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Harry E. Caldabaugh
Engineer and businessman
from The History of West Virginia, Old and New, Chicago: The American Historical Society, Inc., 1923. Vol. II, p. 254.
HARRY E CALDABAUGH. A native of Wheeling, Harry E. Caldabaugh was educated as an engineer, followed that profession for a number of years, but is now prosperously established as a merchant, a wholesale and retail dealer in paints and glass. Mr. Caldabaugh has a record of service in the army at the time of the Spanish-American war.
He was born at Wheeling, April 28, 1879. His father, Phillip C. Caldabaugh, now living at Glendale, Marshall County, West Virginia, was born in Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany, in 1844. Four years later, at the climax of the Revolutionary struggles in Germany, his parents, Charles F. and Laura M. (Kraft) Caldabaugh, left their native home in Hesse-Darmstadt and came to America, first setting in Monroe County, Ohio, and later moving to Wheeling, where the latter died. Phillip C. Caldabaugh was reared in Monroe County, and as a young man of nineteen enlisted there in 1864, joining Company F of the One Hundred Eighty-ninth Ohio Infantry. He served the last year of the war and was with Sherman on the march to the sea, his regiment being part of the rear guard in this famous campaign. Phillip Caldabaugh moved to Wheeling in 1866, was married in this city, and for many years followed teaming. He is a republican, an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and is affiliated with the Knights of the Mystic Chain and the Improved Order of Red Men. His wife was Margaret Heckler, who was born in Hesse-Darmstadt in 1848, and died at Wheeling in 1889. She was the mother of the following children: Laura M., living with her father; George W., connected with a wholesale hardware house at Los Angeles, California; Laura M., unmarried and living with her father; Charles W., a merchant at Wheeling; John C., a merchant at Glendale, West Virginia; Harry E., Lucy M., wife of William Thornburg, a resident of Glendale and an office employee of the Wheeling & Lake Erie Railroad; and Chester W., a Glendale merchant.
Harry E. Caldabaugh attended the public schools of Wheeling and spent three years in West Virginia Wesleyan College at Buckhannon, pursuing a course in civil engineering. From 1906 to 1908 he was employed in structural engineering work at Wheeling and Cincinnati. Then as a civil engineer and as purchasing agent he was associated with the United States Engineers in river improvement and other Federal projects in the Wheeling District. He was in the service of the Federal Government is this capacity for 9 1/2 years. In 1917 Mr. Caldabaugh established his present business, beginning in a small way as a dealer in paints and glass, and has kept his business growing and prosperous until it is now one of the leading establishments of the kind in the Wheeling District. His store and offices are at 1058 Market Street.
Mr. Caldabaugh has always been willing to take a kindly and helpful interest in community affairs. He was for eight years state commander of the Sate Boys Brigade, a national organization. He is president of the Northern West Virginia Fish and Game Protective Association. He is a member of the Wheeling Chamber of Commerce and Kiwanis Club, is a republican, has served on the Official Board of the Methodist Episcopal Church and as president of the Epworth League. In June, 1898, he enlisted in Company D of the Second West Virginia Infantry, as a bugler, being then nineteen years of age. He was with his regiment at Camp Meade, Pennsylvania, and then at Greenville, South Carolina, until mustered out in April, 1899.
In 1910, at Wheeling, Mr. Calabaugh married Miss Mabel W. Rahr, daughter of David and Jennie (Wallace) Rahr, residents of Wheeling, where her father is employed in the Steel Rolling Mills. Mr. and Mrs. Caldabaugh have four children; Harry R., born July 31, 1912; Jane E., born April 30, 1914; Phil D., born May 31, 1915; and John W., born August 31, 1918.
