The Calliham Family of South Carolina

Although some of the Callihams contend that the family originally came from Ireland, it is definitely established that they came directly from Scot­land to this country.
DAVID CALLIHAM came to Virginia before 1748. He left Virginia sometime after 1764 and settled on 400 acres of land on Stevens Creek in the Ninety-Sixth District, Edgefield County, South Carolina. David Calliham later moved to Washington County, Georgia. He died prior to 1792. David married Elizabeth or Joyce (surname unknown). Six children were born of this marriage, one of whom was John Calliham.
JOHN CALLIHAM, born about 1756, probably in Virginia. He was quite young and single when the Revolutionary War began. He took an active part in that struggle for liberty. Chapman, in his "History of Edgefield County" tells of an incident that happened when a Calliham, presumably John, was captured. While a prisoner of Tarleton’s men, John escaped with a map of the British Works by diving from a high bank into the river and swimming safely across while being shot at by British soldiers. He carried the map in his mouth. John’s home was apparently on Stevens Creek (now Edgefield County, S. C.). He later moved to Washington County, Georgia, where he resided until the early part of 1800, when he and his wife, Lucy May, and their five children, took the Southwestern Trail and followed a large concourse of South Carolinians and Georgians to the Mississippi Terri­tory, then known as "West Florida." John and Lucy settled near the present town of Woodville, Mississippi, where they remained for 12 years. They then crossed the Mississippi River to Louisiana where they resided the remainder of their days. It is believed that they first located in East Feliciana Parish, where John’s first cousin, David Thomas, had settled, but soon moved per­manently to a farm on Bayou Boeuf, in Rapides Parish, a short distance above the town of Cheneyville. John died prior to December 12, 1825. His wife evidently predeceased him. Five children were born of this marriage, two of whom were:

1. ELIZABETH SUSAN CALLIHAM, born April 29, 1798. She mar­
   ried Leroy Stafford (son of Seth Stafford and Amanda Maner Stafford) on
   March 8, 1821.  She was his second wife and they had five children, one of
   whom was Leroy Augustus Stafford, who later became a General in the
   Confederate Army.  General Stafford was killed in the Battle of the Wilder­
   ness, and was buried from the home of Judge Thomas J. Semmes, in Rich­
   mond, Virginia. General Stafford and Major John Hodges, of Bossier Parish,
   Louisiana, engaged in a foot-race to be the first to cross the enemy position
   on Cemetery Ridge.   Major Hodges won.
2. JOYCE CALLIHAM, born in 1790, in Edgefield County, South
   Carolina.   Joyce moved to Wilkinson County, Mississippi, with her parents
   and married James Howard, member of an old South Carolina family.   Mr.

Howard died in Mississippi about 1810.  About a year after Mr. Howard’s death, Joyce married John Havard, then of Wilkinson County, Mississippi. The Calliham family thus merges into the Havard family.