Will County IL Archives Biographies.....Calhoun, William 1836 - 
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/il/ilfiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Deb Haines ddhaines@gmail.com May 5, 2007, 10:30 am

Author: Portraits & Bio Sketches, 1890

WILLIAM CALHOUN. 

This great Republic owes a larger debt than she can ever pay to the loyal 
citizen-soldiers who rallied to her defence in the darkest hours of the 
Rebellion, and heroically fought and suffered, and never laid down their arms 
till the glorious Stars and Stripes once more waved over a free and undivided 
country. As a representative of those heroes it pleases us to give this brief 
life record of William Calhoun, who with several of his brothers did honorable 
service in the Union army during the late war. Our subject is a farmer in 
Custer Township, owning and managing a good farm on section 20. Abner Calhoun, 
the father of our subject, was a farmer, and a native of New York. He was a 
soldier in the Black Hawk War, and received a land warrant for his good 
services. The mother of our subject was Mary (Hoyt) Calhoun, a native of Ohio. 
She was married to the father of our subject in that State, and removed to 
Michigan at an early day of its settlement. They came to Illinois in 1853, and 
located on the farm now belonging to our subject, and there spent the 
remainder of their days, he dying in 1855, and she April 19, 1878. They were 
the parents of twelve children, all sons but one, eight of whom are now 
living. The one of whom we write was the sixth child in order of birth, and 
was born in the month of January, 1836. His educational advantages were very 
meagre, and consisted of a short attendance in the district school. He was 
early called upon to assist his father in the farm work, and after the 
latter's death took tender care of his mother as long as she lived, and did 
not marry until after her death. After the breaking out of the war our subject 
watched its course with patriotic interest, and as soon as possible offered 
his services to his country, enlisting August 12, 1862, in Company F, Seventy-
sixth Illinois Infantry, and served faithfully till August 12, 1865. He took 
part in many battles, and his officers always found him to be an efficient and 
trustworthy soldier. He was in the battle of Mobile, Ala., and participated in 
a large number of severe skirmishes. He served under Gens. Steele, Crocker, 
Thomas, McPherson, Grant and Sherman. In December, 1862, Mr. Calhoun was sick 
in the hospital for a short time, and was then sent to the convalescent camp 
at Memphis, Tenn. From the hospital there he was sent to St. Louis Hospital, 
in which he remained till after the siege of Vicksburg. He then rejoined his 
regiment, and while it was on a raid from Natchez he received a sunstroke, 
which was very severe in its effects, and for eighteen months he was almost 
blind, and he lost the entire use of his left ear, and could scarcely hear 
with his right one. Notwithstanding his terrible condition he never left his 
regiment all through his sickness, and was finally discharged with it after 
the close of the war, at Galveston, Tex. The Calhoun family was well 
represented in the army, as beside our subject three of his brothers did 
valuable service in the defence of their country's honor—Ransford, Henry and 
Albert. The last named sacrificed his life for the old flag. He was a youth of 
seventeen years when he enlisted in the same company and regiment as our 
subject, and in 1864 he received injuries from which he died at his home soon 
after at the age of nineteen, and his body now lies in the cemetery at Custer 
Park. His brother, Henry J., enlisted in the same regiment and company at the 
age of twenty years, and did brave service on many a hard-fought battlefield. 
He endured the hardships and privations of a soldier's life without a murmur, 
and is still suffering from a knee which was injured while in the army. He is 
forty-eight years of age, and in the prime of life has acquired a competence 
on his farm in Plymouth County, Iowa. He is married and has a fine family of 
four children. After retiring from the army Mr. Calhoun quietly resumed 
farming operations on his farm in Custer Township. He has labored assiduously 
to place its one hundred and twenty acres under the best of cultivation, and 
now has it well improved, and supplied with neat buildings, and everything 
necessary for operating it to good advantage. December 21, 1883, Mr. Calhoun 
took an important step in life, which has contributed greatly to his comfort 
and happiness, as on that date he was married to Miss Ellen A. Bray. Her 
father, Dominick Bray, is an old soldier, and is now suffering from the 
effects of his faithful service while in the army. He and his wife have a 
comfortable home near Jamestown, Cloud County, Kan. Mrs. Calhoun is a native 
of this State, born in Kankakee County, where she received an excellent common-
school education. The pleasant home circle of our subject and his wife is 
completed by three children—Frank B., William Wesley and Jessie L. Mr. Calhoun 
is a man of sterling, self-respecting character, well-balanced mind, and his 
whole career has shown him to be a patriotic, trustworthy citizen, deserving 
of all confidence and regard. He concerns himself in the welfare of this 
township, where he has made his home since boyhood, and when he has been 
called to office has, by his faithful and efficient attention to the duties 
thus devolving upon him, materially forwarded its interests. He is Director of 
this school district, and has held this position for the last fourteen years, 
and he has also been Pathmaster. He is a member of Bowen Post, G. A. R., at 
Wilmington. He is a sturdy supporter of the Republican party, and always votes 
for its candidates. He began life for himself empty handed, and has attained 
his present good circumstances by persistent and well directed toil.

Additional Comments:
Portrait and Biographical Album of Will County, Illinois, Containing Full Page 
Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens 
of the County; Chicago: Chapman Bros., 1890 
 


File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/il/will/bios/calhoun447gbs.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/ilfiles/

File size: 6.5 Kb