“Memorial and Biographical History of Dallas County,” published:  
Chicago;  The Lewis Publishing Company, 1892.

JOHN F. CALDWELL, Auditor of the city of Dallas, was born in 
Washington, District of Columbia, and is a son of Josiah Caldwell, of New 
Jersey.  The father was employed in one of the departments at Washington 
for more than fifty years, serving from 1816 to 1858.  He was one of the 
oldest clerks in the service of the Government, and was very competent and 
faithful in the discharge of his duties.  One of his brothers was Clerk of the 
Supreme Court for many years.  The family is descended from the 
Magruders of Virginia.  Our subject was born in the city of Washington in 
1827, and received his education in that city.  After leaving school he was 
employed as a clerk in a dry-goods store in Baltimore, Maryland, and 
remained there five years.  He then spent several years in travel, and visited 
every portion of the United States.  At last he settled in New Orleans, and 
embarked in the cotton business, an enterprise that was soon to be paralyzed 
by the ravages of war.  Mr. Caldwell enlisted in the Staff Department, and 
for five years witnessed and experienced all the terrors and hardships of 
warfare.  From the day the first gun was fired upon Fort Sumpter to the day 
of the surrender he did not flinch from the cause he had espoused, but did his 
duty valiantly as became a son of the South.

In 1878 he removed from New Orleans, where he had settled after the war, 
to Dallas, Texas, and for several years engaged in the grocery business.  
Becoming well-known as a man of the highest honor and of excellent 
business qualifications, he was chosen by the City Council to fill the 
position of City Auditor of Dallas.  It is a very responsible position, but one 
for which Mr. Caldwell is admirably fitted by his previous experience.  His 
management of the office has been systematic and entirely satisfactory to the 
public, who regard him as one of the most courteous and obliging officials.  
He is an ardent Democrat, and zealously supports all the measures of that 
body.  He belongs to the Presbyterian Church, and has been a liberal 
contributor to those movements which have tended to the elevation of public 
sentiment.

Mr. Caldwell was married in the city of New Orleans, in 1861, to Miss 
McNairy, of Nashville, Tennessee.

Submitted by: Justina Cook