William Caldwell Calhoun and Agnes Long
1) Joseph Calhoun (1750-1817) 6918279
2) Catherine “Kitty” Calhoun (1753-1760) 138871459
3) Ann Calhoun Mathews (1755-1830) 139903315
4) Mary Calhoun (1757-) 178760624
5) Ens Patrick Calhoun (1760-1776) 178765914
6) Rachel Calhoun Norris (1762-1844) 178776097
7) Esther Calhoun Love (1765-1844) 7652584
8) William Calhoun (1768-1821) 178777420
9) Ezekiel Calhoun (1770-1817) 103030396
10) Agnes Nancy Calhoun Hutton (1773-1840) 8501247
11) Alexander Calhoun (1776-1815) 178777336

The Index-Journal (Greenwood, South Carolina) · Sat, Mar 20, 1948

William Calhoun, of the brothers mentioned as pioneer settlers in the Long Canes. Parents were James and Catherine Calhoun.

The father and mother and sons and a daughter landed in New York, as immigrants, in 1733 and went to the western part of Pennsylvania, later to Virginia and then to South Carolina by way of the Waxhaws.

Patrick Calhoun soon became a well-known figure in the community and with his brother, William, was named a Justice of the Peace for what was then called Granville County, a very indefinite area beginning on the coast and extending up the east bank of the Savannah River to a still more indefinite length. This was dropped, as a name, after the formation of Ninety Six District in 1768 as amended by the Act of 1769 (approved by the Privy Council in London), when the two brothers were named Justices of the Peace for the new District.

Colonial Families of the USA, 1607-1775
Colonial Families of the United States of America, Volume VI
Calhoun Family

Issue of James and Catherine (Montgomery) Calhoun
Son: William Caldwell Calhoun (1723 Donegal, Ireland) (1790 Abbeville) of South Carolina, Justice of the Peace, married 19 October 1749 Agnes Long (1733 Lancaster PA – 1794 Abbeville)

The Index-Journal (Greenwood, South Carolina) · Sat, FEB 28, 1948

In his book, “The Hard Labor Section”, the late Dr H T Cook, a native of the present Troy community of this section, mentions the fact that for some years after settlers began to take up land in and around Ninety Six and in the Calhoun Settlement, or “Long Canes”, some miles to the west of Ninety Six, the section in between these two settlements was, for some years, neglected. The land was regarded as thin and not so desirable as in the Ninety Six and Calhoun Settlement. The word “Long Canes” is descriptive of the tall canes or reed canes which grew so luxuriantly in the region selected by the Calhouns when they came to this area in 1756.

The Calhouns soon had neighbors. And it would appear that there were a few settlers who had come in this western area prior to the arrival of the Calhouns. In the sketch of Abbeville District (County), used in Mills’ Handbook of South Carolina, published to accompany the Atlas of South Carolina compiled by Robert Mills, there is a reference to a family named Edwards who were already located in this part of the colony.

While the Calhoun Settlement was more particularly in what later became Abbeville County, the bounds of it were not far from the first western boundary of Greenwood County at its formation in 1897, but much of the more adjacent area was cut off to help form McCormick County.

The famous Patterson’s Bridge on the old Long Cane Road and the site of the Calhoun Massacre, though there were others than the Calhoun family in the fleeing caravan of settlers trying to escape the pursuing Indians, and the site of the massacre itself was two and a half miles from Troy. The site of this massacre is in McCormick County, the county line being about a mile from Troy at or near the old Macomb Spence house.

As mentioned last week, the road from the Calhoun Settlement crossed Long Cane at or near the Patterson Bridge (a new bridge has been built by the US Forestry Commission) and one near the site of the Calhoun Massacre, through the present town of Troy and on toward Winterseat where it joins the Old Charleston Road.

Although it has been printed before, the current account of this massacre of white settlers by the Indians on Feb 1, 1760, will be of interest. The account with the original spelling and capitalization of all nouns, as printed in the South Carolina Gazette under date, Feb 9, 1760:
“Yesterday so’nnight (an archaic word to describe a period of seven nights and days or a week), the whole of the Long Cane Settlers to the Number of 150 Souls moved off with most of their Effects in Waggons; to go toward Augusta in Georgia and in a few Hours after their setting off were surprised and attacked by about 100 Cherokees on Horseback, while they were getting their Waggons out of a boggy Place; They (the settlers) had about 40 Gunmen, who might have made a very good defence, but unfortunately their Guns were in the Waggons; the few who recovered their’s (Guns), fought, the Enemy half an Hour and were at last obliged to fly; In the action, they lost seven Waggons and 40 of their people killed or taken prisoner (including Women and Children) the Rest got safe to Augusta; whence the Express arrived here with the same Account on Tuesday Morning.”

Later, on Feb 23, 1760, the South Carolina Gazette had this item:
“Mr Patrick Calhoun, one of the unfortunate Settlers at Long Canes who were attacked by the Cherokees on the first Instant as they were removing their Wives, Children and Best Effects to Augusta, in Georgia, for Safety, is just come to Town (Charlestown) and informs us “That the whole of these Settlers might be about 250 souls, 50 or 60 of them fighting Men; that their Loss in that Affair amounted to about Fifty Persons, chiefly Women and Children with 15 loaded Waggons and Carts; that he had since been at the Place where the Action happened, in order to bury the Dead and found only 20 of their bodies, most inhumanly butchered; that the Indians had burned the Woods all around but had left the Waggons and Carts there empty and unhurt; and that he believed all the fighting Men would return and fortify the Long Cane Settlement were (if) part of the Rangers so stationed as to give them some Assistance and Protection.”

