Clemson University hired Carrel Cowan-Ricks of Michigan in the Department of Historic Houses and the College of Architecture in 1991. At the time, she was one of just three Black female archeologists in the United States. Tasked with finding evidence of a historic Black burial ground on the western slope of Woodland Cemetery as expansion pressures came with space decreasing for modern burials for Clemson employees, Cowan-Ricks could not do this endeavor alone. She began her Cemetery Hill Archeological Dig Project, which included herself, Clemson University students, Anderson middle schoolers, and other volunteers. They conducted three digs on the hill’s west side, thought to be the Historic African American Burial Ground, where enslaved people and convicted laborers lay resting. In continuing to honor the late professor during Women’s Celebration Month, here are several recounts from those who knew and worked with Cowan-Ricks.
Last month’s edition of the newsletter featured a story that discussed enslaved people at Fort Hill Plantation and their lives with the Calhouns. This month, we will discuss the continuation of African American labor through sharecropping, tenant farming, and domestic workers. Following the Civil War, the formerly enslaved had newfound freedoms as they were no longer considered property. From once-prohibited education provided to Black children to voting rights given to Black men, these newly earned rights came after the divided country fought over “the peculiar institution” of chattel slavery. However, attaining citizenship, freedom, and “40 acres and a mule” was difficult for many formerly enslaved people. Conceptually, it was different to go from being considered commerce as 3/5th a person to becoming a whole person under the court of law. In various instances, the formerly enslaved returned to the plantations where they had labored for a new form of slavery by a different name: sharecropping.¹
Last page of the Articles of Agreement between Thomas G. Clemson and freedmen and women, January 1, 1871, Box 5, Folder 7, Mss 2, Thomas Green Clemson Papers, Special Collections and Archives, Clemson University Libraries, https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/tgc/1159/
The war left the South in financial disarray during the Reconstruction Era as former plantation owners tried to replace the institution of slavery with something similar. The sharecropping system was a 360-deal debtor loophole that the lender (typically, the previous enslavers) kept the borrower (the formerly enslaved) in through credit and repayment of agriculture.² Thomas Green Clemson, a Confederate soldier pardoned by US President Andrew Johnson,³ went into a sharecropping agreement with some former enslaved people of Fort Hill Plantation in 1868.⁴ It included living quarters for the sharecroppers’ families, farming tools, animals for farm labor, access to firewood, rationed bread, and seed from the previous season’s harvest.⁵ However, like the debt owed for previous crops, the profit made by the borrower was heavily in favor of the lender. Duff Green Calhoun, a Confederate veteran and Andrew Pickens Calhoun’s son, used 2 printed contracts provided by the Freedman’s Bureau for freedmen and women that kept them bound to the land they once worked for free, starting in 1866.⁶ Clemson wrote out four contracts for the formerly enslaved, beginning in 1867.⁷ The January 1871-January 1872 contract included many women who agreed to work for Clemson as sharecroppers.⁸
One thing to point out is the lack of transparency of these sharecropping contracts with the indication of illiteracy in marking an “X” between their first and last names.⁹ The contracts were read to them before they signed. But they would not be able to remember all the details. Clemson’s agent’s record book was used if any disputes arose about work/pay, making it even more difficult to ensure they were treated fairly. Understanding how the freedmen and women were not allowed to read during enslavement, there would be no fair way for them to understand what they signed up for.
The work agreements outlined by Thomas Green Clemson not only kept the formerly enslaved in a cycle of debt but checked for behavior while at work that was viewed as rebellious. These rules included “not keeping fire arms or deadly weapons” and “not inviting visitors nor leaving the premises during work hours without written consent.”¹⁰ In instances of theft at Fort Hill, the assumption of “guilty until proven innocent” ruled for those found with stolen goods.¹¹
Manual labor was not limited in the fields either. Domestic work occurred at Fort Hill, from cooking food to rendering childcare.¹² It was more common for women to work in the household—many of whom were formerly enslaved people.¹³
For decades, both free and enslaved Black laborers worked the land in which we see today. As the college was established in 1889, convicted laborers followed from 1890 to 1915, helping to build everything, including four buildings for Clemson College that are still standing. What followed them were wage workers in the early 20th century and their families. Enslaved persons and other laborers who work on the land may be buried in the cemetery.
During Black History Month 2024, we ask that you consider the intergenerational nature of the project with how African Americans have impacted the land grant institution from the antebellum era to contemporary times.
Citations
1) Tetreau, Jared. 2023. “Sharecropping: Slavery Rerouted.” PBS.Org. WGBH Educational Foundation. August 16, 2023. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/harvest-sharecropping-slavery-rerouted/. 2) Ibid. 3) Caroline M. Ross on behalf of Fort Hill. “Fort Hill-Parlor.” Clio: Your Guide to History. July 30, 2020. https://theclio.com/entry/104472. 4) “Articles of agreement between Thomas G. Clemson and freedmen and women, 1868 January 1” (1868). Thomas Green Clemson Papers, Mss 2. 1134. https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/tgc/1134. 5) Ibid. 6) “The Reconstruction Era” in History of the African American Burial Ground. Woodland Cemetery Historic Preservation. https://www.clemson.edu/about/history/woodland-cemetery/histories/burial-ground.html. 7) Ibid. 8) “Articles of agreement between Thomas G. Clemson and freedmen and women, 1871 January 1” (1871). Thomas Green Clemson Papers, Mss 2. 1159. https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/tgc/1159. 9) “Articles of agreement between Thomas G. Clemson and freedmen and women, 1867” (1867). Thomas Green Clemson Papers, Mss 2. 1133. https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/tgc/1133. 10) “Articles of agreement between Thomas G. Clemson and freedmen and women, 1867” (1867). Thomas Green Clemson Papers, Mss 2. 1133. https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/tgc/1133. 11) “Articles of agreement between Thomas G. Clemson and freedmen and women, 1871 January 1” (1871). Thomas Green Clemson Papers, Mss 2. 1159. https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/tgc/1159. 12) Cassettes 1 & 2 (Viola Williams), Mss 282, Black Heritage in the Upper Piedmont of South Carolina Project Collection, Special Collections, Clemson University Libraries, Clemson, SC. 13) Cassette 1 (Lucille Vance/Yolanda Harrell), Mss 282, Black Heritage in the Upper Piedmont of South Carolina Project Collection, Special Collections, Clemson University Libraries, Clemson, SC.
The Cemetery Project works to recognize and recover the history of the African descended persons who lived on this land and were buried in the African American Burial Ground at Cemetery Hill. Over the past year, the Cemetery Team has made tremendous advances in research to recover the names of enslaved persons beyond the 1854 and 1865 inventories at Fort Hill and has gained an understanding of the broader experiences that enslaved people endured. In recognition of Black History Month, the team is producing a two-part history series featuring our latest research.
