Rion, James H. (James Henry), 1828-1886

Colonel James Henry Rion was born in Montreal, Quebec, on April 17, 1828. After a stay in Savannah, Georgia he moved with his mother to Pendleton, South Carolina in 1843. She became housekeeper at Fort Hill for John C. Calhoun in 1844. Rion graduated from South Carolina College in December 1850. He married Mary Catherine "Kitty" Weir in December 1851. He was elected Colonel of the 25th Regiment of South Carolina Militia in October 1859. After South Carolina seceded in December 1860, the 25th was incorporated into the 6th South Carolina Volunteers, and Rion was elected colonel of that regiment as well. At the end of the Civil War, Rion was paroled and returned to his law practice. He was elected to the South Carolina state constitutional convention in August 1866, served as the South Carolina representative of the Democratic National Executive Committee from 1876-1880 and was elected president of the South Carolina Bar Association shortly before his death in 1886. Rion died on December 12, 1886. Rumored to be an illegitimate son of John C. Calhoun, Rion claimed on his deathbed that he was the Dauphin, or heir, to the kingdom of France, the "lost" son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.