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 4-17 Thomas Green Clemson (1807-1888) Posted by:  Huckittome
N 34° 39.096 W 082° 46.605
17S E 337175 N 3835843
Marks the grave of Thomas Green Clemson, founder of Clemson University.
Waymark Code: WMJXF
Location: South Carolina, United States
Date Posted: 08/01/2006
Views: 20
Marker Text:
Thomas Green Clemson 1807-1888
A native Philadelphian and leading agriculturist, Mr. Clemson was US charge d'affaires to Belgium, US superintendent of Agriculture, and the 1868 president of Pendleton Farmers Society. He married the daughter of John C. Calhoun, Anna, and later bought the Calhoun home, Fort Hill. An advocate of the national land grant movement, he left his estate to establish Clemson University. He is buried fifty yards south.
Erected by the Student Alumni Council of the Clemson Alumni Association, 1977.
Additional Information:
• The following is an exert from The Campus History Series: Clemson University by Helene M. Riley (pgs. 12 and 13)
...At age 19, [T.G. Clemson's] interest in chemistry took him to the Sorbonne and the Royal School of Mines in Paris. In 1831 the Royal Mint of France awarded him a diploma as assayer. This document was placed in the cornerstone of Clemson College's administration building in 1891. Between 1832 and 1839, Clemson wrote numerous scientific articles and was a consulting mining engineer in Paris, Philadelphia, and Washington [where he met his wife]. After his marriage, he managed Fort Hill plantation, oversaw the Calhoun Gold Mine in Georgia, and purchased a large plantation in the Edgefield District. In 1844, President Tyler appoointed Clemson charge d'affaires in Belgium. There he earned the personal friendship of the Belgian King and was awarded the decorations of the Order of Leopold and the French Legion of Honor. After his return to the United States in 1852, he purchased a farm in Maryland and continued his experiments of agricultural chemistry. Clemson was instrumental in establishing the Maryland Agriculture College in 1856. At the Smithsonian he lectured on Chemistry Applied to Agriculture, and in 1860, Secretary of the Interior Jacob Thompson appointed Thomas G. Clemson as the first United States superintendant of agricultural affairs. He resigned this post in March 1861, submitting an extensive report on the Advocacy of Agricultural Education to the Patent Office.
Thomas Green Clemson owned property and investments both in northern and southern states, but he was sympathetic to the impact of the unfolding events on the labor-intensive agriculture of the South. His son, John Calhoun Clemson, enlisted in the Confederate army in 1861, was captured in 1863, and spent the remainder of the conflict in federal prison at Johnson's Island. Thomas Clemson joined the Confederacy in 1863 and served as a civilian in charge of the Nitre and Mining Bureau of the Trans-Mississippi Department until the war ended. The first page of his will declares his famous sentiment: "believing that there can be no permanent improvement in agriculture without a knowledge of those sciences which pertain particularly thereto, I have determined to devote the bulk of my property to the establishment of an agricultural college upon the Fort Hill place."...
• You can purchase a copy of The Campus History Series: Clemson University by Helene M. Riley at Amazon.com or if you prefer to support local merchants, Tiger Sport Shop.
Marker Name: 4-17 Thomas Green Clemson (1807-1888)
Marker Location: City
Type of Marker: Other
Marker number: Not listed
County: Not listed
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