James H. Caldwell

James H. Caldwell

James Henry Caldwell (born May 10, 1793 in Manchester , † September 11, 1863 in New York City ) was a British-American actor and theater manager who was mainly active in New Orleans .

Life

James Henry Caldwell was a son of Edward Henry Caldwell. In 1814 or 1816 he traveled from England to the USA, where he initially worked in Charleston in the Alexandre Placides Theater. He founded and managed theaters in Nashville (1825), Cincinnati (1832), Mobile (1840), St. Louis and New Orleans. There he worked at the St. Philip Street Theater and the American Theater, where he also introduced gas lighting. In 1835 he set up the St. Charles Theater. He worked as an actor until 1843 and as a theater manager until his death. Caldwell was also involved in urban affairs. He campaigned for the introduction of gas lighting in New Orleans, the establishment of the New Basin Canal, the New Orleans and Nashville Railroad Company, and other public-benefit institutions, and at times also held public offices. Caldwell died while visiting New York and was buried in New Orleans.

His first wife was a widow named Wormsley from Fredericksburg . From her came his first son named after William Shakespeare, who was born around 1826, became a committed Catholic and gave a home to the Little Sisters of the Poor in Richmond. He later had two daughters: The Mary Gwendolin Hall of Divinity at the Catholic University of Washington is named after Mary Gwendolin; the second daughter, Mary Eliza, married the Baron Moritz von Zedtwitz .

In 1836, according to the Caldwell family, James Henry Caldwell married Margaret Placide, a daughter of Henry Placide. With her he had two sons and a daughter who did not survive childhood. However, Chase explains that it was a Margaret Abrams who died in 1857 and whose surviving sons Caldwell later adopted. Before that adoption, he married Josephine Rowe, who, although very young, died five years before his own death.

With the actress Jane Placide , who died in 1835, he had a love affair that earned him a duel from Edwin Forrest . Caldwell had her buried in Girod Cemetery . The tombstone bore the verses according to his wishes

There's not an hour
Of day or dreaming night but I am with thee ;
There's not a breeze but whispers of thy name ,
and not a flower that sleeps beneath the moon
But in its hues or fragrance tells a tale
Of thee ' .

(German :)
There is no hour of
the day or the dreaming night, but I am with you ;
There is no breeze, but whisper your name ,
And not a flower that sleeps under the moon
But in its hues or its scent it tells a story of
you ' .

They are from Barry Cornwall .

Theater in New Orleans

Before Caldwell's arrival in 1820, New Orleans had only sporadic theatrical productions in English, the common language for which was previously French. Caldwell's troupe, according to John S. Kendall in his work The Golden Age of the New Orleans Theater , made the English-language theater in New Orleans a permanent intellectual institution.

His American Theater, which was built between 1822 and 1824, was lit with a device imported from England using gas obtained from coal. As a result, the gas company was founded, which supplied streets and households in New Orleans with gas. The American Theater, built according to the plans of an architect named Gott, was inaugurated with the play Town and Country . Caldwell starred in it. The theater burned down in 1855.

In the 1830s he withdrew from the stage for a while to devote himself entirely to the gas business, but then returned to his traditional profession and had the first St. Charles Theater built according to plans by A. Mondelli. The house, which had 4,100 seats, was considered the finest theater building in the USA at the time. Seven years after it was built, the theater, which had a huge gas-powered chandelier, burned down. A second St. Charles Theater, built by Caldwell's competitors Noah Ludlow and Sol Smith, suffered the same fate. It existed from 1843 to 1899. The third St. Charles Theater was demolished in 1967.

The "father of gas"

In addition to his theater activities, James Henry Caldwell took care of the expansion of the city of New Orleans. In 1832 he founded the New Orleans Gas Light Company. At first he found no financial support in the township, which is why he finally decided to provide New Orleans with gas lighting at his own expense, which he carried out in 1833. This made New Orleans one of the first cities in the USA, after Baltimore, New York and Boston, to have such a facility. The gas works, built in 1834/35, was operated with slaves.

Until the introduction of electric lighting in 1887, the gas lighting introduced by Caldwell was used. His efforts earned him the designation "the father of gas". His New Orleans Gas Light Company eventually became the prosperous New Orleans Gas Light and Banking Company, which gained influence throughout the state. As President of the Society, Caldwell also gained political influence. He was a Democrat.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ So it can be read in his biography on Schenectadyhistory.org , as well as in the Encyclopedia of Biography .
2. ↑ Short biography on answers.com
3. ↑ Medianola.org
4. ↑ So the description of his life on Schenectadyhistory.org ; other sources such as John Churchill Chase: Frenchmen, Desire, Good Children:… and Other Streets of New Orleans! Pelican Pub, 2001, ISBN 1-56554-931-7 , p. 125. indicate that there should be no evidence of the marriage. Chase also assumes that the son was born in 1820.
5. ↑ ^{a b} Caldwell's biography on Schenectadyhistory.org
6. ↑ John Churchill Chase: Frenchmen, Desire, Good Children:… and Other Streets of New Orleans! Pelican Pub, 2001, ISBN 1-56554-931-7 , p. 126.
7. ↑ John Churchill Chase: Frenchmen, Desire, Good Children:… and Other Streets of New Orleans! Pelican Pub, 2001, ISBN 1-56554-931-7 , p. 125.
8. ↑ Description of the cemetery on Storyvilledistrictnola.com
9. ↑ quoted from Leonard Victor Huber, Charles Dufour: New Orleans. A Pictorial History. Pelican Pub, 1991, ISBN 0-88289-868-X , p. 143.
10. ↑ ^{a b c} What is the history of the gas tank that was in the vacinity of Charity Hospital in the 1920s and early 1930s? ( Memento from January 17, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) In: bestofneworleans.com/gambit/
11. ↑ Data on the American Theater, also known as Camp Street Theater
12. ^ Leonard Victor Huber, Charles Dufour: New Orleans. A Pictorial History. Pelican Pub, 1991, ISBN 0-88289-868-X , pp. 143-146.