genesis of the power¬
ful I)uko University was in a school
taught by Brantley Yorke in a little
log cabin. We know that all our older
educational institution* had small be¬
ginnings, and a slow and painful
growth; but there are only a few to
whom the name of mv subject will
convey any meaning.
If the name Caldwell signifies any¬
thing at all to us, most would asso-
eiate it with that of Joseph Caldwell,
President of our University, or with
our county of Caldwell, which was
named in his honor. Yet we have had
other famous Caldwells in our his¬
tory. .‘ncluding David F. Caldwell,
outstanding Judge and legislator;
Congressman Joseph P. Caldwell, and
another of the same name— brilliant
editor of the Charlotte Observer.
Came From Other States
Of the men who were famous in the
early history of our state, few were
native Carolinians, and we drew
largely upon other stales or upon the
mother country for our lenders. Gen¬
eral William R. Davie, father of our
University was horn in England ; Gov¬
ernor Thomas Burke, the Catholic
leader, was born in Ireland; Mr. Jus¬
tice .lames Iredell, Carolina contribu¬
tion to the bench of the Supreme
Court of the United States, was a na¬
tive of England; William Hooper,
famous as a signer of the Declaration
of Independence, came to us from
Massachusetts; while Dr. Hugh Wil¬
liamson, equally famous as a signer of
the Federal Constitution, and as a
Carolina historian, was a native of
Scotland. The state was a large im¬
porter of noteworthy men, and one of
the ablest thus imported was David
Caldwell, who came to us from Penn¬
sylvania and settled in Guilford
County, where he became a veritable
Moses in the cause of education.
Lest the noble county of Guilford
(Icom itself overlooked in our uaniing
of distinguished men, I hasten to say
Г
1X4*211110
.401111»
Of fill» SI
sons.
ttfl R. C. LAWKFMi:
that it is the habitat and the happy
hunting grounds of Hitch notables.
From this county came Alexander
Martin, Governor at three different pe¬
riod- in his illustrious career; John M.
Mon' head. Governor and father of our
system of Internal Improvements; Al¬
fred M. Scales, Confederate Brigadier
and Governor; Robert P. Dick and
Robert M. Douglass, Justices of the
Supreme Court; Major Charles M.
Stcdmnii, last Confederate otlicor to
sit in the halls of Congress; William
P. Bynum, primate at the Bar. Now
add to these the nationally known
name of “Uncle Joe" Cannon, long
cur of our National House of Repre¬
sentatives, and then top this list with
the only “first lady” Carolina lias
produced — none other than Dolly
Madison! What a galaxy of famous
names to come from one county!
Caldwell was a Presbyterian
preacher, and he married a daughter
of that famous Presbyterian divine,
Alexander Craighead, pastor of the
church on Little Sugar Creek, first
of that faith to l>e founded in Meck¬
lenburg County — iu the neighborhood
from which
саше Лишен К.
Polk,
President of the United States!
Caldwell was a man of letters, a
graduate of Princeton College, and on
first coining to our state he served as
a missionary to churches in Alamance
County, where he ministered to both
soul and body- — for Caldwell was a
physician ns well as a preacher —
а
queer combination! Soon, however, he
entered upon his life’s work as a
teacher, locating his school three
miles from the present site of the city
of Greensboro.
Mark Hopkins was the famous
president of William* College, and
A JEFFERSON STANDARD
POLICY
If a Declaration of Independence
foe the Family
p’s Ollfl-
President Garfield said the only re¬
quirement for an excellent university
was Mark Hopkins on one end of a
log and one student at the other end.
Caldwell became the Mark Hopkins
of Carolina, for his school became
famous for the character of tile in¬
struction it afforded, and for the cali¬
bre of the students who attended it.
It was the time when the classics
had their heyday. You got little (if
any) of physics, chemistry, or science,
but you got Latin and Greek in large
doses and at frequent interval*, and,
if you were destined for t bo ministry,
von also got Hebrew — and what a
tough proposition Hebrew is! His
school had no equipment of which to
boast. There was neither fraternity
house nor glee club— not even a cam¬
pus. The school was lodged in a build¬
ing of logs cut from the forest prime¬
val. ami the surroundings were raw,
rough and crude. Yet out of this en¬
vironment CAtno most of our early
preachers, lawyers, physicians and
public men. including no less than five
governor*. Caldwell trained more
than fifty Presbyterian preachers, to
say nothing of those of other faiths.
Limited Equipment
His poor school did not oven pos¬
sess a library. All it had was the Latin
and Greek classics, the geometry of
Euclid, plenty of works on Moral
Philosophy, and a Bible — which was
kept open. With such limited tools
did Caldwell fashion and form so
many lives in Carolina!
In that day clergymen did not con¬
sider it beneath the dignity of their
cloth to serve the cause of the public.
Thus, Caldwell was a member of the
Halifax Convention which adopted
the State Constitution; and also of the
Hillsboro Convention which refused
to ratify the Federal Constitution-
lie himself being a most influential
factor iu bringing this about, l»eing
aided and abetted iu that behalf by
Lemuel Burkitt, an outstanding Bap¬
tist preacher.
Now let us consider the case of the
notorious regulator. Herman Hus¬
band*. who wrote a little pamphlet in
which he roundly denounced the Royal
( Continued on pag t twenty)