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Ida
Calhoun Scott of Austin, TX and some of her cousins have spent literally
years sorting together family and general Calhoun material gathered over
several generations for donation to the Nashville (TN) Public Library
(1113 Elm Hill Pike). The donation is officially under the name of Ida’s
mother as the Ida Reid Calhoun Burritt
Collection. This Collection was dedicated 26 July 2003 under a
proclamation from the office of the Mayor of Nashville.
Ken Fieth,
Archivist; John Connolly, Davidson Co. Historian; Ida Calhoun (Futch)
Scott with Mayor’s proclamation; Patrick Nolan, president of the Friends
of the Archive.
This
wonderful occasion held a double purpose as the “Calhoun Cousins Reunion”
convened at the same time. The patriarch of the family, Hugh Calhoun, was
thought to have been born at sea between Belfast and Philadelphia.
Sometime in the mid 1800’s the family moved to Nashville and opened a
silversmith and jewelry shop. Archivist Ken Fieth
indicated to Ida in a letter from October 2000 that her collection may be
used in a future Nashville museum.
Clan
Colquhoun Of NA now has a new web site. It’s
located at
www.clancolquhoun.org. This website is mastered by Dave and Dee
Calhoun of Texas and it looks great!
The 32nd
Charleston (SC) Scottish Games were held 20 September 2003 and by most
accounts a record breaking crowd attended. Attendees were able to hear no
less than 26 pipe bands! Steve and Mary Hudson man the Charleston
Colquhoun tent for us. They won Best Clan Tent at the 2001 Games.
Charleston is an historian’s dream vacation. You might want to take about
two weeks to see almost everything this city has to offer if you combine a
visit to the Games next September with a vacation. Sometimes the Colonial
history of Charleston is overshadowed by the part the city played in the
War Between The States, also referred to as the
American Civil War. A most renowned Calhoun is buried in Charleston and is
sometimes blamed for creating the 1860’s war even though he died 11 years
before it started. This is one example of the influence and power John
Caldwell Calhoun had in his time. He served in politics for 41 years. This
service included US Representative, Senator, Secretary
Of War, Secretary Of State, and twice a Vice President. Volumes are
available to read about his life, but you may not have heard about what
happened after his death. According to the biography written by Irving H.
Bartlett, JC Calhoun had not prepared for his death with burial
instructions or even a will. Working until the end, JC Calhoun died in
Washington. His body stayed in a vault in the Congressional Cemetery
http://www.congressionalcemetery.org/ for three weeks while waiting
for instructions from the family about his burial. It would take more time
than we have now to research those three weeks, but it would be
fascinating. JC Calhoun had no love for Charleston. Charleston was the
hometown of his wife, Floride
Bonneau Colhoun
(maiden name), a distant cousin. Miss Colhoun
was a distant enough cousin that there existed the different spellings of
their names from the original Scots. Calhoun had been raised on interior
farmland in SC. He regarded life in such cities as Charleston as frivolous
and at the expense of the work of planters such as himself. In a letter to
Floride he described “the misconduct of the
inhabitants (of Charleston)…their intemperance and debaucheries.” Their
marriage lasted 39 years despite their different backgrounds. The body of
JC Calhoun made the way from Washington to Charleston via steam ship.
According to the biography Charles M. Wiltse
wrote in 1951, a contingent of 25 people from Pendleton (Calhoun and
Floride’s home near Clemson University) tried
to have him buried there, but a decree from the state legislature declared
he should rest in “South Carolina’s greatest city”. Calhoun was buried at
St. Phillip’s Episcopal Church,
http://www.stphilipschurchsc.org/spce/history
his
wife’s church, but this is not the end of story. This colonial church,
organized in 1680, had deep roots in a town that took account of such
things. There are two graveyards: one on the “church” side, the “East
Church Yard” and the other across Church Street, the “West Church Yard”.
The East Church Yard has been historically reserved for natives of
Charleston. The West Church Yard had been used, years before Calhoun was
born, not only for people not native to the city but also transients.
Calhoun, despite his notoriety and achievements, had to be buried on the
West side because he was not a native Charlestonian.
About 14 years later the Federal Army made its way
North after completing Sherman’s March To The Sea.
Calhoun’s tomb as the
Union Army The 1884 tomb today
found
it (thanks to Civil War Treasures
from
the New York Historical Society
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpcoop/nhihtml/cwnyhshome.html
Charlestonians
were afraid the Union Army would deface the grave of John C. Calhoun (they
had done such things in the colonial cemetery in Savannah a few months
before). JC Calhoun’s body was disinterred and moved across the street to
the East Yard in a secret location. There
was quite a bit of interest in
Calhoun’s grave by the Union Army. It was even photographed and commented
on in the national press. The war ended and Charleston went through the
difficult period of “Reconstruction”. It wasn’t until 1884 that JC Calhoun
was reburied in the West Church Yard with a new stone monument. John C.
Calhoun’s wife Floride died in 1886 and was
buried in the more prestigious East Church Yard with her family.
Thanks to
Robert and Susan Kirkpatrick for setting up another tent at the Ligonier
Games (PA). Robert reports: “We had another good rendezvous with fellow
Colquhouns at the Ligonier Games on Sept. 6. Among our many visitors, 26
signed in and 6 filed applications for membership. Also interesting was my
‘jamming’ session on
the
pipes with a fellow Colquhoun, Piper Kilpatrick (‘Piper’ is actually his
name!)---we played ‘The Colquhoun March’ of course. The day was certainly
a success!”
On 31
May, Clan Chattan USA became the first
recipient of the Laura Kilpatrick Spirit Award at the Glasgow (KY)
Highland Games. This award, presented in memory of Laura by her husband,
Jim Kilpatrick, is given to the clan that embodies the warmth and
friendliness that Laura brought to the games by making visitors
feel welcome in their tent.
(From The Highlander
Sep/Oct 2003).
The 31st
Stone Mountain Games, the other Great Southeastern Game, will be held the
weekend of October 18th. Clan Colquhoun Society of NA will have
it’s annual meeting Saturday afternoon after
the parade of tartans, usually about 1pm, at the clan tent.
Last year’s winner of the Judge Marcus and
Bernice Calhoun Memorial
award
for Grade II Piper was 14 year old Jennifer Ewing of the John Mohr
MacIntosh Pipe Band (Atlanta). Presenting the
award is past Society President Skeets
Cahoon. |
