Mountain Lake -- Human Remains Found In Lakebed May Belong To 1904 Clemson Grad
Arizona Coin Collector
The story below is a follow-up on a posting I made
back on 9/22/08. Here is the old story link. Coins
found with human remains dated back to 1920.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Arizona Coin Collector"
Newsgroups: rec.collecting.coins
Sent: Monday, September 22, 2008 4:49 PM
Subject: 1920 Coin -- Body Found In Lake May Be Decades Old
------------------------------------------------
Human Remains Found In Lakebed May Belong To 1904 Clemson Grad
From News Channel 7 Coverage Partners
The Anderson Independent-Mail
Published: October 16, 2008
The following story originally appeared on the Anderson
Independent-Mail Web site on Thursday:
CLEMSON - During the weekend of Sept. 20 a man and his son
were searching the dry lakebed of Smith Mountain Lake in
Giles County, Va. looking for anything of interest when
they found human remains.
The lake, which is featured in the movie "Dirty Dancing,"
had not been completely dry in more than 100 years.
Timmy and Chris Dalton were enjoying a fall day scavenging
for old bottles when they came upon a pair of shoes
imbedded in the mud. Closer investigation revealed some
old coins, a silver cigarette case, silver belt buckle
and a gold signet ring.
They called the local sheriff soon after they found what
looked like a piece of a human skull.
From the investigation conducted so far, Giles County
sheriff Morgan Millirons said that the remains could have
been in the lake since the 1930's.
"We want to determine who this person was and how they
died," the sheriff said.
Forensic experts determined the ring was most likely a
South Carolina class ring because of a palm tree that
appeared on one side. They contacted the Citadel and
Clemson University to verify the information.
Nancy James, research analyst at Clemson University
was contacted by Lt. Ron Hamlin of the sheriff's
office and asked to compare university records and
photos of the ring to ones on display in the Clemson
Alumni Center. The ring matched rings from the year
1904.
The cigarette case has the monogram "SCF" or "SGF" on
the lid in a scrawling script. A shoe company in New
York City made the shoes.
A check of the graduating class roster for 1904
revealed that Samuel James Farris, Samuel Ira Felder
and Strother T. Ford were in the 1904 graduating
class of the Clemson Agricultural and Mechanical College.
On the sides of the recovered ring are the letters "CA"
and "MC" indicating the college. The inside of the ring
is engraved with the letters "CDCO."
James has found other Clemson class rings of the era
with this engraving. She speculates that it could be a
reference to "Company D, Corporal" indicating the cadet
corps and rank of the individual.
A university investigation determined that Farris and
Ford were alive in 1940 appearing in the alumni record
of that year, while Felder was listed as deceased.
Felder had been living in New York City. He is also
listed in a 1921 alumni magazine as Samuel "J" Felder.
The investigation is ongoing and may take months to
complete. How the apparent former Clemson student got
in the lake and the cause of his death may never be
known and could remain a mystery, according to
investigators.
...