Edwin Valdina Caldwell was a leading citizen of Shelby county, Alabama. He ws a farmer near Harpersville and manager for J. H. Wilder & Bro.’s branch mercantile establishment. He was born at Harpersville July 14, 1845.
He was the son of Hansell Augustus Caldwell and Martha Catherine (Scott) Caldwell. Hansell was born at Maryville, Tenn., and came to Alabama when a young man. He located at Wetumpka, where he practiced medicine for a time, removing thence to Harpersville, where he died in 1848. He was a Presbyterian and a Democrat.
His wife was a daughter of Rev. J. H. Scott and Catherine Key, both of Edgefield district, S. C. Rev. J. H. Scott was a well known figure in Baptist circles for a period of over sixty years, serving without stated salary, it being against his notion that ministers of the gospel should work “for wages.” He supported himself and family by farming.
Mr. E. V. Caldwell entered business life with a good academic education. He spent much of his time as a farmer, but has also been engaged in various other enterprises, and always to his profit. In his younger manhood he was a traveling salesman, after which he spent ten years at Harpersville in the mercantile business, followed by a period at Anniston and Birmingham handling real estate. For some time he was resident manager for the Wilder Brothers, and in addition cultivated his farm.
When the war broke out in 1861 he enlisted for service. He became a private soldier in Company I, of the Eighteenth Alabama infantry. He participated in many hard fought battles, among the number being Shiloh, Chickamauga and the Atlanta campaign. At Shiloh he received a severe wound, and during the first two years’ service was wounded five times. Returning home for a short time, he again enlisted, joining Company I, of the Fifty-first Alabama cavalry, in which he served one year. He was then chosen as one of the intrepid band known as “Shannon’s Scouts.” In this organization he passed the remainder of the war, being in nearly every battle after Sherman had passed to the sea. Another brother, Oliver Caldwell, was killed at the battle of Atlanta.
Mr. Caldwell has never aspired to office. He was a Democrat and at different times has acted as a delegate at different conventions. For twenty-seven years he was a deacon in the Baptist church, and was superintendent of the Sunday school for about twenty-five years.
He married, March 1876, Willie Wallace Welch, a daughter of Dr. William A. Welch and Willie Ann (Wallace) Welch, of Alpine, Talladega county, and a sister of Dr. Samuel W. Welch, one of the leading physicians of Talladega. Mrs. Caldwell’s parents were dead in 1904.
By 1904, to the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Caldwell were born
Hannah Jane Caldwell
Jackson Oliver Caldwell, bookkeeper, Ensley
Edwin Valdina Caldwell, Jr., student in 1904 at the medical department of the University of Alabama;
William Hansell Caldwell, at the same school in 1904
Willie Wallace Caldwell
Kyle Caldwell
Mary Caldwell, at home in 1904.
Edwin Valdina Caldwell passed away Nov. 24, 1916 and is buried in Pine Hill Cemetery, Auburn, Lee County, Alabama along with his wife and many of his family
SOURCES
Notable Men of Alabama: Personal and Genealogical, Volume 1 edited by Joel Campbell DuBose
Find A Grave Memorial# 8844506 # 8963031# 83969630
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