Biographies

Daniel McCollum
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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 7^th 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 4^th of March 1831, and payable semi-annually on the 4^th of March and 4^th 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 226^th 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)

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