Fort Hill: National Historic Landmark

On land near the Cherokee’s Lower Town called Esseneca, stands Fort Hill, the antebellum plantation of John C. Calhoun, South Carolina’s pre-eminent 19th century statesman. Before Fort Hill, there was a small, four-room home called Clergy Hall which was originally built in 1803, serving as the manse or parsonage for the nearby Hopewell-Keowee Church, now called Old Stone Presbyterian Church. Clergy Hall and its 600 acre property were purchased by Floride Bonneau Colhoun, John C. Calhoun’s mother-in-law. In the 1810 U.S. Census, there were twenty-five enslaved African Americans at Clergy Hall. 

Enslaved African Americans transformed the land into a working 19th century plantation, whose primary cash crop was cotton.Ten rooms were added to the dwelling house, and, by 1830, the U.S. Vice President and his family called their new home Fort Hill, after nearby Revolutionary War Fort Rutledge. In 1836, at the death of his mother-in-law, John C. Calhoun gained ownership of the land. At his death in 1850, his wife, Floride, became the sole owner of the property. Of the Calhouns ten children, seven lived to adulthood: the eldest Andrew Pickens Calhoun (1811-1865), Anna Maria (1817-1875), Patrick (1821-1858), Dr. John Caldwell, Jr. (1823-1850), Martha Cornelia (1824-1857), James Edward (1826-1861), and William Lowndes (1829-1858). 

Only Anna Maria Calhoun Clemson outlived her mother. Anna Maria married Pennsylvania native, Thomas Green Clemson, IV, in 1838, and they had two children who lived to adulthood, John Calhoun Clemson and Floride Elizabeth Clemson. After Floride Calhoun’s death in 1866, portions of the property went to Anna Maria and Floride Elizabeth; however, both of the Clemsons’ children would pass away before their mother would take ownership of the land. After Anna’s death in 1875, she willed her three-fourths share of Fort Hill to her husband, if he died with a will. If he died intestate, their granddaughter, Floride Isabella Lee, would inherit the entire property instead of the one-fourth she would have inherited before. 

In 1888, Thomas Green Clemson passed with an extensive will that bequeathed three-fourths of the Fort Hill plantation and $80,000 to South Carolina for the establishment of Clemson College, today known as Clemson University. A part of Mr. Clemson’s will, Fort Hill “shall always be open for the inspection of visitors.” Today, Fort Hill remains open and preserved for public tours and a glimpse into the history of Clemson University.

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