CFH First Draft: James "2nd" Callin

This post is part of an ongoing series, sharing the first draft of my Revised Callin Family History. 

This James Callin is the 2nd person in a descendant report beginning with the earliest known ancestor of our Callin family, James "1st" Callin. This descendant report uses the Register Style of the New England Historic and Genealogical Society. 

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Second Generation

2.  James "2nd" Callin (James "1st"-1) was born about 1779.  He relocated from Pennsylvania with his family and settled in what is now Ashland County, Ohio in about 1810. (Ashland County was formed in 1846 from parts of Huron, Lorain, Richland and Wayne Counties.) James lived in Milton Township, Richland County, Ohio, according to the 1820 census, which listed his name as “James Culan”. He died about 1820 at the age of 41 in Richland County, Ohio.

Again, according to The Callin Family History:

"James 2nd, with his family moved from Penn. to Ashland Co. and located on a farm about the year 1810. He was killed in an altercation with a man named Fowler who struck him over the head with a rifle, this occurred about the year 1820. He was buried in Oliversburg (sic) Cemetery." 

The 1820 Census does show that James had a neighbor named “Sutton Fowler,” so the confrontation described here may have happened soon after the census was taken.  

James Callin and Mary (last name unknown) were married about 1800 in Pennsylvania. Mary was born in Sep 1768 in Pennsylvania, according to the information on her headstone. After her husband’s death, she appeared as the head of the household in Milton, Richland County, Ohio in 1830 and 1840. When her son Alec headed west to the Iowa territory a year or two after that, Mary went with them. She died on 2 Apr 1846 at the age of 77 in Muscatine County, Iowa, and she is buried in the Oak Grove Cemetery there.

Mary’s headstone is on one side of a four-sided obelisk; on the opposite side of the obelisk is a marker for a John N. Rayburn (1831-1856) and between the two is the marker for John Rayburn’s parents, Mary (1809-1880) and Callin Rayburn (1803-1874). Callin Rayburn is the son of Eleanor Callen Rayburn, and grandson of Patrick Callen. Patrick was mentioned above as being a neighbor of James “1st” Callin. While this suggests that Mary Callin, widow of James 2nd, was related to the Rayburn family in some way, we don’t know what that relationship was. Thanks to the documentation of the Rayburn family in The Callen Chronicles, we do know that she was not a sister of Callin Rayburn.

The Callin Family History only names three sons in this family (Thomas, Alec, and James), but the census records (1820, 1830, and 1840) suggest that James and Mary had more children. Two girls and an additional boy appeared in the 1820 Callin household, and the available evidence suggests that Elizabeth, Hugh,  and Sarah were those additional children.

James "2nd" Callin and Mary 2nd had six children:

4 i. Elizabeth Callin, born 5 Sep 1798, Pennsylvania; married Caleb Montgomery, 13 Aug 1822, Richland County, Ohio; died 5 Nov 1834, Richland County, Ohio.

5 ii. Thomas Callin, born abt 1801, Pennsylvania; married Nancy Burgett, 20 Nov 1823, Richland, Ohio; died abt 1843, Olivesburg, Richland, Ohio.

6 iii. Hugh Callin, born abt 1803, Pennsylvania.

7 iv. Sarah Callin, born about 1807 in Pennsylvania; married Jonathan Montgomery, 1824, Richland County, Ohio; died 31 Dec 1830. 

8 v. Alec Callin (also known as Alexander Callin) was born about 1808 in Pennsylvania. He moved with his family to Ohio, where he grew up and married; then he and his mother and brothers moved to Iowa about the year of 1840. The Callin Family History stated:

"Married and moved with his family and mother to Iowa about the year of 1840.

"The mother referred to was "Aunt Mary", wife of James 2nd who was killed with a gun. She sold the farm and went with Alec to Iowa where she died some years later. Nothing has been heard from that branch of the family since 1845."

According to U.S. General Land Office records, he purchased land at Burlington in Washington County, Illinois on 1 May 1843; at Fairfield in Des Moines County, Iowa, in 1850; and in Muscatine County, Iowa, in 1854. He owned land in Fairfield, Jefferson, Iowa, as of 15 June 1854.

9 vi. James Callin, born abt 1810; married Margaret Jane Callin, 9 Sep 1841, Richland, Ohio; died 1844, Iowa.