This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Raysor, Chalmers, Geddes, Montgomery Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/ncB.2ACE/1468 Message Board Post: I found many tidbits in my research on the Chalmers/Geddes families, that may be interesting to the descendants of James M. Raysor and Elizabeth Sophia Chalmers. >From "The Buildings of Charleston" by Jonathan H. Poston are the following entries: 60-64 Broad Street, Confederate Home Constructed ca.1800, additions ca 1835, 1900-10; earthquake repairs 1887. This large complex stretches through the block from Broad Street to Chalmers Street and is a nineteenth century amalgamation of several different properties and buildings. On the site of a house formerly leased to a royal lieutenant governor the core of the front portion was built by GILBERT CHALMERS, a well-to-do carpenter, as a double tenement. Inherited by Chalmer's daughter and her husband, Gov. John Geddes of Ashley Hall Plantation, the building housed President James Monroe when he spent several weeks in Charleston in 1819. (on the front of the home is a plaque which also gives a short history of the home. It was used as a Home for Mothers, Widows and Daughters of Confederate Soldiers. By 1880 the home housed several hundred aged or infirm widows and a teacher's college for fifty-two women) The fancy iron grillwork on the front of the house is all original. Another article about the house told of a duel taking place in the street in front of the house between John Geddes, Jr. and another man after the election of his father to the Governor's office. John Geddes, Jr. was shot through both thighs and the other man was killed. Directly adjoining the 60-64 broad street home which is still beautiful is a less imposing building at 56-58 Broad. constructed ca. 1800 and 1798, respectively; altered 1890. Built by the attorney John Geddes, this double building originally served both residential and commercial functions. From 1869 to 1874, 58 Broad St housed the National Freedman's Savings Bank. Interestingly, the Broad Street Homes back up to Chalmers Ave., named for Dr. Lionel Chalmers who lived on that street. I have not yet found the connection between Gilbert & Lionel Chalmers, but it is likely there, as they would have shared back yards. Another interesting note: Elizabeth Chalmers uncle, Gov. John Geddes bought the island of Key West in the early 1800's. Upon his arrival there he found that he had been victim to what has been called "Florida's 1st Land Scam". The owner of Key West had evidently sold the property simultaneously to Gov. Geddes and another man. After extensive court battles, the land was deemed owned by the other and John Geddes lost his fortune. Note on the earlier tombstone inscriptions, his son-in-law Dr. Montgomery "died at key west".