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253    CALDWELL-HOOPER GRAVESITE (Orig 1835, relocated abt 1858 and 1904)

Location - In Chapel Hill Township on the campus of the University of North Carolina. Known as the Caldwell Monument.

Coordinates: 35d 54m 47.0s N; 79d 03m 06.5s W Click here for Online Maps

Survey - The site was visited and documented for the survey by Steve Rankin in 2010. Photos by Milton Forsyth, October 2010.

Comments - The current monument location is the third gravesite of the first UNC President Joseph Caldwell and his wife. The original gravesite was in the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery and was marked by a sandstone obelisk erected shortly after his death. (That monument was rededicated in 1891 to four African-American slaves who had served the university and still stands in the cemetery.) The second was between the New West building and Cameron Street on the UNC campus and was marked by this current monument commissioned by his former students in 1847 and erected in 1858. The monument and graves were relocated to the present site in July 1904.

The white marble monument was created by Struther and Company, Philadelphia, PA. Joseph Caldwell is interred at the north side of the monument, Helen Caldwell in the middle, and William Hooper at the south. Helen Hogg Hooper, his 2nd wife whom he married in 1809, was the daughter of James Hogg, one of the original trustees of the university who donated land for its construction, and the widow of William Hooper (d. 1804), son of William Hooper, one of North Carolina's signers of the Declaration of Independence. Helen's son William Hooper, buried here, was a noted educator and clergyman.

The north face of the monument is inscribed: "In grateful acknowledgment of their obligations to the first President of this University, JOSEPH CALDWELL, D. D., The President of the United States, the Governor of North Carolina and other Alumni have raised this monument A. D. 1847."

On the east face: "Near him repose the remains of his beloved wife HELEN CALDWELL, And her son WILLIAM HOOPER, D. D. LL.D. Professor Univrsity of North Carolina, 1812-1837, Born 1782 [sic, actually 1792] Died 1876"

The south face reads: "He was an early, conspicuous and devoted advocate of the cause of Common Schools and Internal improvements in North Carolina."

And on the west face: "Born at Lamington, New Jersey, April the 21st, 1773. Professor of Mathematics in this University - 1796. Died at Chapel Hill, January 27th, 1835."

Note: The reference above to "The President of the United States" was to James Knox Polk, president from 1845-1849, a native of Mecklenburg County, NC and a 1818 honors graduate of the University of North Carolina.

1. Caldwell, Helen Hogg Hooper   (b. Abt 1768 - d. 30 Oct 1846)
Daughter of James Hogg, widow of William Hooper, and second wife of Joseph Caldwell.
2. Caldwell, Joseph   (b. 21 Apr 1773 - d. 27 Jan 1835)
Son of Joseph and Rachel Harker Caldwell of New Jersey. Mathematician, Presbyterian minister, and first president of The University of North Carolina.
3. Hooper, William   (b. 31 Aug 1792 - d. 19 Aug 1876)
Son of William Hooper and Helen Hogg Hooper. Husband of Frances Pollock Jones.