Thomas S. Buie Papers
Collection
Identifier: Mss-0365
Materials in this collection document the personal and professional activities of Thomas S. Buie, Clemson graduate, World War I veteran, and a pioneer and leader in the study and promotion of soil and water conservation and land rehabilitation in the mid-twentieth century. The collection includes correspondence, articles, reports, speeches, diaries, certificates, diplomas, maps, photographs and two scrapbooks/photo albums. The files in the collection date from 1905 to 1981 with most of the material created 1917-1919 and 1952-1972. The collection is arranged in two series – Alphabetical Files and Photographs.
Alphabetical Files are arranged alphabetically by folder title, except for Speeches and Writings which are arranged chronologically. The collection includes significant correspondence and related documents from Buie’s service in the U.S. Army during and after World War I. Buie trained at Camp Oglethorpe (GA), Camp Jackson (SC) and Camp Sevier (SC) and was in France with the 81st Division of the American Expeditionary Forces. His World War I era letters also have been transcribed and edited by his son Franklin B. Buie and bound with copies of photographs and military documents (see: “Your True Son. Tom. Letters from World War One by Thomas Stephen Buie 1896-1973” / call number: D570.9.B85 1991). Other personal activities documented in the collection include Buie’s student days at Clemson College as well as alumni involvement, particularly in establishing the Preston Brooks Holtzendorff Scholarship, 1970-1972.
Professional activities are documented through correspondence to, from and about Buie related to his career and professional affiliation with various soil conservation agencies, a 1935 report of the South Tyger River Erosion Control Demonstration Project in Spartanburg and Greenville counties in South Carolina, a 1952 report and related materials from a Soil Conservation Service research trip to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, and a 1954 report and related materials from a Soil Conservation Service research trip to the British West Indies. The collection includes several drafts and related correspondence for the book Soil Conservation in the Southeast, 1933-1953, co-authored with Richmond Y. Bailey. There are newspaper, magazine and journal articles about his World War I memories, soil conservation, agriculture and rural life from 1929-1967, as well as articles for the South Carolina Methodist Advocate from 1967-1970 and Methodist Church Sunday School lessons from the mid-1950s. In addition, the collection includes research data for a study of rural churches in South Carolina from1905-1968 for the Methodist Church South Carolina Conference Town and Country Committee. There also are texts of speeches about soils conservation and rural life given by Buie to various educational, professional and community organizations from 1935-1965.
Photograph subjects include Clemson College buildings in the1920, particularly the Library fire and Class of 1917 reunions; 1954 Barbados trip, and Soil Conservation Service groups. The scrapbook includes photographs and ephemera documenting Buie’s World War I era military training and service. The photo album also documents Buie’s World War I era military experience, particularly the time he spent in England and Europe after the war ended.
This collection is open to the public without restriction. The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, U.S. Code) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material.
Thomas Stephen Buie (1896-1973) was a Clemson graduate (class of 1917), World War I veteran and a pioneer and leader in the study and promotion of soil and water conservation and land rehabilitation.
Buie was raised in rural Patrick, South Carolina (Chesterfield County) where he attended a one-room school before entering Clemson College in 1913. He graduated in 1917 with a B.S. degree in Agriculture and was awarded the Norris Medal for best all-around achievement. He was an active Clemson alumnus, receiving an
honorary Doctor of Science for "distinguished service to the science of agriculture" in 1937and serving on several alumni committees. The Thomas Stephen Buie Scholarship for agronomy and soils students was established in his memory.
With the urgency of the U.S. entry into World War I, Buie entered Reserve Officer Training Camp at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia shortly before graduation and earned a commission as a Second Lieutenant in the Army three months later. He remained in the Army for the duration of World War I, training at Camp Jackson (Columbia, SC) and Camp Sevier (Greenville County, SC) before serving on the front lines in France with the 81st Division of the American Expeditionary Forces.
After leaving the Army, Buie worked for the Georgia Experiment Station and then the South Carolina Experiment Station, publishing several bulletins and circulars based on his experiments and studies, particularly with fertilizer testing. He became acting head of Clemson College's Agronomy Department in 1925. By taking classes during three summers and one academic year, and conducting his research in South Carolina, Buie earned a M.S. in 1927 and a Ph.D. in 1928 from Iowa State College. From 1930 – 1933, he was a field agronomist for the Superphosphate Institute in Washington D.C.
In 1933, Buie was appointed to head the South Tyger River Erosion Control Demonstration Project in Spartanburg and Greenville counties in South Carolina. It was the first erosion control demonstration area in the Southeast. He was appointed the first Regional Conservator of the Southeastern Regional Office of the Soil Conservation Service (SCS) in 1935, eventually covering nine states, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. He conducted research trips to Puerto Rico in 1952 and Barbados in 1954. When regional offices were abolished in 1954, Buie became SCS State Conservationist in South Carolina, continuing until his retirement in 1964. In 1959, Buie received the U.S. Department of Agriculture Superior Service Award and was named the "Man of the Year in Service to South Carolina Agriculture."
Thomas Buie was one of the original founders of the Soil Conservation Society of America and served as its second president in 1948. He continued to be active in the Society until his death in 1973. Buie co-authored Soil Conservation in the Southeast, 1933-1953 (Spartanburg, S. C. : Soil Conservation Service, Southeastern Region, 1973) with Richmond Y. Bailey. He published a number of articles about soil and water conservation, agriculture and related subjects. He also gave numerous talks and presentations on the same subjects to groups ranging from high school students to the 1949 United Nations Scientific Conference on the Conservation and Utilization of Resources.
8.0 Cubic Feet (6.5 document boxes, 1 oversize box, 3 oversize folders)
English
Thomas S. Buie was a Clemson graduate, World War I veteran, and a pioneer and leader in the study and promotion of soil and water conservation and land rehabilitation in the mid-twentieth century. The materials within this collection particularly document Buie’s World War I Army service and the development of state and regional agencies responsible for erosion control, soil conservation and land use in the Southeastern United States, Puerto Rice and the Virgin Islands. Additional materials include research data about rural churches in South Carolina for the Methodist Church Town and Country Committee.
Franklin B. Buie and Patricia Buie McKinney in 1999 and 2009
Processed and finding aid written by Susan Hiott in 2017-18.
Part of the Clemson University Libraries Special Collections and Archives Repository