McCollam, Andrew, fl. 1836-1872.

Andrew McCollam was a sugar planter, deputy surveyor, and member of the Louisiana Secession Convention of 1861. He married Ellen Elleonori and lived first in Donaldsonville, La., and later on the family plantation, Ellendale, located outside Houma in Terrebonne Parish, La. McCollam also operated the Bayou Black, Red River Landing, Terrebonne, and Assumption plantations, whose locations are unclear, although Bayou Black was in Terrebonne Parish. The McCollams had six sons and a daughter. Sons Edmund and Alexander became prosperous Terrebonne Parish sugar growers, running the Ellendale and Argyle plantations, respectively. Edmund was also part owner of the South Louisiana Canal and Navigation Company.

Andrew McCollam (fl. 1836-1872) was a deputy surveyor and sugar planter, based primarily in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana. First settling in Donaldsonville (Ascension Parish), he lived and worked there until 1851, when he purchased a large sugar plantation near Houma. This plantation, which he named Ellendale after his wife, Ellen Elleonori, became home to the McCollams. The McCollams also owned several other plantations, referred to in the papers as Bayou Black, Red River Landing, Assumption, and Terrebonne. The exact locations of these plantations are unknown, although Bayou Black was in Terrebonne Parish. The others plantations were most likely situated in Terrebonne or nearby parishes.

In 1861 McCollam served as a delegate to the Louisiana Secession Convention. A Whig, he felt strong ambivalence about secession but supported the Confederacy wholeheartedly once war broke out. After the war he entertained the idea of relocating to Brazil, but decided against the move after a trip to that country. Deciding to stay in Louisiana, he successfully made the transition from antebellum planter to postwar sugar grower, and left a thriving business for his children.

The McCollams had six sons, Andrew (b. 1842), Edmund Slattery (b. 1845), John (b. 1846), Henry Alexander (b. 1849), Alexander (b. 1853), and Willie (b. 1855), and a daughter, Ellen. Edmund and Alexander both became prosperous Terrebonne Parish sugar planters, running the Ellendale and Argyle Plantations, respectively. Edmund was also part owner of the South Louisiana Canal and Navigation Company. Little is known of the lives of the other McCollam children beyond their education. Andrew, Jr., studied at Centenary College in Jackson, Louisiana, from 1858 until the outbreak of the Civil War. He served during the war in St. Mary's Cannoniers. After the fighting ended he returned to his studies and graduated from Louisiana University in 1868. Henry Alexander attended Louisiana State Seminary in Alexandria and later the University of Virginia, where he graduated in 1872. Ellen (called Nellie) studied at the Young Ladies' Academy of the Ursulines, located just outside New Orleans, in the late 1860s.

Information on the Slattery family, for whom a number of items appear in the collection, is sparse, and their relation to the McCollams is only partly discernible from the papers. John Slattery (fl. 1795-1807) immigrated to Johnstown, New York, from Ireland near the turn of the century and set up shop as an import merchant. Jeremiah (fl. 1808-1815), possibly John's brother, and Edmund (fl. 1816-1860), who may have been his son, also worked as merchants in New York City and Johnstown. Edmund later became a sugar planter in Lafourche Parish. He was the great uncle of his namesake, Edmund Slattery McCollam, but it is unclear whether he was the uncle of Andrew or Ellen McCollam.