Clemson University - Taps Yearbook (Clemson, SC)

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One Man ' s Bequest Made It All Possible Clemson University owes the fact of its existence largely to the efforts of one man: Thomas Greene Clemson. One of the first sights greeting a visitor to campus is the imposing bronze statue of Mr. Clemson, known affectionately to students as Old Green Tom, seated with fingers crossed and eyes down- cast, as if deep in thought. Thomas Clemson was a thinker, and a dreamer. He evisioned a college in which South Carolina youth could gain the knowl- edge to improve themselves and benefit their then-impoverished state. Thomas Clemson was born in 1807 in Philadelphia, where he spent his child- hood. At the age of 16, Clemson sailed to England and France, and became a soldier of fortune in the French Revolu- tion. After a time, he left the fighting to enroll in the School of Mines in France, where he graduated with high honors in chemistry and engineering. Clemson then returned to the United States, where he took up residence in Washington as a mining engineer. His business was prosperous, and he soon acquired a respectable amount of money, almost $60,000 dollars of which was later bequeathed to the founding of Clemson College. It was in Washington that Clemson met, and later married, Anna Maria Calhoun, Senator John C. Calhoun ' s oldest daughter. Soon after the outbreak of the War Be- tween the States, Clemson and his son evaded arrest as Rebel sympathizers by crossing the Potomac river in a row boat. After reporting to Confederate president Jefferson Davis, Clemson was assigned to the mining department of the trans-Mississippi, where he re- mained for the duration of the war. At the war ' s end, Clemson and his family moved in with Calhoun ' s widow in Pendelton. He became a member of the still-active Farmers Society, and recognized an outlet for his long-held dream of an agricultural and mechan- ical college in South Carolina. Accord- ing to a historical sketch written in 1923 by the president of The Clemson Agri- cultural College of South Carolina, W. M. Riggs, Clemson was chairman of a committee which was to ask state citi- zens for aid to furnish an institution for educating our people in the sci- ences, to the end that our agriculture be improved, our worn . . . soil be recup- erated, and the great natural resources of the state be developed. As Thomas Clemson grew older, his desire for the establishment of a techni- cal college became the overriding ambi- tion of his life, and upon his death left I have determined to devote the bulk of my property to the establishment of an agricultural college on the Fort Hill place. - Thomas Greene Clemson almost all his possessions for that pur- pose. His will, aside from bequeathing money and gifts to family and friends, lays down in detail almost every facet of the formation of what was to become Clemson College. Clemson ' s careful planning was rewarded, and even today one can see that his wishes were faithfully carried out. The introduction to the will of Thomas Greene Clemson says in part: Feeling a great sympathy for the farmers of this State, and the difficulties with which they have had to contend in their efforts to establish the business of agricul- ture upon a prosperous basis, and believ- ing that there can be no permanent im- provement in agriculture without a knowledge of those sciences which pertain particularly thereto, I have determined to devote the bulk of my property to the es- tablishment of an agricultural college on the Fort Hill place. This institution I desire to be under the control and management of a board of trustees . . . and to be modeled after the Agricultural College of Mississippi as far as practicable. This statement is the basis for the main part of the will, in which Clemson provides for the land upon which the school is to be built, monetary funding, and courses of study. He goes on to say: My purpose is to establish an agricultural college which will afford useful informa- tion to the farmers and mechanics, there- fore it should afford thorough instruction in agriculture and the natural sciences connected therewith -it should combine, if practiable, physical with intellectual edu- cation, and should be a high seminary of learning. ... In item one of his will, Clemson set aside the aforesaid Fort Hill place, where I now reside . . . consisting of eight hundred and fourteen acres, more or less . . ., as a donation to the state of South Carolina for the purpose of founding an agricultural college, in ac- cordance to his guidelines. The state was given three years from the date of probate of Clemson ' s will to agree on his terms, or the land and money would go toward the establishment of a private school whose name shall be the ' Clem- son Scientific School ' or ' College. ' ' Item two states: The following named gentlemen, seven in number, shall be seven of the Board of Trustees, to wit: R.W. Simpson, D.K. Norris, M.L. Donaldson, R.E. Bowen, B.R. Tillman, .£. Watmamaker and .£. Bradley, and A map of Clemson College as it appeared in 1902 The Main College Building is now known as Tillman Hall. 18 Academics

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Academics

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