Robert Caldwell and his family moved from Chester County, Pennsylvania, to the Northwest Territory in 1795, and in 1809 bought and cleared land along Duck Creek in what became Olive Township, Morgan County, in 1819. In 1832, Robert’s son Samuel Caldwell and his wife Sarah Brownrigg Caldwell built the Ball-Caldwell house. Samuel Caldwell advocated for the formation of Noble County, established in 1851, and during the contest over the county seat he promised a donation of land if it were used for that purpose; when it was in 1857, the commissioners named the county seat Caldwell in gratitude. Built in 1832, the house passed from the Caldwells to Edmund and Elizabeth Ball in 1920, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980, and in 1983 was purchased from the Ball heirs by Robert and Mary Ann Ball, who began restoring the structure and named it the Ball-Caldwell House to recapture its 19th century ambiance. Also in 1983, Richard and Twila Ball bought the barn and adjoining land from the Ball heirs, and in 2009 the Noble County Historical Society purchased the entire homestead for its museum and events.