Caldwell was born on February 19, 1818, to John Caldwell and Hannah Pickett Robinson. He was born in
Morganton, North Carolina, where he had a home for most of his life. Caldwell attended the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, graduating on June 4, 1840. He was a member of the
Dialectic Society. He was examined by the Supreme Court and admitted to Superior Court Practice (much like passing a
bar examination) in June 1841, becoming solicitor for Burke County. In 1842 he was elected a member of the North Carolina House of Commons in which he served two sessions. In 1850 he represented Burke County in the state senate. After the close of the Civil War he was a member of the Reconstruction Convention, and President of Western North Carolina Railroad. Caldwell was elected the first
lieutenant governor of North Carolina in 1868, the same year the
state constitution had created the office. He became governor in 1871 upon the impeachment and conviction of Governor
William Woods Holden. Caldwell was elected governor in his own right in 1872, by about two thousand majority, becoming 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. Caldwell married
Minerva Ruffin Cain on December 12, 1840. Tod and Minerva had at least four children: Mary Ruffin Caldwell, wife of Dr. Waighstill Collett; John "Jack" Caldwell, killed at
Gettysburg; Martha R. Caldwell, wife of Edward W. Ward; and Hannah J. Caldwell, wife of Walter Brem. Shortly after arriving on July 9, 1874, at Hillsborough, Orange County, North Carolina to attend the railroad's stockholders' meeting, Caldwell fell ill and died unexpectedly on July 11, 1874, aged 56. Newspaper reports stated he died from
cholera morbus. ==References==