List of enslaved people on the 1854 deed to Fort Hill Plantation, https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/tgc/210/
Through Calhoun family correspondence, plantation ledgers, newspaper accounts, legal documents, and probate records, the team has pieced together more of the history of the enslaved community who lived and labored at Fort Hill. During the 18th century, Lowcountry planters acquired vast lands and large numbers of enslaved persons to cultivate rice, indigo, and sea island cotton. French Huguenot families, such as the Bonneaus, spread their wealth to the upcountry following the Revolutionary War. Samuel Bonneau owned multiple plantations and nearly 100 enslaved people at his death in 1788. His daughter Floride’s husband, John Ewing Colhoun, Sr., accumulated lands and inherited plantations at Santee, Ferry, and Pimlico in the Lowcountry from him. Colhoun began moving enslaved persons from the coast to Twelve Mile Plantation near present day Clemson by 1794. 1
Of the enslaved people Colhoun inherited, Clemson Historic Properties and this team know that a woman named Menimin was from Africa. An 1849 article in the New York Herald mentions this fact, and she was said to be 112 years old. James Scoville, who wrote the article anonymously as “A Traveller,” since he was John C. Calhoun’s private secretary, gave readers a glimpse of the day-to-day life at Fort Hill. He wrote that Menimin had “63 living descendants on this plantation.” The Cemetery team has begun to identify some of their descendants after recovering nine new inventories from John Ewing Colhoun, Sr.’s papers held at UNC Chapel Hill. The team has found that Menimin and her partner Polydore had at least 10 children, including Tom, Katy, and Peggy. These three appear in the John C. Calhoun letters, and in later inventories already known to the project. We are working to reconstruct this family through the generations and hope to recover where Menimin was from in Africa to tie the histories at Fort Hill back to the transatlantic slave trade.2
Though Scoville’s article presented J.C. Calhoun as a benevolent and fair enslaver, relations between enslaved people and their enslavers were not often as harmonious. One dramatic instance of enslaved resistance occurred in 1798. In late summer, five people enslaved by John Ewing Colhoun, Sr., at Twelve Mile, plotted to poison their owners and flee the state. Court records state that Hazard developed the plan, and that Will obtained poison to carry out the plan. Hazard, Sukey, Sue, Jack, and Will did poison the Colhoun family and fled. None of the Colhouns died as a result. The five were captured and tried in court on August 12, 1798. Will was hanged for his role in obtaining the poison. The remaining four were all whipped, branded on the forehead, and had their ears cropped as punishment. In the records for Colhoun’s estate in 1804, all four people appear at Bonneau’s Ferry rice plantation near Charleston. No record exists explaining why the enslaved resisted the Colhouns in this way, but it could be in response to being moved from the coast, or due to the short distance to Cherokee territory, and freedom.3
Floride Bonneau Colhoun, John C. Calhoun’s mother-in-law, inherited the lands and enslaved of her husband, and divided them among her children, including Floride Colhoun Calhoun, who came to live at Fort Hill with her husband John and six children in 1826. Calhoun family letters, and oral history point us to instances of enslaved resistance in the 1830s and 1840s. For instance, Aleck ran away in 1831 after Floride Calhoun threatened to whip him. In 1842 and 1843, siblings Sawney Jr. and Issey both set fires to resist the overseer, and Floride Calhoun, respectively. Furthermore, oral history from descendants of the Calhoun enslaved implies that two enslaved persons also tried to poison Floride Calhoun at Fort Hill during the 1840s.4
Given the undercurrents of tension at Fort Hill the enslaved endured many hardships. Punishments for resistance included imprisonment, whipping, and relocation or sale away from the Calhoun family. In the early 1840s, several enslaved moved between Fort Hill and the Calhoun’s gold mine in Dalhonega, GA. In addition, throughout the 1840s, upwards of twenty enslaved at a time were moved between Fort Hill and John C. Calhoun’s son A.P.’s cotton plantations in Alabama. Issey was among those sent to Alabama as punishment for her arson of the Fort Hill home. Beyond punishment and control, relocation served the Calhouns as an attempt to maximize profit, by increasing labor to improve cotton harvests in Alabama, and to help extract gold. The Calhouns hoped that forcing their enslaved to labor across properties and in difficult conditions would bring financial security. In the end both John C. and A.P. Calhoun died heavily in debt, despite the toil of the enslaved. Next month, the team will discuss what we have learned about the sharecroppers at Fort Hill and the domestic workers, and wage laborers at Clemson College.5
Citations
October 1794 List of People at Twelve Mile Plantation, Collection 00130, Series 2, Folder 9, John Ewing Colhoun Papers, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, UNC Chapel Hill.
Joseph A. Scoville, “A Visit to Fort Hill,” The New York Herald (New York, NY), Jul. 26 1849. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn83030313/1849-07-26/ed-1/.; John Ewing Colhoun Papers, Collection 00130, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, UNC Chapel Hill.
Account of 1798, Folder 16, John Ewing Colhoun, Sr. Papers, South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina. See also W.J. Megginson, African American Life in South Carolina’s Upper Piedmont, (Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 2022), 26-27.; Will of John Ewing Colhoun, May 30, 1802, in Ancestry.com. South Carolina, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1670-1980 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015.
Robert Lee Meriwether, William Edwin Hemphill, and Clyde N. Wilson, eds., The Papers of John C. Calhoun, Vol. 1-27 (Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press for the South Caroliniana Society, 1959-2003), August, 27 and September 1, 1831 v 11 462-463.; April 4, 1843 v 17 136.; December 3, 1845 v 22 314-315.
R.L. Meriwether, et. al, eds., The Papers of John C. Calhoun, v 12 371, 531-532.; v 16 282-624. v 15 656.; v 21 482-508.; v 23 308.
The cemetery, nestled beside Clemson University’s Memorial Stadium (“Death Valley”), at Clemson University is now open again to the public for visitation. The 17.5-acre wooded area actually has three burial grounds: the African American Burial Ground, Andrew Pickens Calhoun Family Plot, and Woodland Cemetery. Over the past ten months, the Pathways Project has significantly improved the campus cemetery, from addressing accessibility concerns in the sacred space to providing additional lighting and security measures. In this article, we will illustrate and explain these changes that visitors will experience when they re-enter.
Retaining wall on the southeast side of the cemetery at Clemson University. Photograph by Marquise Drayton.
Visitors can walk along the new klingstone pathways bordered by flagstones upon entering the cemetery. The pebble-like walkway provides a more comfortable feel for foot traffic than the concrete and dirt that once was there.
