Thomas Green Clemson
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Thomas Green Clemson (July 1, 1807 – April 6, 1888) was an American politician and statesman, serving as an ambassador and the United States Superintendent of Agriculture. He was the founder of Clemson University. Born in Philadelphia, Clemson studied in Paris, and upon his return to the U.S. co-authored significant legislation to promote agricultural education. With knowledge of both French and German, he served as U.S. ambassador to Belgium in the 1840s.
On November 13, 1838, at the age of 31, Clemson married Anna Maria Calhoun, daughter of John C. Calhoun, the noted Senator and Vice President from South Carolina. After Calhoun's death, his widow and Clemson's wife inherited the Fort Hill plantation near Pendleton, South Carolina and promptly sold it to Calhoun's brother along with 50 slaves for $49,000.00. After the war, and upon the brother's death, Clemson, as administrator of his mother in laws estate, foreclosed on the widow and lived there to his death in 1888.
In 1860-61, with the threat of war, Clemson resigned his agricultural post on March 4, 1861. He stood on the side of his adopted state. Following the firing on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, Clemson left Maryland for South Carolina. In Pendleton on November 2, 1861, Clemson spoke to the Farmers Society and publicly "Urged the establishment of a department of agriculture in the government of the Confederate States which, in addition to fostering the general interest of agriculture, would also serve as a sort of university of the diffusion of scientific knowledge and the improvement of agriculture."
Fifty-four-year-old Clemson, enlisted in the Confederacy and was assigned to the Army of the Trans-Mississippi Department. Clemson worked in Arkansas and Texas developing nitrate mines for explosives. He was paroled on June 9, 1865 at Shreveport, La., after four years of service. His son, Captain John Calhoun Clemson, enlisted in the Confederate Army and spent two years in a prison camp, similar to the southern Andersonville, on Johnson's Island, in Lake Erie, Ohio.
Outliving his wife and his children, Clemson drafted a final will in the mid 1880s which called for the establishment of a land-grant institution called "The Clemson Agricultural College of South Carolina" upon the property of the Fort Hill estate. The military college, founded in 1889, opened its doors in 1893 to 446 cadets. Clemson Agricultural College was renamed Clemson University in 1964. A statue of Thomas Green Clemson and the Fort Hill house are located on the campus. The town of Calhoun that bordered the campus was renamed Clemson in 1932.
A sister Louisa married to Samuel Washington great-nephew of George Washington.
