Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1901-05-30
AN HISTORIC PLACE.
Noted Old Calhoun Home in South
Carolina

Carolina.
Gath in The Pittsburg Dispatch.
Having visited most Of the homes of
American public men Who exist in ira
! dition, l felt the list incomplete till I
had come nearer to John G. Calhoun
So I took the night train at Wasa-
ington City on the Southern railway
and awOke at Charlotte, n c., and
then continued on TIL noon, getting off
at Central Station, five miles from Cal
houn's home at the northwestern end
of South Carolina Central is just
| half way between Charlotte and Al
lanta. At Central hired buggy and
driver and road to Calhoun's house,
called formerly Fort Hill It is now
Clemson college.
There l dismounted at the place
where Calhoun lived from 1924, when
first elected vice president, before
John Quincy Adams was elected presi-
dent, little later, as Adams was chos-
en- by the states in congress, the sec
ond of the presidents to be elected
without a popular choice. Calhoun
had the electoral majority that year,
and was reelected for the first term
that Jackson would retire at the end
of one term and leave him caliph, or
successor.
| From 1924 to his death in 1850 Fort
Hill was Calhoun's legal residence and
part of the time his real residence. It
is about the only place in South Caro-.
lima where any residence of Calhoun
can now be identified, his former
homes at Abbeville, Bath, etc., being
now gone Or uncertain. Fort Hill is
! like Marshallfield for Webster Ash
land for Clay, Lindenwald for Van
Buren, or the Hermitage for Jackson,
the place of Calhoun's interval or pri-
vate life.
The road to Calhoun's wound over
the railroad track and the clay and
sand hill tops through the plowed
| ground for cotton, without any fences,
some four or five old huts or houses
and two or three wooden churches on
the way, the woods thin pine or petty
oaks. One old horse mill gin and
! compress was passed before we
reached Clemson, amidst which, like
an old white relic, is Calhoun's home.
Much of this time he was in Washing
ton, Charleston or Columbia.
The architectural quality of two
! ''porches" gave the impression of addi-
tons to a mere plain F'house" or coun-
try cottage, with outside chimneys
that were carried up in two diminish
ing fireplaces to a plain shaft, drawn
back from touching the gable. No
dormers were in this blank roof, but
only gable openings. The porticO
came almost or quite to the ground,
with a strip of grass lawn before, and
then two or three steps down to a
walk" or path. Still farther down
was a modern latticed round summer
house, covering an old stone spring,
which had nc overflow.
Despite it's eight columns and re-
lieved vertical chimneys, the dwelling
looked low, the skylines outstretching
the columnar intention. 1t was my
view that at the present day, with
such materials, I could duplicate the
house for $4,000, at the most $500.
What gave it the statesman or pro-
prietary effect were the tall old trees
on the promontory lawn, four or five
branching oaks, rising several times
the height of the house, some old &C.
dars, locusts, frs and pines, a beech
tree near the spring and close to it an
enormous tree all naked at the top,
but near the ground full of holly, like
evergreen.
In the rear of the house, some so
PAGES from it, was a little one story
office with window in the side and a
door under wooden classical portico,
the whole, say, IL feet by 16. This
was the solitary mans library and
study. I understood that his books
had been transferred to the college.
Relic Room of Calhoun House.
Knocking at the knockerless door
with my knuckles, it was opened by an
amiable young lady, who said that her
aunt, or mother, Mrs. Calhoun, would
show me the t'relic room," and opened
door from vestibule leading to the
short one-roomed left wing. It had a
ceiling of white boards, in strips Of
five or six inches, a carefully husband
ed carpet on the floor and a wooden
black mante1 in the end, with a brick
fireplace for wood fire below.
Among family and domestic things
on the wall were engravings Of Cen
, erals Lee and Jackson, and, think,
/ Jefferson Davis. The room was very
: tranquil, neat and old timeish, was low
in the ceiling and was perhaps 22x1S
} feet. 1t appeared to be the living OF
) sitting room; perhaps in sickness or
extreme heat, the chief bedroom.
Soon a lady Of the quiet period came
in, with curling white hair, a gentle
manner and accommodating
} Calhoun. She may have been alive
when Calhoun died, nearly at the sea
son was present-indeed, only five
/ days before the date of his demise
7 March 81, 81 years ago. He was also
: born in March. 1882, nine months be
t fore his tranquil competitor, President
D Van Bruen, and 10 years after William
e H. Crawford, who struck Calhoun