Benches will be installed in select places throughout the cemetery for reflection and rest. Additionally, a new klingstone pathway has been installed from the grave of President Walter Riggs to the lower pathway near the stadium. Both tour groups and visitors will be able to use this shortcut to save time when visiting the cemetery. A new gate has also been created along the Press Road entrance to the cemetery across from Memorial Stadium’s Gate 16 to signal the site’s sacredness.
A wrought iron gate and ornamental wrought iron inserts inspired by the craftsmanship of African American blacksmith Philip Simmons of Charleston, SC, will be installed later this year. Additionally, as visitors enter this new gate, they will walk on slabs of stone that were taken from the old gate that was formerly located on the west side of Woodland Cemetery.
Stairway leading from the Riggs Plot towards the gate at Press Road near Memorial Stadium. Photograph by Marquise Drayton.
For nearly 60 years, Woodland Cemetery was not only a place to bury the dead, but it was also used as a tailgating site and for parking by IPTAY on football game days. However, the cemetery project team and university staff are working to redefine the campus cemetery as a place of reverence and respect and where the public can also learn about Clemson University history. For more information, please visit clemson.edu/cemetery.
Woodland Cemetery at Clemson University will be approaching its centennial year in 2024. Catalyzed by the death of a university president in 1924, “Cemetery Hill” was its original name for the Andrew Pickens Calhoun Family plot.¹ So why is it called “Woodland?” By definition, a woodland cemetery is a burial ground built more by its natural aesthetic in woods, trees, and forests than mausoleums, tombstones, and other monuments. ² Long-leaf pine and oak trees dominate the landscape of the campus cemetery. If these trees could talk, they would tell a story of how the football stadium, parking lots, and burial ground came to be. It is still an active cemetery, with many notable names throughout Clemson history buried there.
A weathering beautyberry limb sticking out near the entrance of the campus cemetery as the season changes. Photograph by Marquise Drayton.
Upon entering, visitors can see beautyberry bushes behind the granite wall entrance. The purple plant suits Clemson University colors³ and what the color represents as royalty in many cultures.⁴ Greenery grinds the ground of the granite signage as “WOODLAND CEMETERY” stands out as one around the cul de sac loop at the Williamson Road entrance. Within the cemetery are white flags with colorful ribbons that mark the sites of the unmarked burials of Black people from different generations, orange and purple flowers that adorn the graves of white Clemson employees, and a gated area that is the Andrew Pickens Calhoun Family Plot.
To the left of the campus cemetery entrance lies the remnants of the Camellia Test Garden. During the 1953 Clemson faculty senate meeting, there were attempts to rename the camellia garden after Judge Crawford, an African American who was the primary gardener for Clemson College in the early 1900s.⁵ The flower became an early basis for the South Carolina Botanical Garden (SCBG) in Clemson, South Carolina.⁶
The African American Burial Ground, Andrew Pickens Calhoun Family Plot, and Woodland Cemetery at Clemson University
As we invite guests back into the campus burial ground, we want to clarify that there are three cemeteries: the African American Burial Ground, Andrew Pickens Calhoun Family Plot, and Woodland Cemetery. With this in mind, I would like to review a few honorific traditions in other cultures similar to this intergenerational and interracial sacred space.
Around the holidays, visitors can see wreaths placed upon tombstones at many cemeteries, mainly where veterans lie. Every mid-December, Wreaths Across America (WAA) honors those who died in the armed forces.⁷ Their tradition began in December 1992 at Arlington National Cemetery.⁸ A wreath-making family-owned business donated leftover decorations to the notable cemetery.
Stones placed on markers at graveyards began from many Jewish communities for religious reasons.⁹ However, it also symbolizes a stone’s unchanging state instead of flowers when visited by a loved one.¹⁰ In addition, items associated with a person’s life may also be there in place of a stone.
Leaving coins on a headstone has ties to ancient times in Rome, metaphorically meaning payment to pass over into the afterlife properly.¹¹ It is more known now for military burials, with different coins to communicate its connotation.¹²
A grave blanket is typically a flower bed on a person’s tomb above ground.¹³ They usually are in cemeteries with colder climates, thus connotatively keeping the deceased warm.¹⁴ In my visits to various cemeteries, I have seen some decorated with colorful flora. But in some cases, I have witnessed elaborate mural illustrations of the deceased person’s casket.
We are delighted that the public will be able to see the different architectural improvements, accessibility upgrades, and interpretative programming coming to the campus cemetery in 2024.
Citations
1) Clemson Board of Trustees, Trustees Minutes, July 4-5, 1922, https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1389&context=trustees_minutes; Clemson Board of Trustees, Trustee Minutes, July 10, 1924, https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1388&context=trustees_minutes.
2) Morgan, Matt. “Everything You Need to Know about Woodland Burials.” Farewill. Farewill Ltd, n.d. https://farewill.com/articles/everything-you-need-to-know-about-woodland-burials.
3) Clemson University. “Web Style Guide: Colors.” https://www.clemson.edu/web-style-guide/colors.html.
4) Miranda, Carolina. “In the Wake of Prince’s Death, a Very Short History of the Color Purple.” Los Angeles Times. California Times, April 23, 2016. https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/miranda/la-et-cam-prince-death-very-short-history-of-the-color-purple-20160423-column.html.
5) Buildings and Grounds Report, February 3, 1953, Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes, 1952-1953, https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1003&context=faculty_senate.
6) Brian Scott, “The Camellia Garden Historical Marker,” June 16, 2016, Historical Marker Database, https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=19538.
7) Wreaths Across America. “Our Mission.” https://www.wreathsacrossamerica.org/About/OurMission.
8) Ibid.
9) Milano, Alicia. “Why Do People Put Stones On Graves? Here Are 5 Reasons.” Milano Monuments. Milano Monuments, LLC., June 21, 2022. https://www.milanomonuments.com/blog/why-do-people-put-stones-on-graves.
10) Ibid.
11) Wounded Warrior Project. “The Meaning Behind Coins on Military Graves.” https://newsroom.woundedwarriorproject.org/The-Meaning-Behind-Coins-on-Military-Graves.
12) Ibid.
13) Kirk, Julie. “All About Grave Blankets and Where to Find Them.” Love To Know. LoveToKnow Media, January 4, 2019. https://www.lovetoknow.com/life/grief-loss/grave-blankets#:~:text=Grave%20blankets%20are%20customary%20headstone,holiday%2Dthemed%20ribbons%20or%20flowers.
14) ibid.
By Dr. Mandi Barnard, Research Historian for the African American Burial Ground, Andrew P. Calhoun Family Plot, and Woodland Cemetery Historic Preservation Project
Archie Stern’s military tombstone in Woodland Cemetery at Clemson University. Photo from Find a Grave.
