29 Facts About Patrick Calhoun

Patrick Calhoun was the grandson of John C Calhoun and Floride Calhoun, and the great-grandson of his namesake Patrick Calhoun.

Patrick Calhoun is best known as a railroad baron of the late 19th century, and as the founder of Euclid Heights, Ohio.

Patrick Calhoun was born at Fort Hill, the estate of his grandfather, John C Calhoun, located near Clemson, South Carolina.

Patrick Calhoun was born to Andrew Pickens Calhoun and Margaret Maria, and was the youngest of six children.

Patrick Calhoun's maternal grandfather, Duff Green, was an important South Carolina businessman who had been a financial backer of John C Calhoun early in Calhoun's political career.

Patrick Calhoun spent the next five years working on his family farm at Fort Hill and reading extensively in his father's library.

Patrick Calhoun left home in 1871 and traveled to Dalton, Georgia, and the home of his grandfather, Duff Green.

Patrick Calhoun studied law thereafter under his grandfather's tutelage, and was admitted to the State Bar Association of Georgia.

Patrick Calhoun moved the following year to St Louis, Missouri, and was admitted to the Missouri bar.

Patrick Calhoun suffered a severe health breakdown after a year, and went to live on the Arkansas farm of his brother, John C Calhoun II.

Patrick Calhoun used his profits to found the Patrick Calhoun Land Company ; buy extensive real estate in Georgia, South Carolina, and Texas; and invest or buy stock in manufacturing, mining, oil, and railroads.

In 1884, Patrick Calhoun was appointed legal counsel of the Central Rail Road and Banking Company of Georgia.

Patrick Calhoun formed a syndicate of investors in 1886 and won control of the Richmond and West Point Terminal Railway and Warehouse Company.

Highly interested in finance after this experience, Patrick Calhoun left his law practice in 1896 and became a business financier.

Patrick Calhoun invested heavily in street railways, directing or reorganizing systems in Baltimore, Maryland; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and St Louis, Missouri.

Patrick Calhoun had purchased 300 acres of wooded land atop the heights east of the city in 1890.

Patrick Calhoun now began development of that land into a new planned community for the wealthy and upper classes, and named it Euclid Heights.

In 1900, Patrick Calhoun left Euclid Heights and moved to San Francisco, California.

Patrick Calhoun merged the street railways of that city into a single firm, the United Railroads of San Francisco, and became the company president in 1906.

Patrick Calhoun then gave local political boss Abe Ruef $200,000 to allow him to build overhead electric wires to supply his streetcars with power.

Patrick Calhoun was indicted and placed on trial several times, but eventually charges against him were dismissed when his political supporters won office.

Patrick Calhoun claimed he lost $2.5 million in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, and that he'd been ruined by adverse publicity.

Patrick Calhoun spent heavily on strikebreakers in a 1907 streetcar strike, and incurred significant legal expenses fighting the streetcar workers' union.

In 1912, an investigation by the California Railway Commission found that Patrick Calhoun had concealed a $1.2 million loss in his San Francisco company in order to keep the stock price high.

Patrick Calhoun's investors forced him to resign the presidency of the United Railways of San Francisco in the summer of 1913.

Patrick Calhoun invested in real estate, but all his efforts failed.

Patrick Calhoun moved to New York City in 1914, where he lived off his wife's income and attempted to re-establish himself in business.

Patrick Calhoun died at Huntington Memorial Hospital a few hours later.

Patrick Calhoun was interred in the Calhoun family plot at Woodland Cemetery in Clemson, South Carolina.