DECEASED McKINNEY PHYSICIAN
FUNERAL SERVICE OF DR.
JAMES A. CALDWELL, M'KINNEY PHYSICIAN
Democrat
April 22, 1937
Farm Boy, Then Young Lawyer Turned to Practice of Medicine For Half Century
Laid To Rest Friday—Services Held In First Methodist Church By His Pastor
Rev. E. H. Mays. Active Also In Church and Fraternal Ways.
Funeral services
for Dr. James Alexander Caldwell age 70 years 11 months and 11 days were
largely attended at the First Methodist Church at 1:00 o'clock on Friday
afternoon.
His beloved
pastor Rev. E. H. Mays of that church of which he had long been an active
member, official and large supporter with his personal presence as well as
his means was in charge of the service, assisted by Rev. Amor? Bounds,
presiding Elder, and Dr. R. L. Cowan, Pastor of the First Presbyterian
Church and Dr. Clifford R. Weaver, Pastor of the First Christian Church. The
church chancel hall, pulpit and choir loft were banked with an immense
floral offering, beautiful and fragrant testimonials from friends and former
patients for over the city, county and state. Interment followed on the
family burying lot in beautiful Pecan Grove Cemetery under the direction of
the Isaac Crouch Funeral Home.
Active
pallbearers: Henry W. Warden, Dr. J. Knight, Dr. P. D. Robeson, Gabe Kerby,
Walter R. Wilson, J. J. Thompson, Mayor Tom W. Perkins and Dr. E. L. Burton.
Honorary
pallbearers: Board of Stewards and Board of Trustees of the First Methodist
Church.
Many friends and
former patients of the doctor came from over the county and other ports of
the state to be present and pay their last respects to the beloved
physician, who had spent a half-century in the active practice in this
county.
Biographical.
Dr. James A.
Caldwell, M. D., was born at Bostonville, Arkansas, May 4, 1857. He was the
son of Albert J. Caldwell, a native of North Carolina, who was a farmer of
Arkansas for many hears and Mary E. Caldwell, a native of Maury County,
Tennessee. In young manhood, the father moved to Tennessee where he was
married then taking his bride back to Arkansas, where they lived until 1882
when they moved to Texas and located in the Climax community, about twelve
miles east of McKinney, where the dear old parents spent the remainder of
their lives and both died during 1906 within three months of each other's
demise. Dr. Caldwell received his elementary and high school education in
the public schools of Arkansas, following which he attended the Little Rock
Medical College and then the Louisville Kentucky Medical College, from which
he graduated with the degree of Doctor of Medical. Prior to his medical
training, he has studied law and was admitted to the bar. After engaging in
the legal practice for a short while he decided to enter the medical
profession, in which he was active in the practice for over a half-century,
making an outstanding success. He entered the general practice, at Climax in
East Collin, in 1889, riding over a large surrounding territory, mostly on
horseback, in those days preceding the building of good roads and the coming
of autos. He built up an excellent professional business and rapidly
attained to a commanding position among the practitioners of this county. He
was an earnest student of his profession, taking post-graduate courses along
through the years in the New Orleans Poly Clinic, as well as in the New York
Polyclinics and hospitals— about forty-six years ago, her located in
McKinney where his general practice rapidly grew. During this time he had
earnestly devoted himself to study, research and investigation in the
treatment and cure of cancer. His experience with a number of cases of this
dreaded and loathsome disease encouraged him to devote himself exclusively
to that speciality. Accordingly he opened a small sanitarium. His success in
this specialty attracted such a great practice that he was soon compelled to
erect his present large two story brick and stone sanitarium at 407 South
Tennessee Street, located within five minutes walk of the public square and
containing more than forty large and airy rooms and an immense basement and
otherwise modernly equipped and maintained. An extensive flower garden
identifies the front and block of the land on the south side of this large
McKinney sanitarium. Patients came to him for treatment, not only from his
home city, county and state, but also from most of the other states of the
Union as well as from Canada. Even after he became unconscious last Saturday
night, several former patients whom he had cured during past years from
other parts of Texas and one from Oklahoma came by to visit him and others
not knowing of his critical illness came to be treated and had to be turned
away.
His Marriage.
Dr. James A.
Caldwell was married to Mrs. Scottie K. Puckett at Conway, Arkansas, January
24, 1878. His bride was the daughter of Willie Puckett, a native of Alabama,
who later settled in the state of Arkansas. Mrs. Caldwell was a cultured
woman and devout Christian worker, who died at the family home in McKinney,
March 3, 1933. They were the parents of five children, two of whom
survive—Gibson Caldwell, President of the Collin County Mill & Elevator
Company, and a civic leader, widely known in North and East Texas, and Roy
Caldwell, member of the big McKinney retail C. &. T. grocery store, in
partnership with J. J. Thompson. Five grandchildren survive: Mrs. Paul C.
Young of Dallas, James A. Caldwell, Jr. of Dallas. Goldie Mae Caldwell, Roy
Caldwell, Jr., Texas A. & M. College student and Kathryn Caldwell, McKinney
High School student. He is also survived by one brother, Dr. Albert J.
Caldwell, Jr., eye, ear, nose and throat specialist of Amarillo, Texas.
Honored Citizen.
While Dr.
Caldwell spent a very busy life and was a hard worker in his profession, he
nevertheless shirked no civic, fraternal or religious duty that any citizen
could recognize regardless of his calling. He was a lifelong member of the
Methodist Church, serving for forty years, as either a steward or a trustee
of the First Methodist Church, and unless absolutely hindered by demands of
his practice, he could always be counted on for attendance at church
services, including mid-week prayer meeting. He was always liberal with his
means in the support of various activities of the church, including
orphanage, the old ministry, foreign as well as local church mission
projects and enterprises. He was a longtime Mason, Odd Fellow and Knights of
Pythias and Woodman. He loved people and enjoyed social relations with his
fellow-man from the lowest to the highest stratas of society. His attitude
was always friendly, cheerful and optimistic. No appeal for worthy charity
ever turned away from him empty-handed. The many deeds of charity and
substantial help in a quiet way by Dr. Caldwell and his lovable wife are
proverbial in McKinney. His purse strings were always opened to appeals for
worthy causes to a rare degree of liberality. His optimism, buoyancy of
spirit and zest in living never forsook him even in his older days as the
shadow lengthened and the light of life shone dimmer. He recognized that
other of the learned professions minister to the needs of the people, but he
ardently believed that none held more importance than that of the practice
of medicine. Ailing mankind must depend absolutely upon the skill of his
attending physician and surgeon, who ever holds the issue of precious human
life in his hands. He truly devoted his life and talents to the amelioration
of the ills of humanity.
His long, busy
and useful life was utilized in the service of humanity and everyone felt
that as his body was laid to rest in beautiful Pecan Grove Cemetery that he
had truly brightened and blessed the world by having lived in it.
Surname Index
Recommended Citation:
"Funeral Service for Dr. James A.
Caldwell,
EARLY SETTLERS OF COLLIN COUNTY." Collin County, Texas History
and Genealogy Webpage by Genealogy Friends of Plano Libraries, Inc., <http://www.geocities/genfriendsghl>
[Accessed Fri February 13, 2004 ].
