Isaac Ross was born in Orangeburg County, South Carolina, in January of 1760. He was the son of Isaac Ross and Jean Brown Ross (1756-1823). Isaac Ross served as a captain in the Revolutionary War under Thomas Sumter, and he was engaged in the Camden, Cowpens, and King’s Mountain campaigns. Captain Ross was married to Jane Alison Ross (1762-1829), and they had five children: Jane Brown, Margaret Alison, Martha B. (1793-1818), Isaac (1796-1852), and Arthur Alison (1801-1834). He moved from South Carolina to the Mississippi Territory in 1808, and he settled on the Jefferson County plantation, Prospect Hill. Captain Ross owned 3,881 acres of land and 133 slaves in 1818; 158 slaves in 1820; and 4,240 acres of land and 113 slaves in 1830.

At the time of his death on January 19, 1836, Captain Ross owned around five thousand acres of land, one hundred sixty slaves, and personal property worth one hundred thousand dollars. In his will, Captain Ross emancipated his slaves, and with the assistance of the American Colonization Society, he made provision for their safe passage to Liberia, Africa. Captain Ross also specified that the remainder of his estate was to be used for the benefit of the former slaves who chose to go to Liberia. His grandson, Isaac Ross Wade, was one of the co-executors of the estate of Captain Ross, and he was also responsible for the management of Prospect Hill. Isaac Ross Wade and other heirs of Captain Ross contested the will for a number of years. However, the Mississippi Supreme Court affirmed the validity of the will in 1847, thus enabling the repatriation of the former slaves to Liberia.

James E. Calhoun was born in South Carolina around 1808. He later moved to Mississippi where he married Christiana Gordon on November 24, 1833. She was the daughter of Adam and Aletheia Gordon of Claiborne County. Adam Gordon was paymaster of the Fifth Regiment, Mississippi Militia, during the War of 1812. He owned fifteen slaves by 1820. The Calhouns had at least nine children, including E. J., Ella, Eugenia A. (b. ca. 1836), F. Calhoun, Florence, J. C., Mary, Rosa, and Sally. Christiana Gordon Calhoun died at the age of twenty-three on January 3, 1838. James E. Calhoun continued cultivating cotton, amassing twenty thousand dollars worth of real estate by 1850. Calhoun owned eighty-five thousand dollars in real estate and personal property valued at ninety thousand dollars by 1860. Adam Gordon died on August 25, 1836, and Aletheia Gordon died on August 28, 1844, leaving Woodland, a twenty-four-hundred-acre Claiborne County plantation. Eugenia A. Calhoun became the sole legatee of the Gordon estate after the death of her grandmother, Aletheia Gordon. As executor of the estates of Adam and Aletheia Gordon, James E. Calhoun was also responsible for the management of Woodland.

Arthur Alison Ross married Octavia Van Dorn on April 17, 1833. His wife was the daughter of Peter A. Van Dorn and the sister of Confederate general Earl Van Dorn of Claiborne County. The Rosses had several children, including Isaac Alison Ross, who married Eugenia A. Calhoun on January 5, 1858. Isaac Alison and Eugenia Calhoun Ross eventually sued James E. Calhoun in Claiborne County Chancery Court to recover the undistributed portion of an annuity of one thousand dollars per annum and other funds due the estate of Aletheia Gordon under the terms of Adam Gordon’s will.

This collection includes correspondence and financial and legal records relating to the Gordon, Calhoun, and Ross families.

The correspondence includes letters from Aletheia Gordon, who wrote from Claiborne County, Mississippi, to her sister, Eliza Sparhawk Jones, who was living in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Gordon discussed politics, religion, temperance, the health of friends and family members, and a "malignant fever" prevalent in Natchez in 1823. There is an 1841 letter from Edward A. Lewis to James E. Calhoun of Port Gibson, Claiborne County, Mississippi, informing Calhoun of the quality of 320 newly acquired acres of land around Benton, Yazoo County, Mississippi. There are two 1874 letters of Isaac Alison Ross regarding his business of shipping bales of cotton, straw, and other goods. The collection also includes an undated letter from Eugenia Calhoun Ross, who wrote Judge McKinstry asking him to keep her better informed about legal matters concerning the Gordon estate.

The financial records concern the estates of Adam and Aletheia Gordon. Many of the financial records document the management of the plantation, Woodland, by executor James E. Calhoun. The Adam Gordon financial records include account vouchers (1847-1857) and receipts (1836-1857), especially those signed by James E. Calhoun for the Gordon estate. There are also miscellaneous receipts (1825-1887) concerning the Gordon estate.

The legal records mainly relate to the Claiborne County Chancery Court lawsuit, Isaac A. Ross, et ux. v. James E. Calhoun. There are also legal records concerning Oakland College, including an 1847 petition to the Claiborne County Probate Court for money owed to the college by James E. Calhoun, executor of the Adam Gordon estate. There is also an 1849 citation showing that the college received payment in full. The balance of the legal records consist of claims of various Claiborne County merchants against the Adam Gordon estate. The legal records also concern the death of Aletheia Gordon and the transfer of her estate to Christiana Gordon.

1. General Correspondence. 1819-1877; n.d. 1 folder.

   Box 1, folder 1.

2. Financial Records. 1825-1887. 3 folders.

   Box 1, folder 2: Adam Gordon, 1836-1857.
   folder 3: James E. Calhoun, 1847-1887; n.d.
   folder 4: miscellaneous, 1825-1887; n.d.

3. Legal Records. 1836-1867. 4 folders.

   Box 1, folder 5: Adam Gordon, 1837-1868; n.d.
   folder 6: Aletheia Gordon, 1836-1857.
   folders 7-8: Isaac Alison Ross, 1859-1867.
   Box 2 (oversize).