Biography of James Lewis Caldwell

James Lewis Caldwell
Company F
1846-1923


JAMES LEWIS CALDWELL. This is an honored name in two of the large communities of West Virginia. James Lewis Caldwell, Jr., is active head of the Chrisman Foundry Company at Morgantown. He is a son of the late James Lewis Caldwell, one of the most prominent bankers and industrial leaders of West Virginia whose home was at Huntington.

James Lewis Caldwell, Sr., was born at Elizabeth, Wirt County, Virginia, May 20, 1846, and died at Huntington October 18, 1923, when seveny-seven years of age. His parents, John T. and Regina M. (Burns) Caldwell, were born in Ohio, and the former followed the occupation of farming. James Lewis Caldwell during his boyhood attended the rural schools in Meigs County, Ohio, and toward the end of 1862, before he was seventeen years old, enlisted in Company F of the Sixtieth Ohio Infantry. He saw some of the hardest fighting of the war, including the battles of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor, Petersburg and Appomattox.

For a short time after the war he was in the insurance business at Wheeling and then removed to Guyandotte, identifying himself with the community which has since become the City of Huntington. After 1887 his home was in Huntington proper. For some years he was in the lumber business, but in 1884 was the leader in organizing the First National Bank of Huntington, became its president, and had filled that office continuously nearly forty years before his death. He brought the bank to a point where it was the largest in the state in resources, having assets of over eight million dollars. As a financier he was associated with many of the important organizations in his section of the state. He organized in 1892 the Huntington Electric Light & Street Railway Company which built the pioneer electric railway line in the country. He organized and built the Guyandotte Valley Railway, now part of the Chesapeake & Ohio System; was president of the Consolidated Light & Railway Company at Republican, Illinois; president of the Dingess Run Coal Company, secretary and treasurer of the Logan Cannel Coal Company, a director and member of the executive committee of Huntington Land Company. He served as a delegate at large at the National Republican Convention of 1904, and for many years was an outstanding figure in the party. He was a member of the Presbyterian Church.

James Lewis Caldwell, Sr., married in Kanawha County in 1871, Miss Mary O'Bannon Smith. More than a year before his death they celebrated their golden wedding anniversary. Throughout their married lives they had only two homes. Mrs. Caldwell was born at Louisville, Kentucky, and was reared and educated there. Her father, Nicholas Smith, was a wholesale merchant. Mrs. James Lewis Caldwell died October 3, 1927.

James Lewis Caldwell, Jr., one of a family of seven children, was born at Huntington, September 1, 1889, and spent his youthful years in his native city. He was given most liberal education opportunities, and after the public schools at Huntington attended the Bingham School at Asheville, North Carolina, also Marshall College at Huntington, and was graduated in 1913 from the law department of West Virginia University. Mr. Caldwell practiced law for five years at Huntington, being associated during that time with the firm of Campbell, Brown & Davis, and also with Samuel Biern. In connection with his law practice he was also associated with his father in banking and business. Mr. Caldwell in 1918 removed to Morgantown to take an active part in the Chrisman Foundry Company, and has since been vice president of that corporation. This company has a large and well equipped plant, including a foundry and mining car shop, located on Long Street in the industrial suburb of Westover.

Mr. Caldwell enlisted in 1917, and was sent for training to the Radio School of the Texas A. and M. College, and after completing the course was with a radio field signal battalion at Camp Logan, Houston, Texas, until honorably discharged in November, 1918. Mr. Caldwell is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, Masonic fraternity, the Phi Kappa Psi and Theta Mu Epsilon fraternities, is a member of the Morgantown Country Club, a Republican and a Presbyterian. His home is at 130 Prairie Avenue, Morgantown.

He married in March, 1914, Miss Mary Louise Chrisman, a daughter of Robert R. and Mary Elizabeth (McLane) Chrisman. A brief sketch of her father, founder of the Chrisman Foundry Company, is given in the preceding sketch. Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Caldwell have two children: James Lewis Caldwell III, born in 1915; and Robert Chrisman Caldwell, born in 1917.

WEST VIRGINIA in History, Life, Literature and Industry. The Lewis Publishing Company, 1928, Volume 5, pages 285-286.


This information was transcribed by Mrs. Gina M. Reasoner and posted on the Internet under West Virginia Biographies. She is not related and has no further information.




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