Edgar Allan
Brown was not only a Clemson University Life Trustee, but also a well-known
state legislator and power in the Democratic Party. He was born July 11,
1888 near Shiloh Springs in Aiken County, and attended the common schools
and the Graniteville Academy. From 1906-1907 he was a law clerk and secretary,
and later became the official Court Stenographer for the Second Judicial
District, a post he held until 1918. Brown passed the bar exam in 1910.
On December 30, 1913 he married Annie Love Sitgreaves. They had one daughter,
Emily McBurney Brown, born on July 18, 1921.
Brown was
a state representative from 1921-1926, and in 1925 he became Speaker of
the House. In 1926 he resigned the Speakership to run for the United States
Senate. Brown lost to Senator Edward Smith in the second primary. In 1928,
he was elected to the South Carolina Senate where he served until his
retirement on July 28, 1972; from 1942 on he was President Pro Tempore.
Again in 1954, Senator Brown aspired to become a U.S. Senator. The Democratic
Executive Committee chose him to be the Democratic candidate. Strom Thrumond
opposed him in a write-in campaign and defeated Brown. He was active in
the Democratic Party, serving as Chairman of the state party and on the
Executive Committees at the county, state, and national levels.
Senator Brown was elected by the Legislature in 1934 to the Board of Trustees
of Clemson Agricultural College. Following a temporary absence in 1947,
he was elected a Life Trustee in 1948. From Clemson he received an honorary
Doctor of Laws degree in 1955. During the 1950s, he actively participated
in implementing Clemson's reorganization plan and the controversy regarding
the Hartwell Dam. During the 1960s, Brown helped oversee the peaceful
integration of Clemson and its building program. Senator Brown died on
June 26, 1975. Mrs. Brown had died earlier on May 26, 1973. His papers,
which were donated to Clemson in 1969 and 1975, are available for use
in Special Collections,
where they are instrumental in documenting the Democratic Party in the
state and the history of South Carolina in the twentieth century.
The Edgar
Brown Room was dedicated on May 6, 1971.
