Biography - George Calhoon
GEORGE J. CALHOON was born in Marshall County. Tenn., in 1833, and now
resides in Tunnel Hill Township, Johnson County. His father, Jacob J.
Calhoon, was born in the same State in 1802 and was a son of George Calhoon,
who was 21 native of North Carolina but was reared in Tennessee. The
paternal progenitors of this family were of Irish stock, and those on the
mother’s side of English ancestry. George Calhoon married Martha Julian, a
native of Georgia. They were married in Tennessee and lived there on their
farm all their lives. Mr. Calhoon was an extensive farmer and reared five
sons and one daughter. His widow died in Johnson County in 1858, nearly
ninety years old. Zaccheus Calhoon, uncle of George J., came to Illinois in
1850, and George Calhoon, father of Jacob J., came in 1852, bringing his
twelve children. When he came to Illinois he had some capital and obtained
eight hundred acres of land in Johnson County, on which he lived but a few
years, dying in 1855, aged fifty-three years. His wife was Rebecca McCall,
of Tennessee, daughter of Thomas McCall and his wife, who was a Miss
Gilmore, and who died in February, 1867, at the age of sixty-five years.
Their family of six sons and seven daughters all grew to adult age but one,
Samuel, who died in Tennessee at the age of fourteen. Five sons and three
daughters are now living, of whom George J. is the fifth child in order of
birth.
Our subject was reared to rural life in Tennessee, receiving but a meagre
education, and none whatever in Illinois, for he was obliged to help his
father gain a livelihood for the large family. He lived with his parents
until his father’s death and was married in his twenty-eighth year to Miss
Martha J. Dunn, daughter of Priulia and Edna (Draughon) Dunn, who came to
Illinois in 1838, after being reared and married in Tennessee. Mrs. Calhoon
was the third child and first daughter in a family of nine children, and
after her marriage with our subject she began life in a neat hewed log cabin
on an eighty-acre farm bought of Mr. Calhoon’s father, who built the house
himself and also added to it a good stone chimney. He cleared up this farm
and added forty acres to it, which he bought from the Illinois Central
Railroad Company at $7 per acre, and after living twelve years there he sold
out and bought their present home, where he owns one hundred and twenty
acres.
Mr. Calhoon and his wife lost of their children twin infant daughters seven
months old in 1867 and one infant son in 1880. A daughter, Mary Jane, died
in 1877, at five years of age; Samuel C., who was a bright and intelligent
young man, just preparing to teach school, died in 1881 at twenty one years
of age, of measles; Martha E. died in 1882 in her fifth year; Flora, a young
lady of twenty years, died August 4, 1890. The latter was preparing to
teach, and had overtaxed her strength, in study, and died of nervous
troubles. The living children are: George P., a farmer near New Burnside,
who has two sons; R. E., a single man of twenty-eight; Zaecheus T., M. D.,
of Eddyville, Pope County; Sarah E., a young lady; John H., a youth of
seventeen; Benjamin F., fifteen years old; William A., eleven years; and
James W., eight years old. The last five are all at home. Mr. and Mrs.
Calhoon are still working on the farm and are doing a general farming
business, raising an abundance of wheat, corn, hay, oats and stock. Mr.
Calhoon was formerly a Democrat, but has recently become a Prohibitionist
and now exerts his influence in that direction. Although he never aspired to
office of any kind, yet he is firm in his belief and is always ready to help
promote the general welfare of this locality.
Extracted 15 Sep 2009 by Vera Burnham from 1893 Biographical Review of Johnson, Massac, Pope, and Hardin Counties, Illinois, pages 450-451