The war to end all wars ended in armistice at 11:00 AM on November 11, 1918. In the years since, Armistice Day, or Veterans Day, as it is known now in the United States, is a time to honor those who have served in the Armed Forces. On this year’s 104th Veterans Day, the cemetery project honors Sergeant Archie DePriest Stern. Sergeant Stern was a detached recruit with the 8th Infantry, USAR, who served his final years at Clemson College. He worked under Captain R. W. Johnson as an instructor of Military Tactics for the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC). Stern was a veteran of the Philippines Campaign and served in the US Army of Occupation, in France and Germany from 1919-1923.
Archie Stern was born on March 8, 1881, near Glenville, WV. His father, Jacob Stern, immigrated from Germany to the United States in 1857, settling in the area of what is today West Virginia. Stern later served in the US Army during the Civil War. Jacob Stern married a local woman, Julia DePriest, and Sergeant Stern was the eighth of their 11 children. Stern’s father and brothers worked as saddlers, making saddles and tack for horses. In 1904, at 23, Stern enlisted in the US Army Coastal Artillery Corps (CAC). The CAC was tasked with harbor defense of the US mainland and US territories acquired in the Spanish American War of 1898. Each coastal port was fitted with innovative fixed munitions. By World War I (WWI), CAC installations were essential in preventing U-Boat attacks on the coast.
Sergeant Stern served stateside at Fort Mott, NJ, and at Fort Casey and Fort Lawton in Washington State. He also served for a time in Panama at the Canal Zone. From 1915-1918, he was stationed in Manilla, The Philippines, defending that port during WWI. Though his enlistment record is incomplete, Stern reenlisted in 1919, at Camp Meade, MD, as a private with the 35th Co. Field Artillery, 9th Replacement Unit, US Army Expeditionary Force. While it is not known what role Stern played in France and Germany with the US Army of Occupation, it can be inferred that his years of experience with coastal defense and knowledge of munitions would be vital to the task of maintaining the peace in Europe following adoption of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919.
While in Europe, Sergeant Stern met his wife, Anna P. Schwartz. They returned to the United States separately, in 1923, relocating to Fort Screven, GA, where he was then stationed. Anna Stern was from Glogau, Silesia, Prussia which is now in Poland. In 1925, Stern and his wife came to Clemson, where he worked as a military tactics instructor for the ROTC program. They were both well-liked and respected among the campus community as evidenced by articles about them in The Tiger. Sadly, Anna Stern became sick with leukemia and died on May 17, 1927. She became the first person buried in Woodland Cemetery, which was established by the Board of Trustees in July 1924.
Obituary for Archie Stern in the March 20, 1929 issue of The Tiger newspaper.
In August 1928, Sergeant Stern reenlisted for his final two years of Army service before retirement. At 47 years old, and recently recovered from an operation, he had just returned to Clemson in autumn of that year. On the evening of November 5, Stern was seen in his military uniform walking to Woodland to visit Anna’s grave. It was after 10 pm. The following morning, he did not report for duty. Three weeks later, the Board of Trustees went public with Stern’s disappearance and appealed for help locating him. He had left his car, belongings, and bank account untouched. Months passed. In March of 1929, a man in Elberton, GA, pulled a body from the Savannah River following a flood from a dam. Documents on the body and the uniform gave the identity of the deceased as Sergeant Archie Stern.
The Clemson community was in shock. The verdict of the coroner’s inquest was death by homicide. However, the Board of Trustees believed Stern took his own life in sorrow over the loss of his wife Anna. Stern’s siblings believed he had been killed. To this day, no one knows what happened to Sergeant Stern. His body was taken back to Clemson by Captain Johnson and buried beside Anna at Woodland Cemetery. Sergeant Stern was the fourth Clemson burial at Woodland. He was the first active-duty US military personnel to die and be buried here, and he was the first veteran of the US Armed Forces honored at the campus cemetery.
Citations
Press Clippings, Series 37, Military Science Department Information File, Clemson Special Collections Library, Clemson University Libraries.
US Armed Forces Enlistment Records, Ship Manifests, Immigration and Naturalization Files, and Press Clippings from US National Archives on Ancestry.com and Newspapers.com.
By Dr. Rhondda Thomas, Calhoun Lemon Professor of Literature, Call My Name Faculty Director, and Coordinator of Research and Community Engagement for the African American Burial Ground and Woodland Cemetery Historic Preservation Project
Although Clemson University is devoting major attention to documenting the history of Woodland Cemetery and the African American Burial Ground Project on its main campus and honoring all who are buried there, the higher education institution is also seeking to preserve 15 grave sites on 33,000 acres it owns throughout South Carolina.
There are a variety of cemeteries on these off-campus sites, including those affiliated with families and churches, as well as some located in heavily wooded areas with graves that are both unmarked and marked by headstones.
Known gravesite locations on Clemson University land.
Clemson is committed to working with researchers and local communities to document the history of all of these sacred sites and to ensure that they are protected. More information about this initiative can be found on Clemson University’s Statewide Grave Sites website.
1) The Clemson Experimental Forest (CEF) in Oconee/Anderson/Pickens Counties contains four sites identified and confirmed as known gravesite locations. These include the John Ewing Colhoun Family Cemetery, Lawrence Family Cemetery, Lieutenant William F. Grant Site, and Lieutenant Benjamin Lawrence Site. Acquired by Clemson University in 1954, the Clemson Experimental Forest encompasses approximately 17,500 acreage. The estimated number of graves in the CEF is approximately 255+, with 240 unmarked burials.
2) The cemetery for enslaved people who worked at Andrew Pickens’ Hopewell Plantation and the Simpson Cemetery site of Mt. Jolly Plantation are at the Piedmont Research and Education Center in Anderson/Pickens Counties. Hopewell contains three headstones, with most of the depressions marked by field stones. There are twelve headstones at the multigenerational Simpson and Taliaferro Family Cemetery. Like Hopewell, field stones lie within the space, denoting how old the graveyard is. Clemson University took ownership of the properties from 1932-1960, totaling approximately 4,400 acres.
3) The identified gravesites of the Edisto Research and Education Center (Edisto REC) in Barnwell County include three locations: one near the ruins of a church, another adjacent to a hay barn, and the third at the edge of an once alfalfa field. Clearing work was completed on these sites in February 2022. Old Church has identified five headstones, with 60+ estimated graves primarily unmarked. The Christmas Tree Field Hay Barn has an estimated 15-20 graves but no identifiable headstones. The V.L. Cave/Alfalfa Field has one Veterans Administration headstone, with an estimated two graves via the oral history of husband and wife. Clemson acquired the Edisto REC between 1936-1952, spanning approximately 2,360 acreage.
