Edward Caldwell:

Edward Caldwell, who has a fine farm in Eldred Township, six miles northwest of Brookville, at the junction of the Brookville and Olean road, part of his father’s old home place, was born there Aug. 13, 1863, son of Timothy and Jane (Steele) Caldwell. The name of Caldwell is deservedly respected in this section of Jefferson County. Various members of the family have added to its prestige by useful service to the community both as private citizens and in public capacities, and Edward Caldwell has been no exception.

In his own enterprises and in the responsibilities entrusted to him by his fellow citizens he has endeavored to live up to the standards set before him in boyhood, in the home circle, where the influences of heredity and environment combined to good purpose.

The early history of the Caldwell family in this locality will be found elsewhere in this work. Edward Caldwell has spent practically all his life at his present home, and having given his best years to its development may take great satisfaction in the possession of a very desirable property. He was but a few days old when the house his parents were occupying was burned, and his father built the present residence in 1864. It was remodeled by Edward Caldwell a few years ago, and in 1914 he replaced the basement barn built by his father in 1861 with an up-to-date one 62 by 70 feet in dimension; there is stabling for forty head of cattle. Mr. Caldwell has also put up an adequate silo, to enable him to feed his stock properly. He was brought up in familiar touch with lumbering as well as farming, having assisted his father in the woods and on the streams from the age of sixteen years, and he himself did the last lumbering on the home property. One hundred and fifty acres of the parental farm were left to him by will, and he has proved a worthy successor to his father in its possession, the place being in first-class condition under his management.

Mr. Caldwell has been especially interested in the improvement of his locality through the medium of good roads, and two years ago he was elected to the position of supervisor in which he has done exceptionally good work, though the board has been hampered by lack of provision for this class of improvements. Such citizens as Mr. Caldwell constitute an element whose influence in any community could only be for good. From boyhood he has attended the Mount Tabor Church and has long been one of its faithful members. For twelve or fourteen years he has held the office of elder. In political opinion he is a Republican. Mr. Edward Caldwell has always lived on the homestead and at the age of twenty-six years married Anna Steele, who was then twenty years old. She was born in Union Township, this county, where her parents, William and Margaret (Furley) Steele, spent nearly all their married life. Her father died when she was a girl, and her mother passed away at the old home in 1915, at the age of eighty-four years.

This Steele family is but distantly related to Mr. Caldwell’s mother. Six sons have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Edward Caldwell: Ellis Clinton married Nell Yarger, and they live on the farm with his father; Mervin Leason, who married Carrie Stahlman, lives at New Kensington, Pa., where he is engaged in office work; Timothy Dwight, who lives at home, is a graduate of the Clarion Normal School and taught school for two years in Clearfield County; William Edward, Joseph Russell and Kenneth Ralph are at home.

Transcribed by Steven A. Stahlman from “Jefferson County, Pennsylvania – Her Pioneers and People”, Volume II, by Dr. William James McKnight, published in 1917 by the J. H. Beers & Company, Chicago, Ill. Page 650.