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Biographies
A Long Overdue Biography
Every good story should have a memorable beginning.
Something that catches the reader’s attention and
imagination.
Perhaps in this case, the best beginning would be
the ending and the best words to use would be the words
of someone else.
In 1840 then Secretary of War of the United States,
J.R. Poinsett, signed a certificate, which stated:
“I certify that in conformity with the law of
the United States of the 7th June 1832, Daniel
McCollum of the state of Georgia, who was a private in the
revolution, is entitled to receive twenty six dollars and
sixty six cents per annum during his natural life, commencing
on the 4th of March 1831, and payable semi-annually
on the 4th of March and 4th of September
in every year.
Given at the War Office of the United States this
twentieth day of February one thousand eight hundred and
forty.”
Daniel was eighty when these words were written
and he was ninety when they were quoted in what was to become
the documentation authorizing his final pension payment
on March 8, 1850.
At the time he lived in Habersham County Georgia
on Blue Creek with his daughter and son-in-law.
He probably knew that his earthly remains would rest
in the cemetery of the Blue Creek Baptist Church beside
his wife, who preceded him in death.
It was in Habersham County at the time of his death,
but became White County in 1857.
In less than six months he was buried beside her.
Over the ensuing years six generations of his descendants
joined him in this little country cemetery on a hillside
in the shadow of Mount Yonah.
His family built a rock wall around their parents’
graves, but never erected a marker.
All who knew of Daniel’s final resting place passed
on. His great
grandchildren put up a marker in memory of his daughter-in-law,
who died in 1824, but when a fire destroyed church records,
no physical trace of Daniel’s presence remained.
Most of what we know about Daniel McCollum comes
from documents prepared between 1832 and 1840 to prove his
eligibility for a Revolutionary War pension.
From them we know he was born in 1760 in East Jersey,
lived in North Carolina at the time of the Revolution and
for a while afterward, moved to the Pendleton District of
South Carolina before 1790, and moved to Habersham County
in February 1826.
Daniel’s birth in East Jersey and the fact that numerous
Daniel McCollums there descended from Scottish immigrant
John N. McCollum, suggest that Daniel was also a descendant.
John arrived in the Jersey colony in 1685 after being
banished “to the king’s plantations abroad” for his role
in a rebellion against the English.
He spent his last days in Scotland in the Canongate
Tollbooth prison in Edinburgh and was transported to Perth
Amboy, New Jersey aboard the Henry and Francis, which
arrived in December.
The records are not conclusive, but Daniel appears
to be the son of John’s grandson, Samuel McCollum and his
wife, Hannah Freeman, who were married October 3, 1759.
When and under what circumstances Daniel moved south
to North Carolina remains a mystery.
When the Revolution came Daniel was sixteen.
The records show that he volunteered as a minuteman
for tours of duty lasting two-three months each year from
1776 until the war ended in 1783.
His company was active in Rowan and Randolph counties
in North Carolina and as far south as Camden in South Carolina.
Their mission was to pursue Tories, that is, those
who were in sympathy with the British.
He performed his military service around the responsibilities
he had at home.
His home was most likely a farm and, if he was typical
of others his age, he had been doing adult work since he
was about 12.
The fighting didn’t reach Rowan County, but the war
must certainly have had an impact on the lives of those
left behind as well as those who went off to fight.
Daniel wasn’t married, but he must have had family
who were concerned about him when he was away.
He came home safely and continued to live in Rowan
County until about 1784 or 1785.
Then he and other McCollums moved south to the Pendleton
District of South Carolina.
Some arrived as early as 1784 and Daniel could have
been with them.
South Carolina land records for the Pendleton District
show that he had land in the George’s Creek and 26 Mile
Creek areas from 1791 to at least 1806.
Census records place him in the same area from 1790
until 1820.
Daniel was married twice, but there is no record
of the names of his wives.
Daniel’s first marriage was about 1785 and his oldest
son, William, was born in 1789.
William named his eldest son Jesse Miller, after
his wife, Susannah’s, father.
His second son was named Daniel Harrison, Susannah’s
mother’s maiden name.
Daniel married again about 1800.
Researchers do not agree on the names of Daniel’s
other children.
