He died
at St. Joseph, Missouri, October 25, 1859. Mr. Frederick Hawn, who was
his boyhood friend, and afterward married a sister of Calhoun's wife,
is now living at Leavenworth, Kansas, at the age of eighty-five years.
In an interesting letter to the writer, he says: "It has been related
that Calhoun induced Lincoln to study surveying in order to become
his deputy. Presuming that he was ready to graduate and receive his
commission, he called on Calhoun, then living with his father-in-law,
Seth R. Cutter, on Upper Lick Creek. After the interview was
concluded, Mr. Lincoln, about to depart, remarked: 'Calhoun, I am
entirely unable to repay you for your generosity at present. All that
I have you see on me, except a quarter of a dollar in my pocket.' This
is a family tradition. However, my wife, then a miss of sixteen, says,
while I am writing this sketch, that she distinctly remembers this
interview. After Lincoln was gone she says she and her sister,
Mrs. Calhoun, commenced making jocular remarks about his uncanny
appearance, in the presence of Calhoun, to which in substance he made
this rejoinder: 'For all that, he is no common man.
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