James Caldwell, Actor and Entrepreneur
James Henry Caldwell (1793-1863), an English-born actor, immigrated to America in 1816, initially settling in Fredericksburg, Virginia. In 1819 he married the widow Maria Carter Hall Wormeley (1784-1859), scion of two Virginia founding families. “Possibly the most famous actor in the South from 1820 to 1843,” writes Kate Taylor, “Caldwell ensured steady work by creating a theatrical circuit encompassing New Orleans, Natchez, Huntsville, Nashville, St. Louis, Louisville, and Cincinnati,” 1 participating in the building or renovation of theaters in each city. James Caldwell was familiar with the use of gas light in London theaters, and worked to install gasworks to replace the dim and unreliable oil lamps in American drama houses. He later founded the public gas utilities in New Orleans, Mobile, and Cincinnati, and invested in real estate in Louisville.
William Caldwell, Gas and Real Estate Mogul
William Shakespeare Caldwell (b. 1821), only son of James and Maria, served as “Pres. Gas Co” in 1850 Cincinnati. In 1853 he married Mary Eliza Breckenridge of Louisville (b. 1830), granddaughter of early Kentucky pioneers and great-granddaughter of our ancestor Rev. Spence M. Grayson of Virginia. In 1860 the couple was living in Richmond, Virginia. The Caldwells owned property in New York City and Newport, Rhode Island as well. When Mary Eliza died in 1867 their two daughters were still toddlers.
Catholic Philanthropy
“Being by the Provident Mercy of Almighty God in the faith and communion of the Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church… and trusting for the salvation of my Soul to the merits of my blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; I, William Shakespeare Caldwell of the City of New York, Gentleman, do make and declare this my last Will and Testament.”
March 27, 1874
William’s six-page will left specific instructions for the distribution of his estate. Friends, executors, and beneficiaries mentioned within include New York lawyer Charles O’Conor, lately the first Catholic U.S. presidential candidate; Joshua F. Speed, early and steadfast friend of Abraham Lincoln and brother to the woman who raised William’s wife Mary Eliza; James Gibbons, Bishop of Richmond and soon to be Cardinal Archbishop of Baltimore; banker Eugene Kelly and his wife Margaret, niece of the late Archbishop of New York John Hughes; and Cincinnati businessman and Catholic philanthropist Reuben Springer. William appointed three prominent New York Catholic women as guardians for his orphaned daughters Mary Gwendoline and Mary Elizabeth (“Lina”), ages ten and eight in 1874. William endowed Catholic charities in multiple cities with minimal stipulations. The bulk of his estate he left to his daughters in equal share, “for her own sole and separate use, free from the control of any husband she may have, and from liability for his debts or engagements.” 2
University Endowment
A 1904 newspaper article reports, “After graduating from a convent, [Mary Gwendoline] and her sister… went abroad to travel with their aunt. On their return to America, Gwendoline went to Louisville, Ky., rented out an entire floor of the Galt house, and prepared to entertain in a manner new to the people of that place. Her first public appearance was at the opening night of Mary Anderson.3 After the play she entertained half of Louisville in her apartments. The newspapers the next morning printed columns of not too friendly comment…. She returned to New York the next day. Soon after reaching her majority, Miss Caldwell, through her guardian, Bishop Spalding, of Peoria, announced… her intention of endowing the Catholic University. For this service Pope Leo XIII bestowed upon Gwendoline Caldwell a diamond-studded medal…, and also conferred the decoration of the Order of the Rose, which distinction no other woman ever has held.” 4
Catholic University of America, Founded 1889
Though the initial proposal to organize the Catholic University of America (CUA) dates to 1866, “The project took definite shape in the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore (1884) which included in its “Acta et Decreta” the decision to found a university and accepted Miss Mary Gwendoline Caldwell’s offer of $300,000 to inaugurate the work.” 5 Her gift purchased the 65-acre Middleton estate alongside the B&O Railroad in Washington, D.C., built the first structure on the CUA campus (Caldwell Hall, 1888), and endowed professorships in Theology and Philosophy. Her younger sister Lina donated $50,000 to build the Caldwell Hall chapel, where Mass was celebrated on CUA’s opening day in November 1889.