He probably had a son, John Washington in 1805, who
married Hannah Cantrell.
William and his first wife, Susannah Miller, moved
to Georgia ahead of Daniel in 1823 and lived on Brasstown
Creek. Susannah
died in 1824 and, it is believed, was the first person buried
in what is now the Blue Creek Baptist Church Cemetery.
John and Hannah moved to Habersham County along with
Daniel in 1826.
In 1830 Daniel and John lived next door to each other
and John’s father-in-law lived two doors away.
All were farmers and probably attended Sardis Baptist
Church, the predecessor to Blue Creek.
Daniel’s second wife died between 1830 and 1840 and
William and his second wife, Esther Edwards, moved on to
Walton County.
John and Hannah stayed in the area near Daniel.
In 1832 Congress passed a law allowing pensions for
Revolutionary War veterans and Daniel filed a claim almost
immediately.
His quest for a pension would take almost eight years.
In November of 1832 Daniel completed the initial
affidavit and, through his agent Thomas Jefferson Rusk,
sent it to the Pension Office of the War Department for
a decision.
Unknown to Daniel, the Commissioner of Pensions denied the
claim in April 1833 and sent Mr. Rusk a letter with instructions
for Daniel to follow so that he could amend the affidavit
and re-file.
Rusk, a protégé of the famous South Carolina politician
John C. Calhoun, had gotten involved in an investment scheme
and his partners had run off to Texas with his money.
Rusk followed them, leaving his business and his
clients behind.
Meanwhile, Daniel’s pension papers languished for
four years.
Daniel’s claim was re-activated in September 1837
by his new agent, Turner Hunt Trippe, a former Habersham
County judge, who sent the following letter to Commissioner
of Pensions, J.L. Edwards:
Clarksville 30th Sept 1837
Dear Sir,
I herewith return you the declaration and accompanying
letter from you of the 16th Apr 1833.
The reason that Mr. McCollum has not sooner attended
to your suggestions was that Thos J. Rusk to whom he had
entrusted this business had not informed him when he left
this county for Texas what disposition he had made of the
papers. As
soon as he could get them into his possession again Mr.
McCollum hastened to prosecute his claim. You will find
upon the declaration the affidavit of the applicant as required
in notes d and e to your letter.
You will also find the answers to the interrogatories
proposed to the applicant by the court embodied in the declaration.
Very respectfully yours
Turner
H. Trippe
There was, apparently, still a problem with the claim,
because Daniel had to file a new affidavit and an amendment
in late 1839.
This delay was compounded by the failure of the Pension
Office to return the defective documents to Daniel’s congressman,
who had gotten involved in the case.
Congressman Rich W. Habersham sent the following
letter to the Pension Office to get the claim back on track:
Washington City
Jan’y
4th, 1840
George Wm. Crump, Esq
Pension Office
Sir,
I have to thank you for your early and prompt reply
to the application of Daniel McCollum for a pension as a
revolutionary soldier.
You state that the papers in the case are returned
to me in order that they be laid before the court of the
county for its examination and approval.
I presume that in consequence of the extreme pressure
of business in your department you omitted to return the
papers referred to in your reply, as none have reached me.
You will oblige me by sending them as I am desirous
of losing no time in pursuing their amendment.
I have the
honor
to be very respectfully
your obt serv
Rich W. Habersham
Congressman Habersham followed up with another
letter in February 1840, which indicated that Daniel was
probably not in good health:
Washington City
17th
Feb’y 1840
James L. Edwards, Esq
Commissioner of Pensions
Sir,
I have the honor to enclose herewith the papers of
Daniel McCollum which were lately submitted to you and returned
as defective.
Such declarations have been made as were practicable
under the peculiar circumstances in which Mr. McCollum is
placed and I hope the certificates will now prove satisfactory.
I am
with great
respect
your obt srvt
Rich W. Habersham
Daniel
finally received his pension certificate on February 20,
1840. He was
entitled to an annual pension of $26.66 to be paid semi-annually.
He also received arrears of $240.00 effective from
the original date of his eligibility.
There’s no record of how Daniel spent this windfall,
but the 1840 census shows him living with his granddaughter
Elizabeth and her husband, John Stovall.
That census also listed him as a Revolutionary War
veteran.
