David F. Caliman

	David F. Caliman

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Doraville Whitney was the first Black settler in Isabella County in 1860. The first documentation of an African-American settler in Mecosta County Michigan was James Guy. His deed was signed by Abraham Lincoln. He obtained 160 acres in Wheatland Township on May 30, 1861. Lloyd & Margaret Guy were the first Black settlers in Montcalm County in 1861. The Homestead Act of 1862 allowed each settler 160 acres in Michigan. By 1873 African-Americans owned 1,392 acres in the three counties of Isabella, Mecosta and Montcalm. In the 1860's most of the land in Remus was owned by the Old Settlers.

David F. Caliman

Submitted by: Robert Lett

& Peter Byrd

David F. Caliman

David Caliman was was born in 1853 in the Lett Settlement of Muskingum County, Ohio. He was the great grandson of Moses and Henrietta Caliman. He was the grandson of Benjamin Caliman and Elizabeth Perrill. He was the youngest son of Moses Caliman II and Harriet Norman, the first marriage of Moses Caliman II. The source of this information is "A Caliman History" recorded by Waylon Caliman Sr. in 1931 for a reunion near that time. Waylon Sr. was the son of Henry Wyatt Caliman, a son of Moses II and Rebecca Anderson Caliman.

His early life is described as one dedicated to hard work on the family farm which limited his studying to the winter months. He completed his high school study at the age of 19 in Zanesville, Ohio's public schools and earned a certificate to teach school. He thereafter taught school for 9 years in the communities of; Middleport, Troy and Barnesville Ohio.

Also, on an 1880 Federal Census from Belmont County, Ohio (town of Barnsville) where David F. is shown with his wife Lucy and their daughters Della and Lara, it indicates that both his parents and he were born in Ohio.

In 1881 he became a licensed minister and while continuing pastoral work he attended Ohio Wesleyan University for three years being ordained as a deacon and elder of the church. In 1891 he became a pastor in the Chartier St. Church in Allegheny Pennsylvania and thereafter served as pastor in Washington, Pennsylvania before returning to the state of Ohio.

In the book, "The Sons of Allen, History of the A. M. E. Church" the Rev. David F. Caliman is described as (a) having a peculiar sweetness of singing voice and (b) "pressing the gift considered so desirable by the psalmist of having the pen of a real writer".


	David F. Caliman

There are "Old Settlers" who came from Canada via "The Underground Railroad." It was the most dramatic nonviolent protest against slavery in the United States that began in the Colonial Era and reached its peak between 1830 and 1865. An estimated 30,000 to 100,000 slaves used the "railroad" to get to Canada; many others escaped to Mexico, the Caribbean, and Europe.