4) 1971 was when the university acquired the Pee Dee Research and Education Center (Pee Dee REC) from the Dargan and Pierce Families, covering approximately 2,300 acres of 20+ estimated graves. The Pee Dee REC in Darlington/Florence Counties includes one confirmed cemetery and two other possible sites. The Old Dargan/Pleasant Grove Cemetery has two headstones, with 20+ unmarked metal funeral home markers where some are legible to read. The estimated number of graves at the African American burial ground in the forest is unknown. The W. Standard site and Pitner Center Grassed area have no headstones nor estimated grave count. The former is potentially a family cemetery for a Revolutionary War officer where historical descriptions match the possible location, while the latter GPR survey found no evidence of graves despite oral history accounting for there being once.
5) The Coastal Research and Education Center in Charleston County identified the Old Mill gravesite as a confirmed burial ground. There is an estimated 50+ graves among its 325 acres. Clemson University acquired the land from 1932 to 1944. Though to be called “Old Mill” from oral history, the cemetery has three headstones.
For more information on how Clemson University works to preserve grave sites in South Carolina, please click here.
Outside of the head coach for Clemson Football, the Clemson University President is one of the most identifiable campus leaders at the land grant institution in Upstate South Carolina. Only Clemson President Walter M. Riggs (1911-1924) served as both.1 Dr. James Clements has served as the fifteen president of Clemson University since the Board of Trustees approved his hiring in December 2013.2 Like the president of a nation, the university president’s involvement with different constituents during their tenure is paramount to a school’s growth in academics and athletics. Not only does one interact with students, faculty, and staff, but one has to engage with alumni, donors, partners, and other groups invested in the university. Even post-presidency, President Emeritus James Barker (1999- 2013) is still active in engaging people in the college town with his expertise in architecture and artistry in watercolor drawings.3
Presiding over commencement ceremonies in their ornate regalia is not the only thing they are known for. The current Clemson president has an advisory board comprised of current and former business people, a leadership institute for faculty and staff, and a president’s house for their family to reside in during their term.4 The latter is a Greek Revival-style private residence that mirrors the architecture of the nearby Fort Hill Plantation Mansion, where school founder Thomas Green Clemson and his wife, Anna Calhoun Clemson, lived.5 There are several other pots in which the president has his hand in that pertain to the university.
Following the South Carolina General Assembly’s establishment of Clemson Agricultural College of South Carolina in 1889, President H. Aubrey Strode (1890-1893) oversaw a college that had no students during his time as its first university president.6 However, he did hire the first faculty and created the initial curriculum.7 President Patrick H. Mell’s (1902-1910) primary focus was shifting Clemson College’s designation as an all-male military college to a top research institution in the South.8 President Enoch W. Sikes (1925-1940) advanced Mell’s vision further as Clemson College gained its first accreditation from the Association of Secondary Schools and Colleges of the Southern States.9 The enrollment of students grew, faculty hiring increased, and the college offered more advanced degrees during his administration.
There are lasting parts of Clemson’s campus where presidents are honored. Cox Plaza near Tillman Hall has a life-size statue of President Walter T. Cox (1985-1986) sitting on a bench, which documents his crucial role in student affairs.10 Edwards Hall holds the College of Behavioral, Social, and Health Science. President Robert C. Edwards (1958-1979) is the namesake for this campus building.11 Dr. Edwards was the longest-serving president in Clemson’s history.12 He is notable for his strategic measures with the state legislature to uneventfully usher in Harvey Gantt as the school’s first African American student 1963.13 A local middle school in neighboring Central, SC, also bears his name.14
Yet one section of campus began as a consequence of the untimely death of a university president. The Clemson University Board of Trustees created Woodland Cemetery in July 1924, six months after President Walter M. Riggs died of a heart attack in January 1924.15 Growing from the original Cemetery Hill where the Calhoun Family and African American enslaved persons, convicted laborers, and wage workers lie, the burial ground beside Memorial Stadium remains an active cemetery today.16 Every university president since Dr. Riggs is buried in Woodland Cemetery.17 The most recent president buried there was President Philip Prince (1994-1995), who passed away in February 2020.18
Woodland Cemetery was the brainchild of President Riggs in 1922 to honor white full-time employees at the land grant school.19 He worked with a committee that included early Clemson mathematics professor Major Samuel Martin.20Later improvements were made with civil engineer H. E. Glenn to ensure the campus cemetery allocated 202 family plots for those eligible.21 Only the west side was empty at the time of the 1938 map.22
In December 2000, President Barker appointed the Woodland Cemetery Stewardship Committee to “preserve and protect the landscapes and objects that reflect the architectural and cultural heritage of Clemson University as a part of the living fabric of the campus.”23
Under the Clements administration, the $3.5 million Pathways Project enhanced the sacred space, tailgating in the cemetery ended in 2020, and a history task force placed interpretative signage around campus in 2016, including Woodland Cemetery.24
Citations
Grubb, C. Alan. 1988. “The Master Executive Walter Merritt Riggs, 1910-1924.” In Tradition: A History of the Presidency of Clemson University, edited by Donald McK- ale, Pg. 99–100. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press.
Trotter, Stephanie. n.d. “Tiger Town Legends.” Vive. Community Journals. https://vive-mag.com/engage/tiger-town-legends-james-barker-and-marcia-barker/.
Clemson University. “Office of the President.” Clemson.Edu. Clemson University. https://www.clemson.edu/president/index.html.
Marsteller, Duane, and Tracy Marsteller. 2021. “President’s Family Residence.” The Historical Marker Database. J. J. Prats. November 21, 2021. https://www.hmdb.org/m.as- p?m=186401.
Lambert, Robert S. 1988. “The Builder of a College Henry Aubrey Strode 1890-1893.” In Tradition: A History of the Presidency of Clemson University, edited by Donald McKale, Pg. 21. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press.
Ibid, Pg. 26-29.
Green, Robert P. “A Scholar’s Turmoil Patrick Hues Mell, 1902-1910.” In Tradition: A History of the Presidency of Clemson University, edited by Donald McKale, Pg. 84-96. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press.
Yandle, Bruce. “The Plowboy Scholar Enoch Walter Sikes, 1925-1940.” In Tradition: A History of the Presidency of Clemson University, edited by Donald McKale, Pg. 154. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press.
Scott, Brian. 2009. “Walter T. Cox, Jr.” The Historical Marker Database. J. J. Prats. July 5, 2009. https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=20566.
@clemsonuniversity. 2020. “Tour Tuesday: Edwards Hall.” Instagram. Meta Platforms, Inc. February 4, 2020. https://www.instagram.com/p/B8JbBFqFbbi/,
Wainscott, Stephen H. “A Take-Charge Businessman Robert Cook Edwards, 1958-1979.” In Tradition: A History of the Presidency of Clemson University, edited by Donald McKale, Pg. 187. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press.
