Caldwell and Watson Family Papers

Charles Washington Caldwell, slaveowner and cotton farmer, was born in 1816 in Virginia and later moved to Columbus, MS. According to the 1860 census, he owned 59 slaves. He married Harriet L. Prowell Watson in 1852, and together they had children James, Rufus and Carolee; according to the 1860 census their household also included Harriet’s children from her first marriage. The family later moved to Paris, Texas, where Caldwell died in 1892.

Source: 1860 census, land records, Find-a-Grave

Thomas Wheeler Watson, son of Harriet Powell Watson and John Watson, was born in 1845 in Columbus, MS, and later moved to Paris, Texas with his mother and her second husband, Charles W. Caldwell. He died in Texas in 1880.