Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1902-09-09
FULL OF HONOR.
Judge Caldwell, Appointed by Lincoln
Serves for Forty Years,

Forty years on the bench of the
United States court of appeals have
not satiated Judge H. c. Cafdwell's ap-
petite for work. The venerable jurist,
while in Denver, instead of going
round the loop" as he might have
done, yielded to the solicitations of
the attorneys and heard the motion to
transfer the Gates-Osgood litigation to
the federal court, says the Denver
Post, copy of which is furnished the
Courier by Hon. William McNett, of
this city. Judge Caldwell is known
in Ottumwa, where he has relatives
and in and around Keosauqua, where
he grew to manhood. Concerning
Judge Caldwell the Post says:
Judge Caldwell likes to go fishing.
Especially he likes to try issues with
the coy mountain trout, but he feels
that he must earn his salary. SO he
volunteered for the work. The at
taches of Judge Hallett's court did not
know him when he presented himself
at the offices on the second floor of the
! federal building. He does not look
like a judge until he gets on the bench
Then his demeanor is distinctly mag
| isterial.
+ Dressed.m avery long Prince Albert
coat with flowing skirts. wearing a
| long beard obscuring the black tie and
scrupulously white shirt bosom, Judge
| Caldwell looks the gentleman of the
old school in the largest sense of the
| phrase. He lives at Little Rock, Ark,
but his duties keep him in ST. Louis,
! Omaha. Minneapolis, ST. Paul, and
Kansas City a great part of the time.
Since the court of appeal is to hold
terms in the west, Judge Cnldwell's
territory will be larger than it has
! been heretofore. Coming from Arkan-
sas it is to be presumed he could play
poker if he would but he won't. In
speaking Judge Caldwell is deliberate
| but emphatic. His words are chosen
with especial care and his sentences
| are as rugged as the rocks.
Appointed by Lincoln.
The venerable jurist is far from be-
\ ing proud, but there is one circum-
stance in his career in which he takes
| great pride He was a friend and is
an appointee of Abraham Lincoln.
! Chosen at time when reconstruction
had not yet begun, he has held court
in places where the life of any federal
appointee, even though he wore the
4 sacred ermine of the judge, was not
safe. He does not belong to that great
corps of carpet baggers who were ap-
pointed shortly after the war and who
| justly earned the opprobium of both
] north and south. His career on the
i bench has proven once more the keen
/ insight the great emancipation had in
detecting rugged honesty and ability
when the rare combination was found.
Judge Caldwell was born in Marshall
l county West Virginia. Sept 4, 1882.
When he was but four years of age his
parents emigrated to what is now the
state of Iowa. On farm near Keo-
sauqua, in the Des Moines valley, he
spent his boyhood days, but at the age
of Is he went away to school. In the
law offices of Wright & Knapp, then
the leading law firm of that vicinity,
he received his elementary training in
law. He was admitted to practice
when he was nineteen years of age and
/ shortly afterward was elected prose.
! cutting attorney Then he became a
j member of the state legislature He
was chairman of the judiciary com
j mittee when it became necessary to
put the state on war footing.
His Military Career.
In 1861 he volunteered and was cho.
i sen major of the Third Iowa cavalry.
He was promoted to be lieutenant col
onel and afterward colonel In 1864
Abraham Lincoln appointed him dis
| trict Judge for Arkansas. Twenty-Five
years later Benjamin Harrison ap-
pointed him to his present position
on the United states circuit bench for
the eighth judicial circuit.
1 Notwithstanding his austere demean-
or Judge Calowell appreciates humor.
| When D. c. Beaman explained in court
that he had merely used the terms
| thigh roller and gambler" as applied
| to Gates in an incidental way, and that
| he did not think they We're at all Of.
| fensive to Gates, Judge CaldwelPs eyes
| twinkleu with merriment Again when
i Attorney Vale made some quotations
from Polly Pry's" pen picture of
! Gates, Judge Caldwell was decidedly
amused. There is none of the stilted
phraseology nor legal redundancy in
Judge Caldwelrs utterances. He talks
to the point in terse, small words that
are combined in such an effective way