National Register Listing

Calhoun, Patrick, Family Cemetery

9.5 mi. SW of Abbeville on SC 823, Abbeville, SC

This cemetery contains the graves of Patrick Calhoun and members of his family, who settled in the Long Canes area of Abbeville County in the 1750s. Patrick Calhoun, an early settler of backcountry South Carolina soon achieved a reputation as an Indian fighter. He entered politics and served in South Carolina's early assemblies. Realizing that the Charleston-based state legislature often served only the interests of the lowcountry planters, Calhoun became a spokesman for the rights of the backcountry settlers. He was influential in securing the right to vote for this region as well as promoting its representation in the legislature. He was also the father of John C. Calhoun, U.S. Senator and Vice-President of the United States (1824-1832). John C. Calhoun spent his early life in the Abbeville community and its adjacent countryside, the homeplace of the Calhoun family. In 1844 he erected a monument in the family cemetery to his father. (John C. Calhoun is buried in Charleston. A statue in tribute has been erected in Statuary Hall of the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.)

MILITARY AND POLITICAL: James, Ezekiel, William, and Patrick Calhoun, four brothers, emigrated from Ireland to Pennsylvania in the 1730s and then moved southward along the Alleghenies to Wythe County, Virginia. Indian attacks, after Braddock's defeat, forced them to move southward again. In 1756 they established the Calhoun settlement in the Long Canes community of present-day Abbeville County, SC.

In February 1760, the Cherokee Indians were threatening the frontier, and a caravan of about 250 settlers from the Long Canes Community was traveling to Fort Moore, near Augusta, for shelter. The caravan, of which Patrick Calhoun and his family were a part, was attacked by over 100 Indians, and many of the settlers were killed. This event, known as the Long Canes Massacre, awoke the indignation of the colonial government towards the Indians and resulted in the burning of Cherokee towns. Patrick Calhoun returned to the massacre site in 1760 and erected two stone markers, which are still standing today. He was also instrumental in having a company of government troops sent to the Long Canes Community in 1764 to protect the settlers from further Indian attacks. He was placed at the head of this company. Throughout the Cherokee skirmishes of the 1760s, Patrick Calhoun had the reputation of being a skillful Indian fighter and later became a hero in local legends.

In 1769, Patrick Calhoun led a band of upcountry settlers to Charleston, where they demanded and received, the right to vote. Calhoun was elected the first representative from the upcountry in the Provincial Assembly as a result of this expedition. From 1769-1772, he served in the Commons House of Assembly from Prince Williams Parish. He participated in the First and Second Provincial Congresses (1775-1776) and was a member of the state's first General Assembly (1776), in which he served until his death in 1796.

Patrick Calhoun's grave is the earliest recorded in the cemetery, which is located on the former grounds of his plantation. Before and during his political and military career, he earned a livelihood as a farmer and surveyor.

John C. Calhoun

John C. Calhoun, son of Patrick and Martha Calhoun, was born in the Long Canes settlement in 1782 and lived there on his father's plantation until about 1795. At this time he entered the Academy of his brother-in-law, Dr. Moses Waddell, across the Savannah River in Georgia.

After Patrick Calhoun died in 1796, John C. Calhoun left Waddell's Academy and returned home to manage the family plantation, which included the family cemetery. In 1800 he reentered Waddell's Academy, which had been moved to the South Carolina side of the Savannah River, and in 1802 he entered Yale. After acquiring a law degree from Yale in 1806, Calhoun returned to South Carolina and opened a law office in Abbeville in 1807. The Law Range where Calhoun had his office is still standing in the town of Abbeville.

In 1811 Calhoun married and made his home in Bath, S.C., across the Savannah River from Augusta. In 1825 he built a mansion at Fort Hill in the northwest corner of the state but continued to maintain connections in the Long Canes community. In 1844, while he was U.S. Secretary of State, John C. Calhoun erected a monument in the family cemetery to his father, mother, and sister. The monument, with inscriptions written by Calhoun, stands today.

Local significance of the structure:
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1975.