Calhoun

Calhoun. . , Calhoun-Griffin-Mott House , A beautiful mansion once stood at this riverfront location. This opulent urban home overlooking the Chattahoochee River and adjacent to a busy manufacturing district was sequentially the residence of three of the city's most successful and diversified entrepreneurs. Each man helped to build the early infrastructure and commercial foundations of Columbus, Georgia. , James Silas Calhoun , James Calhoun arrived in Columbus from Milledgeville in 1855, having already represented Baldwin County for three terms in the state legislature. He stimulated the local economy by restructuring a bank, purchasing the Oglethorpe Hotel, developing river commerce, speculating in Alabama Indian lands, and investing in the Coweta Falls Factory of his brother-in-law, John H. Howard. This was the city's first textile mill, located just south of the Frank Martin Pedestrian Bridge. , Calhoun also immersed himself in city politics, serving as mayor (1857-58) and as state senator (1838, 1840, and 1845). During the 1840s Calhoun expanded his political influence into national Whig Party politics. President John Tyler appointed him as consul to Havana in 1841 in recognition of his leadership. Influential slaveholders were advocating the acquisition of Cuba as a new slave territory, making this appointment a plum position. , To reflect his elite status and that of his wife, Anna Howard, Calhoun purchased two acres in January 1839 and began construction of a two story house with solid 12-inch-thick brick interior and 17-inch-thick brick exterior walls. A graceful Greek-revival portico with lonic columns adorned this large masonry structure. The third story details - mansard roof, cupola, and iron cresting were added at a later time. In this era of mostly wooden houses, locals and visitors alike admired the home's scale, its brick façades with elaborate Flemish bond masonry construction, and its picturesque riverside setting. Anna Howard Calhoun died in 1841 just after completion of the home, and her death probably influenced Calhoun to leave Columbus. By 1845 Calhoun had returned as editor of the Columbus Enquirer, a conservative, pro-Union Whig publication. , In 1846, as Americans dreamed of fulfilling their manifest destiny, Calhoun organized an infantry company as part of the First Regiment of Georgia Volunteers. The company joined other American forces fighting Mexico over disputed territory north of the Rio Grande River. In recognition of his leadership, Calhoun rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. President Zachary Taylor appointed Calhoun as Indian agent in Santa Fe and then as the first territorial governor of New Mexico in 1851. Calhoun unsuccessfully tried to introduce slavery there and ban free blacks from entering the territory. While residing in the West, Calhoun sold his Columbus home to Daniel Griffin in 1850. , Sick with scurvy and fearing his imminent death, Calhoun returned to the East bearing his own coffin in a wagon with a mounted escort. As he had feared, he died en route to Columbus on July 2, 1852 and was buried in the vicinity of Independence, Missouri. His house would stand as a memorial to his importance to both Columbus and the American Southwest.