Clemson University Presidents’ Legacies and Their Impact on Woodland Cemetery

September 5, 2023

By Marquise Drayton, Community Engagement Assistant for the Woodland Cemetery and African American Burial Ground Historic Preservation Project

This post is re-published from the September 2023 newsletter

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

1. 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.
2. Clements, James. 2013. “Welcome Letter.” Clemson Blogs. Clemson University. December 1, 2013. https://blogs.clemson.edu/president/2013/12/01/welcome-letter/.
3. Trotter, Stephanie. n.d. “Tiger Town Legends.” Vive. Community Journals. https://vive-mag.com/engage/tiger-town-legends-james-barker-and-marcia-barker/.
4. Clemson University. “Office of the President.” Clemson.Edu. Clemson University. https://www.clemson.edu/president/index.html.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. Ibid, Pg. 26-29.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. 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.
11. @clemsonuniversity. 2020. “Tour Tuesday: Edwards Hall.” Instagram. Meta Platforms, Inc. February 4, 2020. https://www.instagram.com/p/B8JbBFqFbbi/,
12. 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.
13. “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/.
14. Ibid.
15. 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.
16. Map of Clemson Agricultural College, 1920. Special Collections and Archives, Clemson University Libraries.
17. Clemson Board of Trustees, Trustee Minutes, July 10, 1924, https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/trustees_minutes/389/.
18. 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/.
19. 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.
20. Ibid.
21. 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.
22. Ibid.
23. Series 0613 Woodland Cemetery Stewardship Committee Records, Special Collections and Archives, Clemson University Libraries, Clemson, South Carolina.
24. “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/.