Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Restrictions to Use

No usage restrictions.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the D. F. Caldwell Papers, #126, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Mattie Caldwell and George Howard, prior to 1940.

Transferred from the Ralph Gorrell Papers, #1520, Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, May 1959.

Additional Descriptive Resources

A copy of the original finding aid for this collection is filed in folder 1a.

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Processed by: SHC Staff

Encoded by: Noah Huffman, December 2007

Updated by: Kate Stratton and Jodi Berkowitz, July 2009

This collection was rehoused and a summary created with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

This finding aid was created with support from NC ECHO.

Diacritics and other special characters have been omitted from this finding aid to facilitate keyword searching in web browsers.

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• Banks and banking--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• Caldwell family.
• Caldwell, D. F. (David Franklin), 1814-1898.
• Greensboro (N.C.)--History--19th century.
• North Carolina--Economic conditions.
• North Carolina--Politics and government--1775-1865.
• North Carolina--Politics and government--1865-1950.
• Railroads--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• Textile industry--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• Whig Party (N.C.)

David Franklin Caldwell (1814-1898) was a politician and businessman of Greensboro, N.C. Caldwell was a member of the North Carolina legislature, 1848-1858, 1864, and 1879. Caldwell was a staunch Unionist and strongly opposed to secession. Nevertheless, with the outbreak of the Civil War he applied for a commission in the Confederate Army which was refused due to his previous political stance and doubts about his loyalty. He therefore enlisted as a private and served two years. After the war he returned to the practice of law and also briefly became involved in the operation of the Greensboro Patriot. In 1868, Caldwell was elected to the United States Congress but was disqualified from service by the Fourteenth Amendment. Caldwell's business interests included the financing of the North Carolina Railroad, as well as other railroads, cotton mills, and banks.

The collection is chiefly correspondence of D. F. Caldwell concerning family matters; railroads, banking and textile interests; and politics. Caldwell was a member of the North Carolina legislature, 1848-1858, 1864, and 1879. Political correspondents (except in 1864) include constituents and fellow legislators, most of the prominent Whig politicians of the state in the 1850s, and many prominent postwar Democrats and conservative Republicans. There are also some financial and legal items, essays and poems, and other material. There are few Civil War items.

Prominent correspondents represented in the collection include John A. Gilmer, John S. Henderson, Edward Stanley, Victor Clay Barringer, Hamilton C. Jones, James Turner Morehead, Josiah Turner, William Alexander Graham, Kemp P. Battle, Thomas Jordan Jarvis, Zebulon Baird Vance, Josephus Daniels, Samuel A. Ashe, Alfred Dockery, C. H. Wiley, John Pool, A. S. Merrimon, A. M. Waddell, Oliver Hart Dockery, Thomas Ruffin Junior, Curtis Hooks Brogden, Matt Whitaker Ransom, Robert P. Dick, William McKendree Robbins, and John Kerr.