“R.C. Edwards Learns Civil Rights History Milestone.” Independent Mail. Independent Publishing Company. April 10, 2013. https://archive.independentmail.com/features/ rc-edwards-learns-civil-rights-history-milestone-ep-361988615-347853001.html/.
Ibid.
Clemson Board of Trustees, Trustee Minutes, July 10, 1924, https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1388&context=trustees_minutes./ “Clemson Mourns President Riggs,” The Tiger (Clemson, SC), February 1, 1924, https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1420&context=tiger_newspaper.
Map of Clemson Agricultural College, 1920. Special Collections and Archives, Clemson University Libraries.
Clemson Board of Trustees, Trustee Minutes, July 10, 1924, https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/trustees_minutes/389/.
Nicholson, Zoe. 2020. “Former Clemson University President, Football Player Phil Prince Has Died.” Greenville News. Gannet Co, Inc. March 2, 2020. https://www.greenvilleonline. com/story/news/2020/03/02/former-clemson-university-president-and-trustee-phil-prince-has-died/4927542002/.
Clemson Board of Trustees, Trustees Minutes, July 4-5, 1922, https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/trustees_minutes/390; Cemetery Committee to Walter Riggs, May 17, 1923, Series 17, Box 23, Folder 269, Walter Riggs Presidential Records, Correspondence, Special Collections and Archives, Clemson University Libraries.
Ibid.
A Report on Woodland Cemetery, December 5, 1957, Mss 366, Box 2, Folder 17, Papers of Carrel Cowan-Ricks, Special Collections and Archives, Clemson University Libraries.
Ibid.
Series 0613 Woodland Cemetery Stewardship Committee Records, Special Collections and Archives, Clemson University Libraries, Clemson, South Carolina.
“Construction to begin on Woodland Cemetery enhancements.” Clemson News. Clemson University. February 13, 2023. https://news.clemson.edu/construction-to-be- gin-on-woodland-cemetery-enhancements/. / “PLEASE HELP US HONOR ALL WHO ARE BURIED AT WOODLAND CEMETERY.” Clemson Athletics. Clemson University. September 30, 2021. https://clemsontigers.com/please-help-us-honor-all-who-are-buried-at-woodland-cemetery/. / “Landmarks & Legends: Marking History.” Clemson World Magazine. Clemson University. September 5, 2016. https://clemson.world/archive/landmarks-legends-marking-history/.
Field stones marking unknown graves in Woodland Cemetery.
The common thread that weaves through all those interred in Woodland Cemetery is each played an integral part in the university’s current existence. Part of the cemetery’s genealogy research agenda is contextualizing the stories of the enslaved African Americans, sharecroppers, domestic and convicted laborers, and wage workers, including their families, who do not have headstones. Genealogists understood early the importance of cemeteries to family history and spent time recording information gleaned from graveyards.1 Through careful documentation, we’re researching descendants to identify current family members by gathering evidence from a variety of sources, including vital records, censuses, wills, and oral histories.
Our research uncovered information on Samuel Barber, a convicted laborer who worked at Clemson College during its inception. The 1880 federal census says Sam was born about 1856 in Fairfield County, South Carolina, to Jacob and Jemima Barber, was twenty-two, and lived at home with his parents and younger brother, Charles.2 Jacob was a farmer. His wife and two sons were laborers. We have not found much about Sam’s daily life at Clemson except that he died at 41, 18 December 1900, while still a leased prisoner.3 Sam was one of twelve laborers, documented so far, who are likely buried in Woodland Cemetery in unmarked graves. Clemson College mainly leased African Americans from the South Carolina state penitentiary. All cleared the land, made bricks, erected buildings, planted and harvested crops, built dikes, and made roads and sidewalks.4
Sam Barber was listed as a prisoner at Clemson College in the 1900 US census.
The 1900 federal census listed Sam Barber (transcribed as Bucher) as one of twenty-six prisoners at Clemson College. He and both parents were native-born South Carolinians. Sam was literate, a homeowner, and married for five years. South Carolina did not record marriage records state-wide until 1911. However, some counties did compile them earlier, like Charleston County. For example, [City of] Charleston, South Carolina, U.S., Marriage Records, 1877-1887 are on Ancestry.com. Because Samuel was married in 1895, likely in Charleston, since that’s where he was convicted of Grand Larceny and sentenced to four years, his marriage is not in this record set. We also have not identified his wife yet. That said, we did unearth significant information about Sam’s family through the life of his brother Charles.
A 1937 interview by the Works Progress Administration documents Charles, 81, living with his daughter Maggie. Mary Wylie, his wife, died two years earlier. Charles did not name his children in the interview, but said they had ten “. . . Some dead, some marry and leave.” He related that Ozmund [sic] and Elizabeth Barber enslaved his family in Great Falls, on the Wateree River, in South Carolina, where Charles was born.9 And, according to family lore, both his parents were born in Africa, (the 1900 census lists their birthplace as South Carolina10) brought to Virginia during the transatlantic slave trade, taken to Winnsboro [Fairfield County, South Carolina] by the slave driver, then sold to Osmond Barber’s father. Osmond Barber is the son of Sarah T. Barber according to her Chester County, South Carolina will dated, 14 December 1896.11 His father likely predeceased his mom, since he is not mentioned in the will.
Family Tree for Sam Barber.
About his parents’ African birth, Charles says, “They never did talk lak [sic] de other slaves, could just say a few words, use deir [sic] hands, and make signs. . . Yes sir, they, my pappy and mammy, was just smuggled in dis part of de world, I bet you!” Charles was likely referring to the Slave Trade Act of 1807 meant to prohibit international importation of newly enslaved persons. It did not affect the domestic slave trade.12
Charles further recounted that during the Civil War “Mistress [enslaver Elizabeth Barber] and de chillum have to go to Chester to git a place to sleep and eat, wid kinfolks.” The 1860 Federal Slave Schedule dated 15 October 1860, for Chester County, South Carolina lists Osmund Barber holding twenty-three enslaved people in bondage.13 The oldest person was a 90-year-old male, the youngest were two eight-month-old infants. Sam and Charles could have been among the children listed since they were born about 1856 and 1862, respectively. Enslaved person’s ages are approximated since few slaveholders kept detailed vital record information for their bondspersons.
Charles died about 1950. He, his wife, and daughter are all buried in St. John’s African Methodist Episcopal Church in Winnsboro, Fairfax, South Carolina, their home church.14
Research on Sam Barber and others vital in building present-day Clemson University continues.
Citations
Recording Historic Cemeteries: A Guide for Historical Societies and Genealogists. Chicora Foundation Inc., Columbia, South Carolina, 1998.
1880 U.S. Federal Census, Township 14, Fairfield, South Carolina; Roll: 1229; page 17A; Enumeration District: 066.
1900; Census Place: Township 5, Fairfield, South Carolina; Roll: 1527; Page: 15; Enumeration District: 0034.