Also, in this same issue of the South Carolina Gazette, dated Feb 23, 1760, is the following
“We have to late Advices from the Fort Prince-George (the outmost fort in the Cherokee Indian foothills town in what is now Oconee County) of any Consequences from places on that Route but from Fort Moore (a fort opposite Augusta and on the South Carolina side of the Savannah river) we learn that a Gang of 18 Cherokees divided into 3 or 4 Parties, on the 15th instant way-laid, killed and scalped Ulrig Tobler, Esq, a Captain of Militia in those Parts as he was riding from his Father’s to that Fort and shot Mr William Calhoun, who was with him, in the Hand; 3 other Persons who were in Company were unhurt; the Indians who killed Capt Tobler left a Hatchet sticking in his Neck, on which were 3 old Notches and 3 newly cut.”

Several of the Settlers were found hiding in the woods by the men who well-armed and in numbers returned to search for the victims.

Patrick Calhoun, of the original brothers who settled in the Long Canes, found his niece, Rebecca Calhoun, daughter of his brother Ezekiel Calhoun, hiding in a Cane Brake. This Rebecca Calhoun afterwards married Andrew Pickens, who was a Brigadier General in the Revolution, member of Congress, the father of Andrew Pickens who became Governor of South Carolina in 1816.

These were descendants of the young Rebecca Calhoun who escaped the night attack of the Indians not far from Patterson’s Bridge over Long Cane – remembering, of course, that there was no bridge over Long Cane at that place or any other in those early times. There was a ford there and tradition is that the pursuing Indians had almost given up hope of catching up with the fleeing whites but some of the “Waggons” (the old spelling) got stuck in the bog and the noise made in trying to get the horses to pull the “wagons” and carts out of the bog reached the ears of the Indians and they came on. They did not attack, however, as the Gazette account states, until after nightfall and while the whites were off their guard, getting ready to feed the horses and have supper themselves and with their guns all hidden or covered up in the wagons and carts.

~~~~There is another legend which does not seem to be able to square itself with the records. This legend has to do with the ride of the wife of William Calhoun (she was Agnes Long of Virginia) and that she was told by her husband to try to make her way to Augusta and he would follow later, with the survivors and so on. The story continues that she stopped on the way at a deserted cabin and there all alone, gave birth to a son who was named Patrick and who lived to be 17 years old. He was killed at that age by Indians against whom, young Calhoun and others had arranged an expedition.

The date of the birth of his young Patrick Calhoun, son of William Calhoun and Agnes Long Calhoun, is put down in the family record as shown in the pamphlet of the Calhoun Family compiled by A S Salley, State Historian as Feb 18, 1760. This is to say, the massacre was on the night of Feb 1, 1760. The Calhoun record says young Patrick was born Feb 18, 1760 or 18 days after the massacre.

These dates would seem to be correct as William Calhoun kept all his records with considerable detail. He had a journal which he kept to record the amounts due him by his neighbors for goods bought from him and records also of his transactions as Justice of the Peace, marriage records, and the records of his own family. The contents of this little journal of William Calhoun has been published (Publications of the Southern History Associateion, Vol Vlll, pp 159-195).

William Calhoun set down the births of his own children, those being 1) Joseph Calhoun 2) Catherine Calhoun 3) Anne Calhoun 4) Patrick Calhoun 5) Rachel Calhoun 6) Esther Calhoun 7) William Calhoun Jr 8) Agnes Calhoun 9) Alexander Calhoun
11 in all

William Calhoun and his wife, Agnes Long Calhoun and their 2nd child, Catherine Calhoun, as one of the victims. It would appear from the wording of William Calhoun’s own journal that she was believed to have been killed but that her body was not found.
She was only 7 years old at the time of the massacre, having been born Feb 4, 1753. The next child, the 3rd, of William and Anne was born May 18, 1755. She was taken as a captive by the Indians and was kept by them for 14 years. The Cherokee Indians who finally claimed her removed to the mountains of Georgia and it was fourteen years after the massacre that relatives heard of a white girl who was being brought up by these Indians. The story is that the mother identified her by a birth mark and also others by the family resemblance.

This young girl, Anne, then 19 years old, was brought home to her own people. She soon had a beau, Isaac Mathews of Calhoun Settlement, and on Oct 12, 1784, the two Isaac Mathews and Anne Calhoun were married.

Isaac Mathews died in 1801 and his wife, Anne Calhoun Mathews died Dec 19, 1830. It was a tradition in the family that Anne Calhoun wrote a full account of her stay with the Indians but it was never published and probably has long since been lost.

Mary Calhoun, the next daughter of William Calhoun and his wife Agnes Long Calhoun, born Nov 1, 1757, was also carried off by the Indians at the massacre of Feb 1, 1760. She was only 3 years old and is believed to have been killed by the Indians as nothing was ever heard further about her.

The next child of William Calhoun and Agnes Long Calhoun was Patrick, the one who was born Feb 18, 1760, nearly 3 weeks after the massacre. He was killed June 26, 1776 by the Indians when they were attacked by a company under Capt James McCall. Young Calhoun was an Ensign in the command.

Rachel Calhoun, the next child of William Calhoun and Agnes Long Calhoun was born Sept 19, 1762, married Patrick Norris.

Esther Calhoun was born Sept 30, 1765 and married William Love.
(her gravestone indicates that she was the daughter of William and Nancy Calhoun – would her mother’s name be “Nancy Agnes Long?) 7652584