Greensboro Beautiful Receives Major Gift for Caldwell Park Enhancements 

The Board of Directors of Greensboro Beautiful, Inc. and the City of Greensboro’s Parks & Recreation Department are pleased to announce that a gift in the amount of $300,000 has been received from the estate of the late Walter H. Sills for use in further enhancement of David Caldwell Historic Park.

The gift was given in memory of Walter Sills’ beloved wife of 49 years, Dorothy Sisk Sills. "Dot" Sills was an educator in Greensboro prior to joining her husband in the Sills family business, founded by Walter’s father, Robert A. Sills, in 1905. Robert A. Sills Company on Battleground Avenue has provided children’s shoes for many generations of Greensboro families. Lt. Colonel Walter Harney Sills (1915-1999) was an U.S. Army Air Corps veteran of World War II, and retired from the Air Force after 34 years of service. He was in the Eighth Air Force and flew B-24 bombers as a navigator. An avid historian, Sills was known as the resident expert on local history, and was a long-time supporter of the Greensboro Historical Museum. Prior to his death, Sills was a staff writer for The Hamburger Square Post, and published two books, Old Times…Not Forgotten I & II; a compilation of his articles about life in small town Greensboro.

This contribution is the largest ever received by Greensboro Beautiful, Inc. a non-profit volunteer organization; and was raised as part of the organization’s recent "Gardens & Gateways" Capital Campaign. The campaign raised over $800,000 to fund enhancements in Greensboro’s three public gardens, and to develop landscaped entryways into Southeast Greensboro.

 Greensboro Beautiful’s Board of Directors recently voted to establish an organizational endowment with the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro to manage these funds for:

• research and additional archaeological survey work on the property
• a Master Plan for park improvements
• construction of a period-style structure 
• developing signage and interpretive indoor panels to provide detailed information on David Caldwell and the Log College
• future maintenance and park enhancements

Greensboro Beautiful volunteers and other interested individuals will be working closely with the Greensboro Parks & Recreation Department’s Cultural & Historical Division to plan, coordinate, and implement Caldwell Park improvements, including the reconstruction of David Caldwell’s Log College. While a final master plan for park improvements is yet to be developed, it is Greensboro Beautiful’s intention to maintain historical accuracy in the interpretation and reconstruction of the David Caldwell Log College site, and maintain the site as a passive memorial park.

David Caldwell & the Log College

Containing a rich history and heritage important to the City of Greensboro and North Carolina, the David Caldwell Historic Park has the potential to become a significant educational and historical park. Greensboro is fortunate in having had one of the most exceptional men of his time (1725-1824) as a citizen – Dr. David Caldwell. The following is a biographical sketch of Dr. Caldwell as written by Mrs. Ethel Stephens Arnett in 1974:

Born in 1725, David Caldwell was the son of Andrew and Martha Caldwell, respectable farmers of Pennsylvania. During his early teens, David’s father apprenticed him to a house carpenter and he worked at that trade until his twenty-fifth year. At that time he felt impressed to become a Presbyterian minister and in the preparation for that calling he attended a classical school, taught school himself, graduated in 1761 from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), and then continued to study and serve in various religious activities. Altogether he spent over fourteen years in training for the scholar, minister, and general leader he hoped to become. In 1765, Buffalo and Alamance Presbyterian churches of Piedmont North Carolina invited Caldwell to become their pastor and he was appointed by the Synod "to labor at least one whole year as a missionary in North Carolina." In that year the Presbytery of New Brunswick ordained him and in 1766 he and his bride, Rachel Craighead, settled permanently in the area which is now within the city limits of Greensboro. Although he was not officially installed as the pastor of Buffalo and Alamance churches until 1768, he had in 1767 opened for young men a classical school which soon became famous as Caldwell’s Log College. Thus in his early forties, he was just beginning his life’s work.

From the time David Caldwell entered into his new life, he said his supreme desire was to become useful in bringing others to a knowledge of the truth. As a pastor, he was so successful that Buffalo and Alamance churches have continued in religious leadership for over two hundred years. In his Log College, he had students from all of the states south of the Potomac. Many of them became prominent as statesmen, lawyers, judges, physicians, and ministers of the Gospel. Five of his students became governors of different states [including John Motley Morehead of North Carolina] while many more became members of Congress. In 1789 the University of North Carolina was chartered as the first state university in the nation and David Caldwell was offered the presidency of that institution, because "beyond a doubt he was recognized as the leading educator in the state." Although he declined this invitation on account of his age [he was 64], the officials of the University did not overlook his ability and in 1810 they awarded him the institution’s first honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity. Though widely regarded as an able scholar, it is recorded that the most important service which he rendered as an instructor was to the church, because his school served for many years as an Academy, a College, and a Theological Seminary. It had been said that "Dr. Caldwell, as a teacher, was probably more useful to the church than any one man in the United States."

