Joseph Buckner Killebrew

Who was Joseph Buckner Killebrew?

Joseph Buckner Killebrew was born in Montgomery County, Tennessee near Clarksville. When he was four years old, his mother died, and he was raised by a succession of relatives. As a young man he took charge of the family farm. He was opposed to the secession attitudes of his fellow southerners, and he searched for ways to improve the situation of his slaves as well as his farm.

During the American Civil War, Killebrew knew that if slaves would be able to survive emancipation, they must be trained in business. Killebrew started by paying his slaves wages for their labor, and he began to teach his slaves the skills necessary to function as free men: reading, writing, and math.

Killebrew attended college and was deeply interested in education, agriculture, and geology. In 1851, Killebrew entered Franklin College in middle Tennessee, but soon exhausted his funds. He accepted a position teaching mathematics at the Clarksville school of John D. Tyler. In 1853, a family friend offered to finance his college education at the institution of his choice. Killebrew chose the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he graduated second in his class in June 1857.

He was a progressive in the South during Reconstruction, realizing that his fellow Tennesseans needed to possess greater agriculture knowledge and skills if the South was to ever truly rebuild.