Please help me clear up an old family mystery -- who was Squire Caldwell? Actually, Squire Caldwell was my great-great-great grandfather, but the story is more involved than that. Here it is. According to my grandmother, now deceased, a Warner Howard of Lincoln, North Carolina, was legally married a Cherokee woman and had nine children, names listed below. Children: 　 i Henry Howard 　ii Patsy Howard 　iii Sully Howard. 　iv Becky Howard. 　v Polly Howard. 　vi Thomas Howard. 　vii Annie Howard. 　viii Martie Howard. 　ix Nancy Howard. Daughter Nancy Howard, never married, was a mistress to Squire Caldwell. “Squire,” my grandmother says, is not a name, but a title. Together, Nancy Howard and Squire Caldwell had an illegitimate son, John Milton Howard, who was born 09 May 1851 in Lincoln. Squire acknowledged paternity and paid for John’s education, such as it was. John was said to be a bookish person. As a young man, he was an itinerant school teacher who moved from place to place, teaching for a little money and living with the families of his students. He later married Rachel Ladora Robinson over the objections of her father, John Simpson Robinson. Anyway, back to Squire Caldwell. I found that a Henry Caldwell (born 30 June 1842; lived in Catawba) went under the name “Squire Caldwell,” but Henry is too young to have been John’s father (Henry was nine when John was born). A more promising candidate is a J.D. Caldwell, justice of the peace in Catawba County in the late 1850s and early 1860s. Also, a John D. Caldwell (not John David Caldwell (b. 1831, d. 1903), who was someone else) served as a captain in the 89th NC Militia, which was organized in Catawba County. I wouldn’t be surprised if J.D. and John D. were the same person ? it would seem that a justice of the peace would also serve as a captain in the local militia. Even so, I’ve been unable to establish that my Squire Caldwell is J.D. Caldwell (or anyone else, for that matter). Has anyone ever run across a Squire Caldwell in his or her research? Who was he?