Jump to content

Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 1).djvu/528

From Wikisource
This page needs to be proofread.
496
CALDERON
CALDWELL

poetry is characterized by dramatic fire. His plays have gained him great popularity, not only in Mexico but in all Spanish America.


CALDERON, Francisco Santiago (cal-day- rawn'), Spanish prelate, b. in Torralba, Spain, in the latter part of the 17th century ; d. in Oaxaca, Mexico, 13 Oct., 1736. He was a friar, distinguished himself for his learning, taught philosophy in Huete and theology in the imiversities of Sala- manca and Alcala, and then filled several impor- tant offices of the church in Castile, Galicia, and Asturias. In 1728 he was proposed for the bishop- ric of Oaxaca, and his inauguration took place on 8 June, 1730. He finished the building of the cathedral, consecrated the church, established Spanish schools in the principal towns of his dio- cese, and gave a large sum for a college for girls.


CALDERON DE LA BARCA, Frances Inglis (cal-da-rawn'-de-lah-bar'-ca), b. in Scotland about 1818. Her youth was passed in Normandy, but she came to this country with her mother, and they established a school in Boston. She was also for many years a resident of Staten Island. She mar- ried,' in 1838, Calderon de la Barca, Spanish minis- ter to the United States, and subsequently to Mexi- co. She published " Life in Mexico," with a preface by William H. Prescott the historian (3 vols., Bos- ton, 1843). After her husband's death she was attached to the household of ex-Queen Isabella IL of Spain at Seville.


CALDICOTT, Thomas Ford, Canadian clergyman, b. in Buckbv, Northamptonshire, England, in 1803 ; d. in Toronto, Canada, 9 July, 1869. He emigrated to Canada in 1824, and, after teaching there for seven years, removed to Hamilton, Madi- son CO., N. Y., and thence successively to Lock- port, N. Y., Boston, Mass., and Brooklyn, N. Y., in which cities he preached for twenty-six years, also writing much for the periodical religious press. He returned to Canada in 1860, and was settled as pastor of the Bond street Baptist church, Toronto, retaining this charge until his death. He was distinguished for his scholarship, was an able writer and eloquent preacher, taking an active part in the promotion of the educational and benevolent institutions of the Canadian Baptists.


CALDWELL, Alexander, jurist, d. in Wheel- ing. Va., 8 April, 1839. He was for several years U. S. judge for the western district of Virginia.


CALDWELL, Alexander, senator, b. in Hun- tingdon CO., Pa., 1 March, 1830. He received a common-school education, and in 1847 enlisted for the Mexican war in a company commanded by his father, who was killed at one of the gates of the city of Mexico. He returned in 1848, became teller of a bank in Columbia. Pa., and afterward entered busi- ness. He went to Kansas in 1861, engaged in trans- porting military supplies, and afterward became interested in the building of railways and bridges. He was elected IT. S. senator as a republican in 1871, and served till 1873, when he resigned. Since that time he has been engaged in manufacturing.


CALDWELL, Charles, physician, b. in Cas- well CO., N. C, 14 May, 1772; d. in Louisville, Ky., 9 July, 1853. He was the son of an Irish officer. After teaching school for a time in North Carolma, he went to Philadelphia, and in 1792 entered the medical school of the University of Pennsylvania. During the yellow-fever epidemic of the following year he distinguished ' himself by his professional zeal. He served as a brigade surgeon In Gen. Lee's command during the " whiskey insurrection " of 1791- '4. In 1810 he accepted the professorship of natural history in the University of Pennsylvania. He succeeded Nicholas Biddle as editor of the " Port-Folio " in 1814. In 1819 he became profes- sor of materia medica in Transylvania university, Lexington, Ky., and in 1820 visited Europe to pur- chase books and apparatus. In 1837 he established a medical institute in Louisville, Ky. ; but, owing to a misunderstanding with the trustees, his re- lations therewith were abruptly ended. He wrote a translation of Blumenbach's " Elements of Phys- iology " (1795) ; edited CuUen's " Practice of Phys- ic " (1816) ; published " Life and Campaigns of Gen. Greene " (1819) ; " Memoirs of Horace Holley " (1828); and "Bachtiar Narneh, or the Royal Foundling," a Persian tale translated from the Arabic. His " Autobiography," with preface and notes, was issued in Philadelphia in 1855, and a biographical notice of him was read by Dr. B. H. Coates before the American philosophical society. His technical pamphlets, essays, etc., produced from 1794 till 1851, nun.ber more than 200 titles.


CALDWELL, Charles Henry Bromedge, naval officer, b. in Hingham, Mass., 11 June, 1823; d. in Waltham, Mass., 30 Nov., 1877. He entered the navy as midshipman 27 Feb., 1838, and became lieutenant 4 Sept., 1852. With a detachment from the “Vandalia,” he defeated a tribe of cannibals at Wega, one of the Feejee islands, and burned their town, 11 Oct., 1858. In 1862 he commanded the gun-boat “Itasca,” of the western gulf blockading squadron, and took part in the bombardment of Forts Jackson and St. Philip. On the night of 20 April his gun-boat, with the “Pinola,” was sent on an expedition under the command of Fleet-Capt. Bell, to make a passage for the fleet through the chain obstructions near the forts. Lieut. Caldwell and his party boarded one of the hulks that held the chains, and succeeded in detaching the latter, in spite of the heavy fire to which they were subjected. The “Itasca” was then swept on shore by the current, in full sight of the forts, and it was half an hour before she was afloat again. She was unable to pass the forts with the rest of the fleet, owing to a shot that penetrated her boiler. Lieut. Caldwell was in the action at Grand Gulf, 9 June, 1862, and was promoted to commander on 16 July. He commanded the iron-clad “Essex,” of the Mississippi squadron in 1862-'3, and took part in the operations at Port Hudson, from March to July of the latter year, in command of the “Essex” and the mortar flotilla. He commanded the “Glaucus” of the North Atlantic blockading squadron from 1863 till 1864, and the “R. R. Cuyler,” of the same squadron, from 1864 till 1865. He became captain, 12 Dec., 1867, chief of staff of the North Atlantic fleet in 1870, and commodore on 14 June, 1874.


CALDWELL, David, clergyman, b. In Lancaster CO., Pa., 22 March, 1725; d. m North Carolina, 25 Aug., 1824. He was the son of a farmer, and after receiving the rudiments of an English education, was apprenticed to a house-carpenter, and afterward worked at his trade for four years. He then determined to become a minister, and was graduated at Princeton in 1761. After teaching school in Cape May for a year, and also studying theology, he completed his studies in the Princeton seminary, acting at the same time as an instructor in the college. He was licensed to preach by the New Brunswick presbytery, 8 June. 1763, and, after spending a year in North Carolina in mission-work, was ordained in Trenton, N. J., 6 July, 1765. He was installed on 3 March, 1768, pastor of the churches at Buffalo and Alamance, N. C, and continued there till within a few years of his death. As his salary was only $200, he cultivated a small farm, and also carried on a classical school at his house. Many of his pupils became noted men.