Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1873-07-03

The Romance of a Great Family.
And now we come to the case of Will
liam S. Calhoun, whose history is a
strange one. He is the scion of a grand
family. The Calhoun family before the
war was one of the proudest and
wealthiest in Louisiana. This CAL
houn's father owned plantation worth
over half million of dollars and a
thousand negroes. The vast area of
land stretching around Colfax, and
known for years as the Calhoun plan
tations, attested the wealth and position
of hefamily. ss'.iGnsJ ia.sers~
The immediate descendants of the
wealthy Calhoun, who owned all this,
who now survive, are William Calhoun
and a sister, now living ina Northern
State, a refugee from theIhome disgrace
ed by the actions of her only brother.
Calhoun, as the Louisianians say, was
born gentleman, associated with gem
tlemen, and was considered a gentle-
man. lie was given all the education
he would take. But he has been q
hunchback from youth up, and this,
together with no very genial qualities
of mind, sonred his disposition and
made him morose and given to mean
ness and melancholy, The negroes
paid him more respect than other peo-
pie, and he fell to liking them and made
companions of his former slaves. He
peopled his plantation with negroes, it
being a case of "hatural seleetion," as
Darwin would say. He. is said to have
been kind to his slaves before the war;
but not to the extentiof injuripg his
standing "as a perfect gentleman"
among the Louisianians. There is a
difference between being Kind to a hu-1
man being and '.going down to an
equality with him" !. ~ 80. a
Not long after the war, upon one Of
his visits to New Orleans to purchase
mules and provisions for his plantation,
he met a strlkingly handsome 'irnulatto
girl, and wa, smitten. This scion of a
fine family and master Of a twelve
tho,sand acre Red river plantation, fell
down worshippei New Orleans yell
low girl He determined to have her.
Before the war. the circumstance might
have created a breeze, but since the
Constitutional Amendments and the
laws made in pursuance thereof, such
an affair among first families makes
less sensation than formerly" 5@'.' ID
The dusky maiden, however, was not
so smitten with Calhoun as Calhoun
was with the maiden. He was not
pretty; indeed, he was a funchback,
and even being white did not compen-
safe in the eyes of the maiden for that.
Her mother also objected to her having
anything to do with Calhoun. He told
them of his great wealth, but they did
not believe it. The story goes that he
purchased the mothers consent for five
thousand dollars. At .al events he
took the maiden to his kingdom on
Red River. ijH- .i1st.4s" lr'+au =.
And now comes the strongest part of
all-he married her, sinking lower and
lower in the social scale. About the !
time of his marriage his sister return
ed from Europe. JudgeYof her feelings |
to find the ancestral home turned into
a harem-a New Orleans mulatto mis-
tress Of the house. A two million dol
lar first family decended to this! Its
said that she was SO incensed at his
conduct that she even. refused to speak
him when they met, and that he slap |
ped her in the face with his hand on
account of her ''insolent conduct at
all events, the sister left her brother
and home forever, and is now in the
North. AT least i am so told by those
who are in a position to know. |
But Calhoun was not prosperous.-
The negroes did abJect homage to him,
and his plantation of twelve thousand
acres was as rich as any under the
Louisiana sun; but debt encountered
him, and mortgages camped about him
New the grand plantation, stretching
for miles and miles along the Nile of
America, is said to be every foot under
mortgage for more than it will bring |
and its master bankrupt.
Among other troubles, came rival,
a contestant for the affections of the ne. J.