Between 1840 and 1850 Daniel’s son, John Washington,
moved to Cherokee County Georgia with his wife and their
children. Daniel
remained with John and Elizabeth Stovall and was still in
their home in 1850 when the census was taken.
In March of 1850 he authorized an agent to pick up
his semi-annual pension payment at the Savannah pension
office. This
was the last pension payment he claimed, so he probably
died before September 4, 1850.
There is little doubt that he was buried in the Blue
Creek Baptist Church cemetery, but his grave remained unmarked,
as did the grave of his daughter-in-law Susannah Miller
McCollum. Years
passed and around 1880 Susannah’s grandchildren arranged
for a marker to be placed on her grave.
They placed the identical marker on the graves of
William McCollum and his second wife, Esther Edwards, in
the Providence Baptist Church Cemetery near Alpharetta,
Georgia.
Susannah’s grave marker, identifying her as William’s
wife, was a vital clue in proving that Daniel, himself,
was buried at Blue Creek.
So was the marker for his grandson, Daniel Harrison
McCollum, who died in 1900.
Their proximity to the stone-walled burial plot and
their placement on two sides of it, strongly suggested that
whoever was buried within the wall was a close relative.
Pictures of the cemetery, a diagram of relative positions
of the McCollum tombstones, copies of Daniel’s pension records
and copies of the Habersham census data for 1830, 1840 and
1850 proved to be enough evidence for the Blue Creek Baptist
Church to agree that this was Daniel’s burial site.
With their support a request was sent to the Department
of Veterans Affairs asking that Daniel’s grave be marked
as that of a Revolutionary War veteran.
In January 2002 the Veterans Administration confirmed
that the evidence was sufficient for them to authorize a
special marble tombstone.
Then, in a turn of events reminiscent of Daniel’s
pension claim, the Veterans Administration reversed their
decision and requested additional documentation.
They wanted a notarized statement that Daniel was
buried within the walled site.
With the passage of time and the destruction of church
records in a fire, no one could make such a statement.
So the attempt to honor his memory appeared to have
failed, at least temporarily.
There was no further communication with the Veterans
Administration, while attempts were made to find more evidence.
During the Memorial Day week end of 2002 a family
visiting the cemetery to put flowers on a grave discovered
a deteriorating cardboard box lying on the dirt access road
to the cemetery.
Imagine their surprise to find inside a marble tombstone
with the name Daniel McCollum and a summary of his Revolutionary
War service.
They took the marker home for safekeeping and contacted
a friend with McCollum ancestry to tell her of their find.
She remembered corresponding with a McCollum descendant
who had been attempting to get a marker for Daniel’s grave.
She tried unsuccessfully to reach him by e-mail,
but remembered that he lived in Columbia, Maryland.
Fortunately his phone number was listed.
On a Sunday evening in early June his dinner was
interrupted by a phone call relating this incredible news
and plans for a trip to White County were quickly made.
A phone call to the Veterans Administration confirmed
that the marker had been delivered on March 26, 2002.
One hundred fifty-two years after his death a group
of his descendants gathered to remember him and to dedicate
the marker.
Appropriately, the event took place on the 226th
birthday of the nation whose independence he helped to win.
In the course of pulling together information about
Daniel, he has become more than a name on some old documents.
He has become an individual…an ordinary man who lived
in extraordinary times.
What sets him and so many of his Scots and Scots-Irish
contemporaries apart is a strength of character best captured
by the words of James Webb in his book, Born Fighting:
“A people had been formed from the bottom up.
Later centuries would scatter them across the globe.
And wherever they traveled, they would bring with
them an insistent independence, a willingness to fight on
behalf of strong men who properly led them, and a stern
populism that refused to bend a knee, or bow a head, to
anyone but their God.”
Copyright 2004, William
W. McCollum (mccollumw@comcast.net)
White County
is a part of the
GaGenWeb Project
Paula Perkins, State Coordinator
Rebecca Maloney,
Assistant State Coordinator
Links to external
web sites are being provided as a convenience and for informational
purposes only; they do not
constitute an endorsement
or approval of any of the products, services or opinions
contained in any external web site.
Copyright 2004 ©
Vicki Shaffer
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