European Nobility
In 1887 Gwendoline became engaged to an older Italian prince, Joachim, 4th Prince Murat. When he insisted on controlling her fortune, Gwendoline broke off the engagement and returned to America. Passport applications dated June 4, 1888 indicate the sisters traveled to Europe that summer with their widowed former guardian Mary Louisa Donnelly, two unnamed maid servants, and an unnamed man servant. The sworn witness to all three passports is J.L. Spalding, bishop of Peoria, Illinois who, with Archbishop James Gibbons, was among the founding trustees of CUA. Gibbons Hall (1911) and Spalding Hall (demolished in 2011) were named for these Caldwell family friends.
In June 1890, Lina married 39-year old German diplomat Curt Freiherr von Zedwitz in the chapel she financed in Washington, D.C., receiving the title Baroness von Zedwitz. Gwendoline became the Marquise des Monstiers-Mérinville when she married 59-year old French nobleman François Jean Louis in a Catholic ceremony in Paris in October 1896. Both marriages were short-lived. Gwendoline suffered from ill health and died in 1909, long-separated from both the Marquis and the Catholic Church. She had no children. Lina’s husband died in a yachting accident in 1896. The Baroness herself died of heart disease in 1910, also separated from the Church. The younger couple’s only child, contract bridge player and naturalized U.S. citizen Waldemar Konrad von Zedtwitz, died childless in Hawaii in 1984.
Enduring Monuments
Actor and gasworks pioneer James Caldwell was buried in New Orleans, his wife Maria Hall Caldwell in Richmond. Their son William and his beloved wife Mary Eliza Breckenridge Caldwell are both buried in St. Louis Catholic Cemetery in Louisville. Their daughters were interred about 2 miles away beneath an elaborate tomb and mausoleum in Louisville’s Cave Hill Cemetery. Two goddess-like statues representing the sisters stand at the center of a wide marble platform with hands clasped. Read more about the monument and the sisters here.
And from the CUA Campus Ministry home page: “Caldwell Chapel is the University’s original sacred space…. While the building is named for Mary Gwendoline Caldwell…, the chapel’s existence is due to her sister, Mary Elizabeth “Lina” Caldwell, [who funded] the construction of what was originally called St. Paul’s Chapel… [Lina] was later married there…. This chapel is also the foundation of spiritual life at Catholic University. Generations of students have explored and deepened their faith there, and countless Catholic University sweethearts have chosen it as the location to celebrate their own marriages.”
A Concluding Story
Our sons are CUA alumni, where their lovely mother works in the admissions office. Some years ago we met with a high school counselor to discuss the chances of our son being admitted to a handful of nearby colleges, including an Ivy League university. “His cousin works there,” I told him, as if that might be a benefit. The counselor’s prompt reply: “Does his cousin have a building named after him?” Though we didn’t know it at the time, his cousins DO have a building named for them at Catholic University. And so we honor the memory of the Caldwells, and are grateful for the material and spiritual foundation they built that has benefited students of CUA for 130 years and counting.
Feature Image: Duane and Tracy Marsteller https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=250698
1 Taylor, Kate, “How an English Actor Brought Light to New Orleans” https://www.verylocal.com/how-an-english-actor-brought-light-to-new-orleans/20866/ accessed 11/24/24
2 New York, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1659-1999, Wills, Vol 0222-0223, 1874-1875 via Ancestry.com, accessed 11/27/24
3 Mary Antoinette Anderson (1859-1940) was an American stage and silent film actress. A native of Louisville and a fellow Catholic, she was likely acquainted with the Caldwell family.
4 “Wealthy Woman Leaves Church She Benefited,” Mexico (Missouri) Message, 24 Nov 1904 pg. 6
5 Pace, E.A. “Catholic University of America” The Catholic Encyclopedia (ca. 1907-1912) via Catholic Answers, https://www.catholic.com/encyclopedia/Catholic-University-of-America
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