This painting of Samuel B. Caldwell, now at the Follett House Museum, was painted by a strolling artist, according to the donor, Mrs. Ethelinda Griswold Free. Samuel B. Caldwell was born in
1792. During the War of 1812, he took part in the battles of
Plattsburg and Washington
County, New York Lake Champlain. He married Mary
S. Cady in 1815. In 1817, Mr. and Mrs. Samuel B. Caldwell moved west, along
with the family of Eleutheros Cooke.
First the two families resided in Indiana, and
later they moved to Bloomingville, in what is now .
After Mary Caldwell’s death in 1825, Samuel B. Caldwell moved to Erie County, Ohio , where he boarded
at the Steamboat Hotel. In 1827, Samuel
married Susan Boalt, the daughter of the hotel’s proprietor, John Boalt. Mr.
and Mrs. Caldwell lived in this stone house at Sandusky 257 Jackson Street from about 1835 until
the 1850s. The property at 257 Jackson Street is now a part of the
First Presbyterian Church.
Samuel B. Caldwell was one of the first local school directors, and during the years 1837 to 1839, he was the Mayor of Sandusky. Hewson Peeke wrote in A Standard History of Erie County,
that Caldwell served as an Associate Judge of the Ohio Common Pleas Court, though his years of
service were not listed. A biographical sketch of Judge Caldwell, which
appeared in the Firelands Pioneer in 1874, stated that the judge “stored his mind with useful and varied information which he could command with
facility as occasion required. He possessed a native modesty that prompted him
to shun rather rather than court notoriety.” He and his wife were very hospitable to family
and friends. A letter from Judge Caldwell is held in the historical collections of the .
The Judge and his wife invited Samuel and Clara Butler to Thanksgiving dinner
in 1846. Sandusky
Judge Samuel B. Caldwell died on July 15, 1873. He was buried at
. Mrs. Susan Caldwell
survived until 1886. A portrait of Mrs. Susan Caldwell can also be seen at the Oakland
Cemetery . Follett House Museum