James Caldwell the elder became a Virginia justice of the peace and militia leader in the developing rural area, and his son/James's brother John Caldwell helped erect Fort Henry to defend the new settlement against Native American raiders.
[2] In 1799, before his father's death, James Caldwell moved a few miles westward on the National Road to St. Clairsville, Ohio.
[3] When Belmont County was organized in 1801, Northwest Territory Governor Arthur St. Clair named him Clerk of Courts.
Caldwell ran for his first term in Congress in 1812 as a captain in the militia supporting the administration and the War of 1812 against Federalist candidate Bezaleel Wells.
James Caldwell Jr. lived and ultimately died at Beemer's Tavern, essentially a residential hotel.