Benjamin Calhoun & Benjamin Cahoon of NY may not be the same person
There are two distinct Calhoun families of Jefferson county, New York.The much larger family that still lives in the area are descended from ancestors Benjamin and Samuel Calhoun.Their origins provide an interesting mystery. This family has lived in Clayton, NY on Grindstone Island. Some old sources suggest that they came to NY from Massachusetts.
The much smaller Calhoun family of Watertown, NY descended from the Calhouns of Connecticut (David Calhoun, first settler), through David Calhoun's son Ebenezer who removed to Herkimer county NY c. 1800. Ebenezer's son Chauncey removed to Watertown NY c. 1804 and is my ancestor.
I can understand the wish to link these two families of the same region.I would personally like to think of the larger group as my close cousins.Unfortunately, a speculative paragraph included in the 1956 Calhouns of Connecticut genealogy by Mildred B. Calhoun may have promoted some misleading conclusions.
Descendants of Benjamin Calhoun of Clayton have rightly searched for a missing or unclaimed Benjamin who might be theirs, and they have found an intriguing candidate.Page 29 of The Story of the Calhouns of Judea, Connecticut (in 1779 renamed Washington, Connecticut) includes a grandson of first settler David Calhoun named Benjamin.He is a son of David Calhoun, Jr.The entry reads as follows:
B-6 BENJAMIN, baptized in 1778.No other record of him but he may possibly be the Benjamin whose will was probated in Surrogates' Office, Herkimer County, New York, in 1830.This Benjamin was of Fairfield, New York.Reynolds and Benjamin, Jr. were co-executors.He left a wife Polly, sons Reynolds, James and Benjamin, Jr, four daughters, Cynthis Fenner, Anny Dexter, Polly Nichols, Olive Schermerhorn.
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My own opinion is that Benjamin of Fairfield, NY was a member of the large CAHOON family of Herkimer county, NY that lived in Rhode Island, Block Island and Cape Cod before moving to New York. This man had a wife named Polly, and was related to Reynolds Cahoon. The family moved out west. These are far more distant cousins to the Calhouns.The two families are even more easily confused when one notes that Ebenezer and Chauncey Calhoun were listed as CAHOON in the 1800 census of Herkimer county.
I seem to be alone in this opinion, as more and more often the relationship of Benjamin of Clayton NY to the Connecticut line is presented as fact.If anyone can indeed link the families with vital records, church or census records or other original sources, I would be happy to concede.I am also happy to share whatever data I come across that might help sort out our origins.
Best regards to all,
Roberta D. Calhoun