Do you know if your family might have still been in Nova Scotia around 1800?
We have been trying to find some documentation of a story from a family
history passed down to us from the last century. In fact, we have documented most
of the history from Ohio and but we are having some difficulty from Ohio
backwards. I am including a piece of the 1907 history which contains the reference
to Nova Scotia:
---A GENEALOGY OF THE CALDWELL FAMILY, Savannah, Missouri, (Written about
1907)*
I, John Rice Caldwell, now in my 75th year, undertake to give the genealogy
of our branch of the Caldwell family; yet I feel that in part it is only a
legend, as we have so little recorded data. Our great grandfather, William
Caldwell, was born and reared in Scotland. When a young man he went to Ireland to
work in barley and wheat harvest and settled there permanently and here he
married to a Miss Crawford in County Down. To this union were born six or seven
children, vs. the eldest, John (my grandfather), James, Crawford, Nancy (who
married Noble Beals), Sarah (married Rev. Rice) and one married James Edgar. The
parents died in Ireland. // John, the eldest came over to America between the
year 1798 and 1800 to select a new home for his orphan brothers and sisters.
After he landed in America, he continued west in his search to Daniel Boone’s
upper settlement on the Missouri River. After a time he returned east to
Chillicothe, Ohio, then the State Capitol, then to the Atlantic Coast. There
he took passage for Ireland, but the second day out of the Delaware River a
British man-of-war vessel drove along side their ship and forcibly impressed all
able bodied men, and grandfather being determined to become a citizen of Ohio,
refused to take the oath of loyalty to the crown and therefore treated much
like a prisoner; was not permitted to go on shore without a guard for over
thirteen months, during which time the British ship cruised south to the coast of
Old Mexico and participated in a naval battle with the Spanish at or near Vera
Cruz. They then turned north to old Tampa Bay, Florida, then continued north
to Halifax, Nova Scotia. There they landed to rest and recruit a few days. //
For the time it appears they had forgotten John Caldwell. He went his way,
never to return to the British vessel. Being a member of the Masonic Order he
soon found friends and shelter, until the vessel left port. They made
diligent search, but failed to find him. In a short time he took ship for home,
under the name of John Crawford (his mother’s maiden name) an soon landed in
Belfast, and then home. // The brothers and sisters then arranged and took
shipping for the United States. The oldest son, having inherited all the property,
payed the passage of all the family. My best information is that they landed
at Baltimore-the date I cannot give. But in due time they settled in Ross
County, Ohio, some twelve or fourteen miles southwest of Chillicothe, then the
capital of the state. //