Megginson, W. J.

This project sought to explore and preserve aspects of the local African American community specifically within the South Carolina counties of Anderson, Oconee, and Pickens. Scholars had previously made note of the fact that there had been little, if any, analytical or documentary data collected regarding the black community with respect to the South Carolina Upper Piedmont area. Both the need for and the timing of an investigative project seemed to be at a critical point in 1989- 1990. From a purely historical point of view, written documentation covering broad areas of the local African American community was necessary in order that a more comprehensive overview of black heritage in South Carolina, as a whole, could be made. This project sought to complement research that had already been carried out in both the midlands and low country of the state. To gain relevant information from those individuals closely associated and involved with the pertinent facts and time periods while they were still living was extremely important. These were among the last generations of blacks who sat as children and listened to stories passed down by older relatives who were former slaves. The slave generation largely continued folk traditions of oral, rather than written history. First-hand knowledge of life during that time period threatened to be lost forever, as many of the individuals who had heard of such experiences were already well into their elderly years by the time that research for the project was initiated in the early 1990s. The project's overall parameters involved several stages of activity. First, the community and its institutional resources as they existed and evolved during the time period of 1865-1920 were studied. The preservation of black culture in the area was utilized by way of oral interviews of older members of the community and through the duplication of relevant photographs and documents. The inventorying of black cemeteries was also attempted through the transcription of readable headstones along with researching information regarding those interred without markers. Lecture series, dramatic readings, and personal presentations utilized the research in programs presented to the public. The project findings were then put on a public exhibit that traveled around South Carolina until 1994. The final aspect of the project involved the permanent archival preservation of the interview cassettes, along with copies of documents and photographs, at Clemson University's Special Collections. Copies of the interviews were also placed within the Pendleton District Historical, Recreation and Tourism Commission archives.

The land that would eventually grow to become the town of Calhoun, SC was first purchased by James W. Crawford in 1844. He owned it until 1884, when Aaron Boggs purchased the portion of land adjacent to the Fort Hill Plantation. Mr. Crawford died in 1888. The remainder of the land was bought by Nelson C. Poe, his son-in-law, in January 1889. Mr. Poe then sold half of this purchase to his brother-in-law David Sloan. In 1891, Poe and Sloan sold the sixty and one-half acres north of the railroad tracks to Aaron Boggs. In 1892, Boggs had the land surveyed and laid out with streets. There was a final tract of land belonging to Macrina Campbell, which was located in the eastern part of what is now Clemson along Highway 123. This land stretched from Cochran Road to the local Ramada Inn. The area that would become Calhoun stretched one-half mile around the train depot. The track had begun service in 1872 and was partially responsible for the founding of the towns of Westminster, Seneca, Central, Easley, and Liberty. Calhoun was incorporated in 1892; soon the town adjacent to Clemson College boasted several general stores, a brickyard, a blacksmith, two schools, four churches, its own post office, livery services and boarding houses, and its own local doctor. It is not clear whether the town was named Calhoun by the Charlotte/Atlanta Railway Company or if locals named it after one of the Calhoun brothers who owned a plantation on the north side of the train tracks. The area was incorporated as the town of Clemson in 1943. Seventeen Calhoun residents were interviewed by W.J. Megginson in 1988 and 1989 in order that aspects of everyday life in the community be documented in order to preserve local history. The interviews focus on the first few decades of the twentieth century as individuals draw on local family histories, as well as their own experiences to trace the evolution of the town of Calhoun into the modern college town of Clemson.