Annual Reports of the Board of Directors and Superintendent of the South Carolina Penitentiary, Reports and Resolutions of the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina at the Regular Sessions, South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, SC.
FamilySearch Wiki contributors, “South Carolina Vital Records,” FamilySearch Wiki, https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/index.php?title=South_Carolina_Vital_Records&oldid=5361257 (accessed July 27, 2023).
Charleston, South Carolina, U.S., Marriage Records, 1877-1887 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007. South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina.
1900; Census Place: Township 5, Fairfield, South Carolina; Roll: 1527; Page: 15; Enumeration District: 0034.
Thomas, Rhondda Robinson. Convicted Laborers Deaths at Clemson. (Clemson University, 16 December 2022.)
U.S. Interviews with Formerly Enslaved People, 1936-1938 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. This collection was indexed by Ancestry World Archives Project contributors. A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves, 1936–1938. Vol. 1-17. Federal Writers’ Project of the Works Progress Administration microfilm publication SCM 000 320, SCM 000 321, SCM 000 322, SCM 000 323, SCM 000 325, 5 rolls. Library of Congress, Washington D.C.
1900; Census Place: Township 5, Fairfield, South Carolina; Roll: 1527; Page: 15; Enumeration District: 0034.
South Carolina, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1670-1980. Chester County, South Carolina Wills; Author: South Carolina. Probate Court (Chester County). Ancestry.com, Anestry.com Operations, Inc. 2015, Provo, UT, USA.
Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves. (2023, March 13). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Act_Prohibiting_Importation_of_Slaves (accessed 28 July 2023.)
1860 U.S. Federal Census – Slave Schedules [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010. United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Eighth Census of the United States, 1860. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1860. M653, 1,438 rolls.
U.S., Find a Grave® Index, 1600s-Current [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. Original data: Find a Grave. Find a Grave®. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi.
Clemson Football’s “The Graveyard,” which marks AP/Coaches Poll Top 25 wins on the road earned by the Clemson Tigers.
Ironically, both flagship universities in South Carolina and Louisiana stake their claim over who’s “the real Death Valley.”1 According to a 1945 account by Presbyterian College Head Coach Lonnie McMillan, after a 76-0 loss from Frank Howard’s Clemson Tigers, he referred to the stadium as “Death Valley” because of the heat within it that made it hard to play as well as its natural ravine shape.2 But after the recent bout between the shared mascot schools, LSU may have more of a stake in that claim. In 2015, University of Michigan Football Head Coach Jim Harbaugh smashed a buckeye nut with a hammer atop former coach Bo Schembechler’s grave ahead of the annual Michigan v. Ohio State rivalry game.3 University of Notre Dame fan Sylvester Cashen cared for the former Fighting Irish Football Head Coach Knute Rocke’s gravesite for many years.4 Ahead of the 2008 Georgia Bulldogs v. Alabama Crimson Tide game in Athens, GA, then University of Alabama Strength-And-Conditioning Coach Scott Cochran exclaimed in practice that “They’ll be wearing black because they’re coming to their own expletive funeral” as word came around that the Bulldogs were wearing an all-black uniform combination.5 From stadium nicknames to graveyards dedicated to beating opponents on the road, there is a unique commemoration of life’s end in college football regarding ways to document big wins.
However, the heroic folklore of the gridiron on Saturdays detracts from more realistic, dismal, and historical issues at southern Power Five schools. In September 2016, during my sophomore year at the University of North Carolina (UNC)-Chapel Hill, I tearfully witnessed a memorial to the 400+ unmarked burials of Black individuals in the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery.6 UNC Basketball Head Coach Dean Smith, dramatist Paul Green, and previous UNC chancellors rest eternally at the campus cemetery. The sacred space is across from Carmichael Arena, where “Mike” Jordan once graced their hardwood floors as a student-athlete.7 In the fall, many Clemson Football fans who wear orange and purple inside Memorial Stadium are unaware of the vast unmarked burials of Black people from different generations since enslavement in Woodland Cemetery that sits above the south stand of the home side. And although the University of Georgia inters its past live dog mascots inside Sanford Stadium8 and the University of Alabama’s Bryant-Denny Stadium has silent occupants that contrast from the loud fanbase on Saturdays,9 they also must reckon with their past ties to chattel slavery with cemeteries nearby their respective sporting venues. Thus, I seek to give life to underrepresented death at Clemson, UGA, and Florida State, which each holds deadly traditions for sport.
Before I dive into the facts about “the real Death Valley” in Woodland Cemetery beside Memorial Stadium (Nicknamed “Death Valley”), I want to address the folklore that Clemson Football shares in deadly traditions. As the Community Engagement Assistant for the Woodland Cemetery and African American Burial Ground Historic Preservation Project at Clemson University, I thoroughly enjoy asking undergraduate students to do this social experiment while taking them on tours of the campus cemetery. To pass the time while we walk to the next stop at Memorial Stadium from Walter Riggs’ tombstone (The first head coach for the Clemson Tigers football program10), I ask those who have cellphone access to look up “Clemson graveyard” on Google Images. What they often find in their lookup is fascinating. Many results in the search include pictures of the “The Graveyard” for Clemson Football, located next to their Allen Reeves Football and Indoor Practice Facility. There are only so many students who find more images of Woodland Cemetery within the algorithm. In researching this dichotomy, there is far more information about Clemson Athletics’ graveyard known than about the resting places of Black people in the African American Burial Ground.
“The Graveyard” can be visited by fans during the year to see how the football program documents ranked road wins dismally. Every offseason, Clemson HC Dabo Swinney and upperclassmen student-athletes unveil new tombstones to the current team that symbolizes wins earned from the previous season’s ranked away games.11 The athletic program bases the ranking qualifications on the Coaches/Associated Press (AP) Top 25 Poll during the fall season (It used to be the Top 20 Poll until it expanded for both in the early 1990s).12 One tombstone at the front row chronicles road wins over Top 20 teams from 1948-1986. A manufacturing company in nearby Easley, SC, initially crafted the symbolic tombstones.13 But since 2004, Kornegay Funeral Home of Camden, SC, has done so since then for Clemson Athletics.14 The cost of preparing a marker is undisclosed to the public.15 As of 2023, thirty-seven tombstones are in the makeshift graveyard beside the Seneca River.16 Swinney is responsible for twenty-six staked there, including two exclusive black granite stones at the far left denoting the 2016 and 2018 national championship victories against Alabama.17 One tombstone declares the 29-28 victory over the Virginia Cavaliers on October 10, 1992, as “the greatest comeback in Clemson history, as the Tigers scored the last twenty-nine points over the final thirty-two minutes of the game.” These granite markers tell stories of epic wins against adversaries away from Clemson, SC, like the controversial ending to the 2019 Fiesta Bowl against #2 Ohio State18 and the lopsided beatdown of the 2019 Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Championship Game as the Tigers trumped the #22 Cavaliers 62-17 with it being the most significant margin of victory in conference championship game history.19 Two tombstones designated for ranked away wins against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish sport a four-leaf clover atop each tombstone, perhaps paying homage or poking fun at former Clemson Athletics Sports Information Director (SID) Tim Bourret’s connection to Clemson, SC, and South Bend, IN.20 In early April, I walked out to the football cemetery to see two new tombstones dedicated to the double-overtime victory against #16 Wake Forest in Winston Salem, NC, on September 24, 2022, and the dominating win over #22 North Carolina on December 3, 2022, for the ACC Championship in Charlotte, NC. Both away games I attended as a Clemson fan. However, it is not an original idea from the Tigers, as it has directly resulted from another ACC deadly tradition in Florida State University (FSU)’s “Sod Cemetery” for their football program.21 The first tombstone dedicated to Florida State on September 9, 1989, can further tell how Clemson mimicked FSU’s idea.
