Children of Ezekiel Calhoun and Jean/Jane Ewing: Ezekiel Colhoun and Jane Calhoun Stedman

The Statutes at Large of South Carolina: Containing the acts from 1786, exclusive, to 1814, inclusive, arranged chronologically (Columbia: Johnson, 1839), p. 495

In a previous posting, I discussed the difficulties I encounter as I try to pinpoint when the last three children of Ezekiel Calhoun and Jean/Jane Ewing were born. As I note in that posting and previous ones linked in that same posting, I am confident that Ezekiel’s will names his sons and daughters – in separate lists, sons in one list, daughters in another – by order of birth. Ezekiel’s son Ezekiel is named following Patrick and would have been Ezekiel Calhoun’s last son, and Jean/Jane is named after her sister Catherine and would have been Ezekiel Calhoun’s last daughter.

John Kerr, Son of Samuel Kerr and Mary Calhoun: New Information Added to Previous Posting

Patrick Calhoun’s survey book, 1784-1792, “John C. Calhoun Papers,” Clemson University Library’s Special Collections and Archives (mss 200)

As my last posting notes, on my recent research trip to Clemson University Library’s Special Collections and Archives, I found in the archives’ “John C. Calhoun Papers” a little survey book kept by John’s father Patrick Calhoun in the period 1784-1792. This survey book is full of information about families with roots in Ninety-Six District (later Abbeville County), many of whom were buying tracts of land in Pendleton District in the period in question. Almost every page of the survey book was full of names I know, many of them part of the Calhoun kinship network.

Floride Bonneau, Wife of John Ewing Colhoun: New Information Added to Previous Posting

“Art of the Month in the Atlanta Art Association Galleries,” Atlanta, Georgia, May 1957, in “Calhoun, Mrs. Floride,” Mary Stevenson Collection, Clemson University Special Collections and Archives, box 15, folder 3, mss 353

As I continue to add material to previous postings here after my recent research trip to the Special Collections and Archives of Clemson University’s Library, I have added an interesting new document to a previous posting discussing Floride Bonneau, wife of John Ewing Colhoun. When I first published the posting I’ve just linked, I included in it a digital image of a portrait of Floride regarding whose provenance and present whereabouts I had a number of clues that I had been unable to verify. I thought that the portrait is in the holdings of the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, but had not been able to verify that information when I made my posting including an image of this portrait.

Children of Alexander Noble and Catherine Calhoun (2): Alexander, Patrick, and Joseph

Portrait of Patrick Noble at Wikimedia Commons, from South Carolina Information Highway (SCIWAY) website, which notes that the original is at South Caroliniana Library

Or, Subtitled: “Here lie the bones of an honest man”

This posting is a continuation of the previous posting discussing the children of Alexander Noble and Catherine Calhoun of Abbeville County, South Carolina. The previous posting discussed Alexander and Catherine’s first four children John, Ezekiel, William, and Jane. This posting discusses the last three children Alexander, Patrick, and Joseph.

Children of Alexander Noble and Catherine Calhoun (1): John, Ezekiel, William, and Jane

Caroline Howard Gilman, Record of Inscriptions in the Cemetery and Building of the Unitarian, Formerly Denominated the Independent Church, Archdale Street, Charleston, S.C., from 1777-1860 (Charleston: Walker, Evans & Co., 1860), p. 29

Or, Subtitled: “It is needless to enlarge on his professional talent, his urbanity of manners, and unblemished honor and integrity”

The first four children of Catherine Calhoun and Alexander Noble were as follows (a subsequent posting will provide information about the couple’s other children):

Children of Ezekiel Calhoun and Jean/Jane Ewing: Catherine Calhoun (abt. 1751 – 1803) and Husband Alexander Noble

18 December 1779 letter of Major Alexander Noble to General William Moultrie, in Preston Davie Collection, 1560-1903, collection 3406, Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, available digitally

