Born in Franklin County, Indiana, April 16, 1825. His parents were Baptists, and they gave him religious training according to their faith; but in his seventeenth year he broke loose from parental restraints and left his father's house, and went out into the world a lone boy. Through wicked influences he soon learned to swear profanely and play cards, but the Spirit of God never left him. When in his eighteenth year he was powerfully convinced of sin, and deeply penitent, he returned home, and soon after united with the Methodist Episcopal Church under the ministry of Rev. George Havens. But before his probation expired he was caught up into the whirl of political excitement, and carried away from the Church into sin. This was in 1844. In June of the following year he again joined the Church as a probationer, and in the fall of the same year he was baptized and received into full connection by C. W. Morrow. In 1848 he moved to Marion County, Indiana. He was licensed to exhort the same year at a quarterly meeting held at Eagleville, Rev. William H. Goode presiding. He was married to Miss Mary H. Strong, of Marion County, Indiana, October 18, 1851. In June, 1852, he was licensed to preach. Brother Calfee came to Iowa in the fall of 1859, stopping at first in Jefferson County. He was admitted on trial. He followed the traveling connection by the Western Iowa (now the Des Moines) Conference at its session in Council Bluffs, September, 1861, and returned to Ottawa Circuit, having traveled the same the year before under R. S. Robison, Presiding Elder. The following two years he traveled the Adel Circuit. From Adel he was sent to Rising Sun, from Rising Sun to Magnolia, and from Magnolia to Mount Olive. In each of the last three named appointments he remained but one year. His last appointment was Mount Ayr. During his second year at Ottawa Brother Calfee was elected to represent Clark County in the House of Representatives. This was in 1861. While in the Legislature he proved himself to be a staunch friend of liberty. He was a ready debater, remarkable for his wit and scathing sarcasm. As a temperance lecturer he excelled. As a preacher he was not refined; sometimes he was coarse. He was not brilliant, but forcible. He was a kind father, an affectionate husband, an ardent friend, and a warmhearted Christian.
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