Monthly Archives: September 2014
Founders Day set for Saturday
Pickens’ Main Street to be closed all day for festival
PICKENS — Pickens’ third annual Founders Day Music Festival is set for this weekend.
The festival will be held on West Main Street in downtown Pickens on Saturday.
The event, which is free and offers fun for the whole family, will begin at 11 a.m. and end at around 9 p.m. with a fireworks display launched from Bruce Field.
West Main Street will be closed from North Ann Street to Catherine Street from 7 a.m. until midnight Saturday for
Easley raises millage
By Ben Robinson
Staff Reporter
brobinson@thepccourier.com
EASLEY — Easley City Council set the city’s millage rate for the 2014 tax year at 60.
Initial efforts were to set the rates at 58.4, but council members were told that would not balance the budget, so the rate was changed. The change in rate is because this in a reassessment year. Council voted 7-0 to change the rate.
Council also voted to assign former Easley Police officer Gene Cope as a city municipal judge. Council voted 7-0 to
Clemson reaches top 20 national ranking
CLEMSON — Clemson University is now ranked among the top 20 national public universities, according to U.S. News & World Report’s annual guide to “America’s Best Colleges” for 2015.
The university is No. 20 on the list, its highest ranking and seventh consecutive year the school has been in the top 25.
“To be ranked among the nation’s top public universities is a tribute to the hard work and dedication of our faculty, staff, students and trustees and the support of our alumni, donors, friends and volunteers,” Clemson President Jim
Cassie Gravely joins Pickens High varsity volleyball staff
PICKENS — Former all-state volleyball player Cassie Gravely joined the coaching staff at her alma mater recently.
“I can’t begin to tell you how thrilled we are to have Cassie join us,” Pickens coach Jennifer Gravely said. “I had the pleasure of coaching her for four years and am ecstatic to have her back on the bench as an assistant.
“The experience and talent she brings to our program is a reflection of her passion for the game and her success as a player. An amazing setter and hitter, she helped lead our team to two state championships in 2006 and 2008, as well as another finals appearance in 2007. Her senior season she suffered an injury that kept her out of the lineup for the majority of the season, and I hated that for her.”
Cassie Gravely’s career numbers at Pickens were impressive. She was named an all-state player her junior year and
Genealogical society plans meeting Tuesday
CLEMSON — “From Revolution to Reconstruction: Tangible Reminders that History Happened Here” will be the topic for the Old Pendleton District Genealogical Society meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 16, at 7 p.m. at the Central-Clemson Library on S.C. Highway 93.
Guest speaker Will Hiott, director of historic properties for Clemson University, will highlight several cultural and historic sites on the Clemson campus and within the experimental forest, including Hopewell, Keowee Heights and
Hagood Mill set to host South Carolina Fiddling Championship
Robert Burns, the 2012 South Carolina Fiddling Champion, performs during a past competition at the Hagood Mill near Pickens. The South Carolina Fiddling Championship will return to Hagood Mill on Sept. 20. For more, turn to page
PICKENS — As autumn approaches and the leaves turn their brilliant colors, it signals the time for fiddle music in the mountains.
On Sept. 20, vintage fiddle music will fill the hills and hollers around Hagood Mill as it becomes the host for the annual South Carolina Fiddling Championship.
Some of the best fiddlers in the southeast will gather to compete for the title of South Carolina champion.
This traditional contest goes back to the 1920s, when Clemson University opened the doors of rustic Tillman Hall to the local musicians of the nearby South Carolina mountains for their music competition.
Hagood-Mauldin house joins Upstate Heritage Quilt Trail
Pickens County Historical Society president Kenneth Nabors and Una Welborn stand beside the quilt block on display at the Hagood-Mauldin House in Pickens.
PICKENS — The Carpenter’s Wheel quilt block has been placed on the grounds of the historic Hagood-Mauldin house to become part of the Upstate Heritage Quilt Trail.
The block was selected by Una Welborn since it is an 1850s pattern and the house was originally built in 1850 on the banks of the Keowee River at Pickens Court House.
In 1868, the upper corner of South Carolina was divided into Oconee and Pickens counties with the Keowee River becoming the county line.
At that time, James Earl Hagood, who lived in the house, had the house completely disassembled, loaded onto
The light on the stairwell
A long time ago, when we didn’t know any better, we picked out light fixtures for the house. Although we looked at so many different styles I became overwhelmed, we at last, due to overload, picked a light for the stairwell that hung from the ceiling.
The chain is just a couple of feet long, and it is very pretty.
We could have selected lights that attached to the wall in the stairwell, but at that time in our lives we weren’t worried about the future.
Or the thought of what we’d have to do when the bulb burned out. We never thought at all.
So now, if, heaven forbid, the bulb in the stairwell burns out, it takes a bit of doing to change it.
Doing heights has never been one of my strengths, and it seems to
Courier Community Calendar
• Sertoma Club invites locals to meet
The Clemson Sertoma Club invites all interested local residents to attend its meetings. The club meets at noon the first and third Tuesdays of each month at Occasions at Wedgefield, located at 1551 Eighteen Mile Road in Central.
New visitors are always welcome. Those interested are asked to call Randy Shaw at (864) 423-5469.
• Trotter clan set to hold reunion Sept. 20
A reunion is a planned for the Trotter family and all descendants of George MacDuffie and Sarah O’Neal Trotter. The reunion will be held Saturday, Septemeber 20 at 4 p.m. at the Gatehouse Restaurant
Pickens Chamber Member of the Month
Blue Ridge Electric Cooperative has been selected as the Pickens Chamber Member of the Month for September. Organized in 1940, Blue Ridge Electric Cooperative is a member-owned, not-for-profit utility that provides service to its 64,000 residential, commercial, industrial, and institutional accounts situated in northwestern South Carolina. The cooperative’s 7,000-mile system of power lines stretches across an 1,800-square-mile territory. Blue Ridge supplies electricity to the majority of the land area in Oconee and Pickens counties, northern portions of Anderson and Greenville counties, and a small part of Spartanburg County. The cooperative is also the parent company of Blue Ridge Security Solutions. In its 18 years of existence, the security company has grown rapidly and now ranks among the top 100 of America’s 3,000 security providers. Pictured above are Blue Ridge Coop employees Bryan Roper, Liza Holder, Elaine Banks and David Collins.
