Tod Robinson Caldwell

Who was Tod Robinson Caldwell?

Tod Robinson Caldwell was a lawyer and the 41st Governor of the U.S. state of North Carolina from 1871 to 1874. He was born in Morganton, North Carolina. He lived in Burke County. Caldwell attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, was a member of Dialectic Senate, became solicitor for Burke County, and was a member of the General Assembly.

He succeeded to the office upon the impeachment and removal from office of Governor William Woods Holden. At the time, Caldwell was the first Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina, an office created by the 1868 state constitution.

When elected in 1872 on the Republican ticket to a full term, Caldwell became the second Republican elected governor of North Carolina. His areas of interest were the state debt and the state finances and the opening of the public schools which had been closed in 1863 due to lack of money. He appointed Alexander McIver as Superintendent of Public Instruction and got a bill passed allowing private aid for public schools in order to gain funds to reopen the schools. [North Carolina Government, p. 426]

Governor Caldwell died in 1874, before the end of his term of office.