Florid Calhoun
Floride Bonneau Calhoun ( February 15, 1792 - July 25, 1866 ) was the wife of the prominent US politician John C. Calhoun , who was Vice President of the United States from 1825 to 1832 .
Life
Floride Colhoun was the daughter of US Senator John E. Colhoun and Floride Bonneau. She was the niece of Rebecca Colhoun Pickens, wife of Congressman Andrew Pickens . Floride was very musical and was considered religious.
On January 8, 1811, she married John C. Calhoun, a first cousin of her father. Shortly after the wedding, her husband was elected to Congress and left the Fort Hill plantation in South Carolina in the care of his wife. During the next 18 years, Floride had ten children: Andrew Pickens (1811–1865), Floride Pure (1814–1815), Jane (1816–1816), Anna Maria (1817–1875), Elizabeth (1819–1820), Patrick ( 1821-1858), John Jr. (1823-1855), Martha Cornelia (1824-1857), James Edward (1826-1861) and William Lowndes (1829-1858).
In 1817 she accompanied her husband to Washington after he had been appointed Secretary of War . Eight years later, she became the second lady of the United States after her husband was elected vice president. During her time as Second Lady, she was embroiled in a social scandal known as the Petticoat Affair, which was also to have far-reaching political consequences. Floride, along with the other women in the Jackson cabinet, had plotted against Secretary of War John Eaton's wife , Margaret ( Peggy ) O'Neill Eaton. Floride learned through Peggy that she was having an affair with Eaton while she was married to her first husband, John B. Timberlake. Upon discovering the affair, it allegedly drove him to suicide. The social ostracism of Mrs. Eaton by Floride Calhoun made the already strained relationship between Vice President Calhoun and President Andrew Jackson worse.
After her husband's resignation as Vice President and his election to the Senate , she returned to Fort Hill , resumed her previous position as mistress of the plantation and was rarely in Washington. Her husband died in 1850. In 1854 she sold the plantation to her eldest son Andrew Pickens Calhoun and held the mortgage on it. In 1855 she moved to a smaller house in Pendleton , South Carolina, called Mi Casa . She saw the deaths of six of her seven surviving children. After Andrew's death in 1865, she filed for foreclosure against his heirs. She died the following year. After a long legal battle, the plantation in Walhalla was auctioned off in 1872 . Your estate administrator was awarded the contract. The profit was shared among their surviving heirs. Her daughter Anna Maria Calhoun Clemson and her son-in-law Thomas Green Clemson received three quarters of the plantation, including the house, while her great-granddaughter Floride Isabella Lee received the rest. Fort Hill is now part of Clemson University .
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Calhoun, Florida |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Calhoun, Floride Bonneau |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American second lady |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 15, 1792 |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 25, 1866 |