Affleck, Thomas, 1812-1868

Thomas Affleck was born in Dumfries, Scotland, and immigrated to New York in 1832. He studied agriculture and general sciences while he lived on the East coast. He moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, and in 1840, he became editor of the Western Farmer and Gardener, a widely circulated agricultural periodical in the West.

During a trip to Natchez, Mississippi, in 1842, Affleck met his second wife, Anna Dunbar Smith. They established their household in Washington, Adams County, Mississippi. Through this marriage, Affleck became financially responsible for the large debts of his wife's former husband.

Affleck managed the plantations of his wife and stepson. He established one of the first commercial nurseries in the South, and he published widely on scientific and agricultural subjects. He served as editor of agricultural departments of several newspapers, and published the SOUTHERN RURAL ALMANAC AND PLANTATION GARDEN CALENDAR continuously from 1845 to the 1860s.

Before the Civil War, Affleck moved his home and nursery to Washington County, Texas. Most of the articles he published in Texas before the Civil War appeared in the Houston Telegraph; after 1865, most appeared in the Galveston News. Following the Civil War, Affleck promoted immigration of white labor to the South, making trips to the North and to England, 1865-1866. At the time of his death in 1868, Affleck made his living selling creysilic acid, a carbolic acid compound.