Or, Subtitled: “I am your Obedient Hbl Servt. Alexdr. Noble Majr

Establishing Catherine’s Birthdate

As a previous posting notes, the will that Catherine Calhoun’s father Ezekiel Calhoun made on 3 September 1759 in Granville (later Abbeville) County, South Carolina, appears to name his sons and daughters by their order of birth, with the sons listed separately from the daughters.[1] Ezekiel’s will lists Catherine after her sisters Mary and Rebecca. Rebecca’s date of birth, 18 November 1745, appears on her tombstone in Old Stone Church cemetery at Clemson in Pickens County, South Carolina.[2] The next child in the family of Ezekiel Calhoun and Jean or Jane Ewing is thought to have been their son John Ewing Colhoun, who was born in either 1749 or 1752, as we’ve seen.

Children of John Ewing Colhoun and Floride Bonneau (2): James Edward

A portrait of James Edward Calhoun reproduced in Francis de Sales Dundas’ The Calhoun Settlement, District of Abbeville, South Carolina (Staunton, Virginia, 1949), following p. 12, original apparently in possession of Dundas

Or, Subtitled: “The eccentric, & wicked, but highly gifted James Edward Calhoun”

3. James Edward Calhoun, the third child of John Ewing Colhoun and Floride Bonneau who lived to adulthood, was born in Charleston, South Carolina, on 4 July 1798. This date of birth is recorded on his tombstone in Saint Paul’s Episcopal Church cemetery at Pendleton in Anderson County, South Carolina.[1] James Edward chose to use the Calhoun spelling of the surname.

Children of John Ewing Colhoun and Floride Bonneau (1): John Ewing and Floride Bonneau

Portrait of Floride Bonneau Colhoun Calhoun by Belgian artist Eugène François de Block hanging in master bedroom of Fort Hill, Clemson, Pickens County, South Carolina, from “Floride Bonneau Colhoun Calhoun,” at website of Clemson University.

Or, Subtitled: “Tradition recounts that she sometimes locked up ‘every closet, store-room, and smokehouse on the plantation and drove off with the keys’”

As the previous posting states, three of the children of John Ewing Colhoun and wife Floride Bonneau died in infancy and are buried beside their father in the Colhoun family cemetery at his Keowee Heights plantation in Pendleton District, South Carolina, a cemetery now in ruins and located on land of the experimental forest of Clemson University.[1] The posting transcribes the inscription on the tombstone that Floride had placed on John’s grave within the year after his death on 26 October 1802, and which states,

Children of Ezekiel Calhoun and Jean/Jane Ewing: John Ewing Colhoun (1749 [or 1752] – 1802)

Portrait of John Ewing Colhoun, from U.S. Senate Historical Office, at Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress, “Colhoun, John Ewing, 1749-1802

Or, Subtitled: “In the confidence of his Country, he filled at the time of his death the high Station of Senator of the United States”

John E. Colhoun’s Birth and Early Life

John Ewing Colhoun, son of Ezekiel Calhoun and Jean or Jane Ewing, was born in 1749 or 1752. His tombstone in his Keowee Heights family cemetery now located on land owned by Clemson University’s Experimental Forest gives the 1752 birthdate: the inscription on the tombstone (which will be given in full later in my posting(s) about John), reads,[1]

He was born in the year 1752 and died on the 26th of October 1802.

Children of Andrew Pickens and Rebecca Calhoun: Margaret (Bowie) and Andrew

Portrait of Andrew Pickens with the sword awarded to his father General Andrew Pickens by U.S. Congress, from unidentified source, at J.D. Lewis, “Andrew Pickens, Jr.,” Carolana

Or, Subtitled: “I am most mortified that you did not write to Colonel Pickens, do write to him”

This post continues a discussion that began with this previous posting of the children of Andrew Pickens and Rebecca Calhoun of Abbeville County and Pendleton District, South Carolina. The posting I’ve just linked discusses Andrew and Rebecca’s first six children Mary, Ezekiel, Ann, a son who died in infancy, and two daughters named Jane.