Biography of Edward Noble Calhoun, St. Augustine, St. Johns Co., FL

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Transcribed from:  The History of Florida:  Past & Present, The Lewis Publishing Co., Vol. 
II, page 85, 1923.

CALHOUN, EDWARD NOBLE.  Combining the record of father and sons, the distinguished CALHOUN 
family has had representatives in the legal profession of Florida for forty years.  The 
grandfather and great-grandfather of these attorneys was the American statesmen JOHN C. 
CALHOUN of South Carolina.  JOHN C. CALHOUN, Jr., was for many years a resident of St. 
Augustine, Florida.  He married KATE PUTNAM, daughter of BENJAMIN PUTNAM and a relative 
of the General Putnam in whose honor Putnam county, Florida, was named.

BENJAMIN P. CALHOUN, son of JOHN C., Jr., and KATE (PUTNAM) CALHOUN, was born at St. 
Augustine, Florida, August 7, 1855, and spent the greater part of his active life at Palatka.  
He married JULIA CATHERINE PETERMAN, a native of Palatka.  Her father, PETER PETERMAN, 
came to America from Germany, and was a successful orange grower and one of the pioneer 
tourist hotel men of Florida.  He also served with the rank of captain in the Confederate 
Army.  BENJAMIN P. CALHOUN was liberally educated, his training being largely directed 
by his relative Gen. KIRBY SMITH at the University of Tennessee.  He was admitted to the 
bar by examination in 1877, first in South Carolina and then in Florida, and was admitted 
to the New York State Bar in 1878 and for about one year practiced in New York City.  
He then located at Jacksonville, where he was associated with JOHN E. HARTREDGE for a 
year and then moved to Palatka in Putnam County, where he continued his professional work 
until his death on October 20, 1906.  He enjoyed many public honors, and was the first 
democrat to represent Putnam County in the State Senate after the war.  He was a member 
of the County School Board, was county judge, county solicitor, state senator one term, 
state's attorney of the Eighth Judicial District, and was in the last named office at 
the time of his death.  He was a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon College Fraternity 
and the Knights of Pythias.  In the practice of law his business took him before all 
the state courts and before the United States Supreme Court.  At one time he was general 
counsel for the Florida Southern Railway, now part of the Atlantic Coast Line, and was 
division counsel for the Georgia Southern and Florida Railway.  He was a member of the 
Southern Society of the City of New York, and was a leader in the democratic party of 
the state from 1876 until his death.

The wife of BENJAMIN P. CALHOUN was born in Putnam County, September 25, 1857, and died 
July 25, 1908.  They were the parents of five sons and two daughters, and three sons 
and one daughter are living.

EDWARD NOBLE CALHOUN, oldest child of BENJAMIN P. CALHOUN, and a great-grandson of JOHN 
C. CALHOUN of South Carolina, was born in New York City, September 5, 1878.  He was 
liberally educated, attending the Putnam High School and the Florida Agricultural College  
he received his LL.B. degree from the University of Georgia, and was admitted to the bar 
in Florida in 1901.  During the twenty years of his active practice he has represented 
a number of important interests and almost continuously has had some public duty in the 
line of his profession.  He served as municipal judge of Palatka from 1906 to 1911.  In 
the latter year he removed to St. Augustine, and has for twelve years been city attorney.  
He was county attorney of Putnam County in 1909-11, and was appointed state attorney in 
1915, but did not serve.  Mr. CALHOUN is a member of the St. Johns County and Florida 
State Bar Association, the Sigma Nu Fraternity, is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias, 
Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Moose, and is a member of St. Augustine Country 
Club and the Surf Bound club.  He is a Sigma Nu Frat man of Mu Chapter, University of 
Georgia.  

February 5, 1912, he married GERTRUDE E. McWILLIAMS, a native of St. Augustine.  Her 
father, WILLIAM A. McWILLIAMS at this time is president of the Florida State Senate.  
Mr. and Mrs. CALHOUN have two children;  GERTRUDE E. and NOBLE PUTNAM.