Citations
McGee, Ryan. 2020. “A Heated LSU-Clemson Debate: Who Plays in the Real Death Valley?” ESPN. The Walt Disney Company. January 3, 2020. https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/28412865/a-heated-lsu-clemson-debate-plays-real-death-valley.
Raynor, Grace. 2018. “Sorry LSU, but Clemson’s Football Stadium Is the Original Death Valley.” The Post and Courier. Evening Post Industries. August 8, 2018. https://www.postandcourier.com/sports/sorry-lsu-but-clemsons-football-stadium-is-the-original-death-valley/article_7437d57a-9403-11e8-9023-8f903fe214b6.html.
Smith, Marty. 2015. “Meet than Man Who Takes Care of ‘The Rock.’” ESPN. The Walt Disney Company. September 18, 2015. https://www.espn.com/blog/ncfnation/post/_/id/115661/meet-the-man-who-takes-care-of-the-rock.
ESPN.com news services. 2015. “Jim Harbaugh Smashes Buckeye at Bo Schembechler’s Grave.” ESPN. The Walt Disney Company. September 18, 2015. https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/14219539/michigan-wolverines-coach-jim-harbaugh-smashes-buckeye-bo-schembechler-grave.
Towers, Chip. 2020. “Q&A: Georgia’s Scott Cochran Owns up to Infamous ‘Funeral Comments.’” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Cox Enterprises. September 7, 2020. https://www.ajc.com/sports/georgia-bulldogs/qa-georgias-scott-cochran-owns-up-to-infamous-funeral-comments/CGO6R4BCBFGGJMQGLFNDGPQXZM/.
Leoneda, Inge. 2016. “Monument Remembering African Americans Unveiled At Old Chapel Hill Cemetery.” WUNC 91.5. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. September 20, 2016. https://www.southbendtribune.com/story/sports/college/2020/11/07/clemson-had-its-eyes-on-notre-dame-since-the-1960s/116120204/.
UNC Athletic Communications. 2020. “Celebrate Carolina: Jordan at Carmichael.” Go Heels. UNC Athletics. July 26, 2020. https://goheels.com/news/2020/7/26/womens-basketball-celebrate-carolina-jordan-in-carmichael.aspx#:~:text=Michael%20Jordan%20played%20his%20entire,then%20known%20as%20Carmichael%20Auditorium).
Durando, Bennett. 2019. “A Very Good Boy: Uga’s Lasting Impact at UGA Extends All the Way to a Puppy Cemetery.” Columbia Missourian. University of Missouri. November 9, 2019. https://www.columbiamissourian.com/sports/mizzou_football/a-very-good-boy-ugas-lasting-impact-at-uga-extends-all-the-way-to-a/article_32fd5686-0331-11ea-8c5c-bb683777a0f5.html.
Casagrande, Michael. 2018. “The Story of Alabama Football’s Quiet Neighbors.” AL.Com. Advance Local Media LLC. September 19, 2018. https://www.al.com/alabamafootball/2018/09/the_story_of_alabama_footballs.html.
Clemson University. 1996. “Clemson Football Media Guide – 1996” Football Media Guides, pg. 4. Clemson University Libraries. 1996. https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/fball_media/36.
Sapakoff, Gene. 2019. “Clemson Aims to Add an Ohio State Tombstone to Its Football Graveyard.” The Post and Courier. Evening Post Industries. December 27, 2019. https://www.postandcourier.com/sports/clemson/clemson-aims-to-add-an-ohio-state-tombstone-to-its-football-graveyard/article_28dfd166-2356-11ea-b02f-efa429d80c68.html.
Hale, David. 2016. “Honoring the Past in College Football.” ESPN. The Walt Disney Company. April 6, 2016. https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/15145869/grave-stones-sod-cemeteries-death-remembrances-college-football.
Sapakoff, Gene. 2019. “Clemson Aims to Add an Ohio State Tombstone to Its Football Graveyard.” The Post and Courier. Evening Post Industries. December 27, 2019. https://www.postandcourier.com/sports/clemson/clemson-aims-to-add-an-ohio-state-tombstone-to-its-football-graveyard/article_28dfd166-2356-11ea-b02f-efa429d80c68.html.
Fischer, Bryan. 2019. “No. 3 Clemson Storms Back to Beat No. 2 Ohio State and Setup Tigers vs. Tigers in the National Title Game.” NBC Sports. National Broadcasting Company. December 29, 2019. https://collegefootball.nbcsports.com/2019/12/29/no-3-clemson-storms-back-to-beat-no-2-ohio-state-and-setup-tigers-vs-tigers-in-the-national-title-game/.
McGuire, Kevin. 2019. “No. 3 Clemson Wins Fifth Consecutive ACC Championship as They Return to College Football Playoff.” NBC Sports. National Broadcasting Company. December 7, 2019. https://collegefootball.nbcsports.com/2019/12/07/no-3-clemson-wins-fifth-consecutive-acc-championship-as-they-return-to-college-football-playoff/.
Bourret, Tim. 2020. “Clemson Had Its Eyes on Notre Dame since the 1960s.” South Bend Tribune. Gannett. November 7, 2020. https://www.southbendtribune.com/story/sports/college/2020/11/07/clemson-had-its-eyes-on-notre-dame-since-the-1960s/116120204/.
Sapakoff, Gene. 2019. “Clemson Aims to Add an Ohio State Tombstone to Its Football Graveyard.” The Post and Courier. Evening Post Industries. December 27, 2019. https://www.postandcourier.com/sports/clemson/clemson-aims-to-add-an-ohio-state-tombstone-to-its-football-graveyard/article_28dfd166-2356-11ea-b02f-efa429d80c68.html.
