M.M.White undertaker WashingtonDC Matthias M. White undertaker of Washington , DC Fisk and Raymond metallic coffins

This article from the Florida Journal May 18, 1850 which describes the preparations of Vice President John C. Calhoun body in the Congressional cemetery prior to DC funerals and trip to South Carolina and it describe M.M. White,  John L. Wirt and the Fisk & Raymond agent (? )attending the Vice President and his casket. Fascinating ... 

Born in 1782 of wealthy parents in Upstate South Carolina, he was schooled in the North at Yale College. He read law in Connecticut, and returned to his home state to establish a successful practice. He was elected to Congress in 1811. Six years later, President James Monroe made him secretary of war, and he later served as vice president under John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson. (The latter famously threatened to have him hanged.) He resigned as Jackson’s vice president to take a Senate seat from South Carolina. President John Tyler named him secretary of state. He later returned to the Senate and until his death was the South’s most powerful defender.

News of Calhoun’s death reached Charleston by the new telegraph, and as word spread, church bells tolled in the city and would continue to do so throughout the day. On public buildings and on ships in the harbor, flags were lowered to half-staff.

In Washington, a committee of six senators was appointed to accompany Calhoun’s body to his home state. The journey began a few weeks later. His heavy iron casket moved by rail to Wilmington, North Carolina, where it was placed on board the steamer Nina.

Full article HERE