1873

• January 24: Walter Merritt Riggs, future Clemson president, is born in Orangeburg, South Carolina, to Harpin and Emma Gowan Riggs. His father, a Northerner, was a producer of carriage parts. His mother was a Southerner.
• March 15: National founding of Phi Sigma Kappa.
• June 9: Future member of the Clemson Board of Trustees, Bennette Eugene Geer is born in Anderson County, South Carolina.
• August 14: The auction sale of lots in the newly laid out community of Seneca City commences this date. (Keowee Courier, Walhalla, South Carolina, 25 July 1873)
• August 21: The Air Line depot "at Easley Station has been rapidly constructed" reports The Pickens Sentinel this date, one of only two extant issues for that year (Volume 3 of the publication). ("The Pickens Sentinel, Pickens Court House, South Carolina, 1872-1893, Historical and Genealogical Abstracts, Volume 1, compiled by Peggy Burton Rich and Marion Ard Whitehurst, Heritage Books, Inc., Bowie, Maryland, 1994, ISBN 1-55613-985-3, page 4.)
• August 26: The last spike of the Air Line Railroad is driven at the Seneca River by railway President Buford this date, and a train passes over the new road on the 27th. (Keowee Courier, Walhalla, South Carolina, 5 September 1873) The by-passing of Pendleton by this new route leaves the former district seat stuck on a branch line (the Blue Ridge Railroad) hurting its chances for additional industry.
• September 4: Regular train service first reaches Calhoun, South Carolina (later Clemson) after the Atlanta & Richmond Air Line Railway spends three years constructing a five-foot gauge line between Atlanta and Charlotte. (Keowee Courier, Walhalla, South Carolina, 5 September 1873). Schedule through the region as of August 1874 has northbound express train departing Seneca City at 11:18 p.m., departing Central at 12:09 a.m.; southbound express train departing Central at 2:06 p.m., departing Seneca City at 2:48 p.m. Northbound accommodation train departs Seneca City at 6:48 p.m., departs Central at 6:09 a.m.; southbound accommodation train departing Central at 6:18 a.m., departing Seneca City at 7:24 a.m. (Keowee Courier, Walhalla, South Carolina, 28 August 1874.)
• October 1: A second auction sale of properties is held in the new town of Seneca City. (Keowee Courier, Walhalla, South Carolina, 19 September 1873)

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1872

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1874