Furthermore, as the years passed, this worthy gentleman had become an exemplary family man; a practicing physician, who after the Battle of Guilford Courthouse attended the sick and wounded soldiers of both the British and American armies; a successful farmer; and an able statesman who served on local, state, and national conferences. In 1768-1771 he took an active part in the Regulation movement. In 1776 he helped to write the constitution of the State of North Carolina. During the American Revolutionary War, he literally preached for support of the American cause. In 1788 he served on the North Carolina committee for considering the adoption of the United States Constitution. He did not favor its adoption at that time because it did not then include the Bill of Rights for which Caldwell was contending. In support of the War of 1812 he made such a moving patriotic speech at the Greensboro Courthouse in favor of men enlisting for army duty that there were more volunteers than needed.

During the early life of this country, Dr. David Caldwell was undoubtedly one of the New World leaders who promoted American freedom, which gave this nation the liberty it has long enjoyed.

Ethel Stephens Arnett

His activities brought a price on his head from the British as the war progressed. Shortly before the Battle of Guilford Courthouse, enemy soldiers were sent to the Caldwell home to capture him, but he had fled. The Rev. Eli W. Caruthers, an early Caldwell biographer relates of the episode that Dr. Caldwell hid about two miles from his home in a tangle of underbrush on North Buffalo Creek.

"Anxious for his capture but having failed in the initial attempt, the British resorted to deception. Half a dozen men, representing themselves as American General Nathanael Greene’s soldiers, came to the Caldwell house, telling Mrs. Caldwell they needed her husband to treat the sick. Moved by their appeal, Mrs. Caldwell told them where he might be on Buffalo Creek. Something in their departure prompted her to fear she had betrayed her husband. She spent the night in fervent prayer. The men did not dare enter the wilderness along the creek until the next day. In the course of the night, Dr. Caldwell dreamed three times in succession that danger threatened and he must leave the place where he was hiding," wrote Caruthers. "He was so impressed by the dreams that, as soon as daylight came, he "set off for General Greene’s camp…but as it was ascertained afterwards, he had not left more than a few minutes when his pursuers arrived."

He stayed at General Greene’s camp until after the Battle of Guilford Courthouse, ministering to the sick and wounded. While he was away from home, General Cornwallis’ army moved onto the Caldwell farm, destroying almost everything they could not use, including Dr. Caldwell’s papers, writings, and library - a fine collection for the period.

Dr. Caldwell originally owned some 550 acres of land in the northwest quadrant of what is now Greensboro. Most of this land has been developed, however, the most important part of his property, the portion on which the Log College and home place once stood, is dedicated park land thanks to a drive in the 1950’s spearheaded by County Historian Colonel James G.W. MacLamroc to preserve the area for future generations. Also, in the mid-1970’s, the Colonel Arthur Forbis Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution launched a community-wide campaign through the formation of the David Caldwell Log College Corporation to purchase property from Dr. R. A. Smith and Starmount Company, and conduct a second archaeological survey. John C. Baroody, the principal investigator of the survey of 11 acres completed in 1979, delineated the activity area, the occupation period of the farm, and located fence lines. Artifact analysis gave strong indications to structure locations and provided support to the known historic information about the Caldwell property. A complete excavation of "The House on Hobbs Road’, gave strong evidence that it is the first home and school of David Caldwell. What is believed to be a tunnel approximately 120 feet long was partially excavated west of the house foundation. The property was dedicated to the City of Greensboro/Parks & Recreation Department, which has been responsible for maintaining the park up to this time.

Greensboro Beautiful and the Greensboro Parks & Recreation Department are excited about the potential opportunities now available to share the history of David Caldwell and his Log College with the citizens of our community, and are pleased to commemorate the memory of Walter & Dot Sills for their significant contribution towards this effort. For more information, contact the Greensboro Parks & Recreation Department’s Cultural & Historic Programs division at 333-6042 or Greensboro Beautiful at 373-2967.