James Caldwell

James Caldwell (November 30, 1770May 5, 1838) was the first member of the United States House of Representatives to represent Ohio's 4th congressional district. Early and family life His father James Caldwell (1724-1804) and his wife Elizabeth were Irish gentry whose name reflected Castle Caldwell established in Ulster Plantation a century earlier. They had emigrated with nine children to Maryland in 1769 and then moved to what became Wheeling in what was then Virginia in 1772. During their sea voyage, Elizabeth Caldwell gave birth to Samuel Caldwell, and in Baltimore, Maryland she bore this James Caldwell Jr., then Susana Caldwell (b. 1772), Alexander Caldwell(1774-1838), and Joseph Caldwell (b. 1777). James Caldwell the elder became a Virginia justice of the peace and militia leader in the developing rural area, and his son/James's brother John Caldwell helped erect Fort Henry to defend the new settlement against Native American raiders. Career In 1799, before his father's death, James Caldwell moved a few miles westward on the National Road to St. Clairsville, Ohio. He purchased the first lot in the village, and opened a store in 1801. He became wealthy and was the first president of the Belmont Bank of St. Clairsville. When Belmont County was organized in 1801, Northwest Territory Governor Arthur St. Clair named him Clerk of Courts. He was a Belmont county delegate to the 1802 Ohio Constitutional Convention. He represented Belmont County in the Ohio Senate from 1809 to 1813.