Evelina Mathilda McCaleb Metcalfe Hammett (1802-1865)

Evelina Mathilda McCaleb Metcalfe Hammett

Birth

15 Feb 1802

Pendleton, Anderson County, South Carolina, USA

Death

7 Jan 1865 (aged 62)

Burial

Metcalfe Family Cemetery

Metcalfe, Washington County, Mississippi, USA Add to Map

Memorial ID

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Evelina was the daughter of David McCaleb, son of Revolutionary War veteran Capt. William McCaleb (born SC 1747, died Claiborne Cty, MS 1813). Her father died of typhoid fever in 1850. Her brother was Judge Howard McCaleb of New Orleans, and her brother-in-law was John Guion, later 17th governor of the state of MS.
She married Albert Gallatin Metcalfe, a young lawyer from Natchez, MS, in Claiborne Cty, MS in 1827. Albert was born in KY, the only son of Christopher Metcalfe. He was a half- brother of Gov. Thomas Metcalfe and was named for Albert Gallatin (see memorial #375).
He acquired government lands and moved his wife and only child, Frederick Augustus Metcalfe (named for Evelina's brother who died at a young age), an infant at the time, by horseback to Washington Cty, MS. Typical of the hardships of the time, they camped while their dirt floor cabin was being built.
In 1833, while their permanent residence, Lammermoor Plantation, was being built, Albert was inspecting the progress when he was injured by falling timbers and died within a few days.
John Adam Miller was a wealthy, eligible bachelor with Nathez and New Orleans roots, who had also settled in Washington County to escape a yellow fever outbreak. There he found two pretty and wealthy eligible widows, Evelina McCaleb Metcalfe and Sarah Jefferies Prince. John courted and married Sarah Prince; however, his daughter Martha Priscilla Miller later married the son of Albert and Evelina, Frederick Augustus Metcalfe.
Evelina married again four years after Albert's death to Dr. William Henry Hammett, a union supposedly greatly opposed by her uncle, for unknown reasons. Dr. Hammett was born in Ireland in 1799 and had moved to MS from Virginia in 1835. He died in 1861 having no living children. His obituary was written by his stepson, F. A. Metcalfe.

Bio: by Kathy Jennings Brown