A history of Tennessee and Tennesseans, Volume 6
By Will Thomas Hale, Dixon Lanier Merritt
The Lewis Publishing Co., Chicago and New York; 1913

Pages 1548-1549

S. D. Clemmons. Among unthinking people the opinion seems to prevail that the farmer is a man of inferior intelligence and ability when compared to the business or professional man. A little study of the subject, however, will convince any one that such is not the case. For years the agricultural colleges of the country have been giving instruction to the farmer’s sons on such topics as the chemistry of the soil, its adaptability to certain fruits and vegetables, its fertilization, the rotation of crops, the extermination of destructive insects, etc., until today the successful farmer must have as great a fund of information pertaining to his calling as has the lawyer, the physician, the manfuacturer or the merchant. While it is true that many young men have left the rural districts to seek their fortunes in the cities, it is no less true that men of strong character, who have been successful in business or financial circles, have been encouraged to leave the city to become tillers of the soil.

S. D. Clemmons is one of this class. He was born at Rives, Tennessee, July 27, 1881. His grandparents, John F. and Martha (Sherrill) Clemmons, were both natives of Middle Tennessee, where they were married, and after their marriage removed to McNairy county. Of their eleven children six are still living and are useful members of society. One of their sons, W. L., married Mattie E. Owens, a native of Kentucky, and this couple are the parents of the subject of this review, who is the eldest child in a family of four. W. L. Clemmons has been for a number of years engaged in the grain and mercantile business, and is one of the prosperous and substantial citizens of his community. Thus it will be seen that for four generations the Clemmons family has been identified with the fortunes and industries of Tennessee, upon which they have left the impress of their character.

S. D. Clemmons was educated in the local schools and began his active business career in a clerical position. For five years he was a clerk in the First National Bank of Union City, Tennessee, after which he served for some time as cashier of the Farmers’ and Merchants’ Bank of Rives. He was also connected with the Rives Grain Company, of Rives. In 1909 he decided to engage in agricultural pursuits and is now the owner of seven hundred acres of land in District No. 15, which farm has been in the possession of some member of his family since 1897. Of this tract two hundred and ten acres is under cultivation and the remainder consists of fine timbered land, well watered and adapted to stock raising, to which Mr. Clemmons devotes considerable attention. In this part of his business he has adopted the policy that it costs no more to raise stock of the best blood than it does to raise scrub stock, hence the animals upon his farm are as well-bred as any in the state. He has a young mare, “Ruth Hickman,” whose sire has a record of 2:19-1/2; his Duroc hogs are registered, and he has some Jersey cattle that are eligible to registration. Corn, wheat and clover, all of fine quality, are grown upon the cultivated portion of his farm, and, in short, his management of the farm during the past three years has marked him as one of the scientific and progressive agriculturists of the state.

Mr. Clemmons is a member of the Presbyterian church, and his fraternal associations are with the Woodmen of the World. Although he believes in good government and takes an interest in public affairs, he is by no means an active political worker. He knows by experience that a well conducted business enterprise of any kind yields more certain returns than holding public office, where his tenure would be entirely dependent upon the will of the voters, and consequently prefers to give his attention to the management of his farm.