A Founder by the River: Judge Charles Caldwell
By Cody Berry
Over Memorial Day weekend my parents decided that they wanted to go eat at Riverside Grocery on Highway 5. During our meal there I told them that I had read about a nearby cemetery which had the oldest marked grave in Saline County. They asked me where it was, and I showed them on my phone that it was just across the highway from us. So, after we visited the river, we tried to use GPS to find Deaton Cemetery.
My GPS took us in the wrong direction at first, so we turned back and then realized that it was literally on a hill just down the road. We parked on a road leading to a subdivision there and walked up the hill. At the very back of the cemetery, we found the white marble gravestone belonging to Judge Charles Caldwell and his wife Sarah, who was buried there in 1837, making it the oldest marked grave in Saline County.
Judge Charles Caldwell was born on December 12, 1785, in Christian County, Kentucky. He reportedly came to Arkansas sometime in the late 1820’s where he settled first in Pine Bluff. Then in 1827, he became a Justice of the Peace in Little Rock. In 1828, Charles Caldwell was appointed prosecuting attorney of the Fourth Circuit and later that year he was a candidate for Legislative Councilman (Senator) from Pulaski County.1
In 1830, Charles Caldwell built a water mill five miles northwest of Benton. On November 11, 1933, the name of the post office near his farm on the North Fork of the Saline River was changed from “New Kentucky,” to “Caldwelton,” in his honor. Caldwell was made postmaster there and he held that position until 1843. On August 3, 1835, Caldwell was elected president of the Legislative Council in the Territorial Legislature. He was able to procure the passage of a law that created Saline County, making him one of its founders.2
After statehood was achieved in 1836, Caldwell was elected as a Representative from Saline County in the new legislature. He served as speaker pro-tem until October that year when the legislature made him the first circuit judge of the Fifth Judicial District, which included Saline County. Caldwell had been married twice in his life. Sarah New of Kentucky was Judge Caldwell’s second wife with whom he fathered four children. One of which was George Ann Caldwell, who married William Lockert.3
Sarah Caldwell died on November 25, 1837, but Judge Caldwell lived until November 20, 1844. He was elected as a representative for the 1844-1846 term, but he fell ill and died at his home in before he could finish his term. Both houses of the legislature passed resolutions honoring Judge Charles Caldwell, and a few days later so did the Pulaski County Bar Association. The couple’s gravestone was erected by their only living child, Rev. James E. Caldwell.4
Citations:
1 J. S. Utley. “Charles A. Caldwell’s Part in the Pioneer Days of Saline County,” Benton Courier – Centennial Number, March 25, 1937, p. 10-11.
2 Ibid, p. 10-11, and Goodspeed Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Central Arkansas, 1889, p. 234.
3 J.S. Utley, “Charles A. Caldwell’s Part in the Pioneer Days of Saline County,” Benton Courier – Centennial Number, March 25, 1937, p. 10-11.
4 Ibid, p. 10-11, and “Judge Charles Caldwell (1785-1844),” Find a Grave.com, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/51531347/charles-caldwell, Date Accessed 5/27/2026.