PICKENS — The Burgess General Store celebrated its grand opening on Saturday with a ribbon-cutting event featuring Pickens mayor David Owens and store owners Mark and Krystal Burgess.

Mark Burgess’ parents, Jack and Juanita, were also on hand for the event, along with a crowd of anxiously awaiting customers.

Rocky Nimmons/Courier

Saturday marked the first chance for customers to get a look inside the Burgess General Store in Pickens.

For many years, the “big box” stores have pulled business away from small shop owners across America. This trend has resulted in countless family-run businesses closing their doors after decades of servicing their communities. Old-fashioned general stores were once where the locals traded everything from stories, eggs and rabbits to nails and fertilizer, and everything in between.

The general store business is a long-standing heritage for the Burgess family. Beginning in 1918, Mark’s great-grandfather, John Lawrence Burgess, opened the first “Burgess Store” in the Pumpkintown area. The original store was first located beside the old home place on Pleasant Grove Road and later moved to the intersection with S.C. Highway 11, where it remains today as “Cendy’s Grocery.” The original store had a large bell out front that customers would ring to bring John Burgess out of the field, where he was working. After he finished trading with them, he would again return to work in the fields, until the next customer repeated the process. The Pumpkintown General Store and Cafe was also bought in 1938, and is still owned and operated by the Burgess family. For almost a century, Burgess family members have owned and operated many general stores, restaurants and grocery stores in Pickens and surrounding counties.

There is much history tied to the Burgess family here in the Upstate. The first Burgess family member came to the United States in 1732. In 1789, Joshua Burgess was traveling with his family through the Matthews Creek area near Pickens and met a Cherokee Indian who wanted to trade Joshua 880 acres for his Appaloosa horse. Joshua did indeed make that trade, later marrying a young lady and this began the Burgess family in the Upstate.

Burgess family members have also fought for their country in every war since the Revolutionary War, including recipients with honors such as the Purple Heart and Bronze Star. There is a town in Virginia named for the participant of the Revolutionary War. Other Burgess family members have settled in states all across the country, such as Tennessee, Texas and even a small place in Wyoming called Burgess Junction.

Whatever your history, or your story, the Burgess General Store is sure to be a place where the Pickens community and even passers-by can return to that slower pace of by-gone years. Whether you want to sit in the store’s “book nook” and sip on a cup of one of their large selections of organic coffees, fill up a bag or two of non-GMO bulk foods, leisurely browse through the do-it-yourself section, or maybe you just want to satisfy that sweet tooth and pick up a pound or so of old-fashioned candies, there is a little something for everyone.

“We want to extend a warm welcome to The Burgess General Store,” Mark Burgess said.