Anna Maria Calhoun Clemson

Anna Maria Calhoun Clemson (February 13, 1817 September 22, 1875) was the daughter of John C. Calhoun and Floride Calhoun (née Colhoun), and the wife of Thomas Green Clemson, the founder of Clemson University. Early life Calhoun was born on the Bath plantation in the Abbeville District of South Carolina, in February 1817. She was one of seven children. She adored her father, politician John C. Calhoun, and remained close to him until his death in 1850. Her early education was through her surroundings and family, at a day school in Edgefield, South Carolina, then later at the South Carolina Female Collegiate Institute, in central South Carolina. Calhoun stayed at the South Carolina Female Collegiate Institute for about a year before she returned to her family's home at Fort Hill. When she returned, Calhoun taught her younger brothers how to read and write. Marriage and children In 1835, Calhoun moved to Washington, D.C., to be a copyist for her father, with the notion that she would never marry. In early spring 1838, Calhoun met Thomas Green Clemson. The couple married on November 13, 1838, in Fort Hill, South Carolina. Clemson's job called him to Washington and the newlyweds moved to Philadelphia. The couple had three children: a son, John Calhoun (born 1841) and Floride Elizabeth (born 1842). A third child, daughter Cornelia (known as “Nina”) was born in 1855. She died in infancy. Shortly after the birth of their first two children, Clemson accepted a position in Belgium. The Clemson family moved over-seas for the time. As Clemson became a high-ranking diplomat to the Kingdom of Belgium, Calhoun quickly became homesick and wished to return to her father. She had never been separated from him for an extended period of time. Calhoun had a unique fascination with her father. Before her marriage to Clemson, Calhoun said to a house maid, “You who know my idolatry, for my father, can sympathize with my feelings.” (Aug. 2, 1838) The Clemson family remained overseas from 1844 to 1852 and returned home to buy one hundred acres in Maryland, four miles from Washington, DC. The couple named their new home in Maryland "The Home”.