Category Archives: News
Razing A Relic
Pickens’ historic Bradley-Boggs House demolished
Well, the Bradley-Boggs House is no more.
One of the city of Pickens’ few remaining relics from its earliest days — a structure whose core actually predated the founding of the town — bit the dust last week.
No approval was needed from the city for demolition of the two-story white-columned house that stood on Main Street at the head of Garvin Street for more than a century.
A county permit was all that was required to consign the locally fabled landmark to the ash heap of history.
“Although we are all aware and very much recognize the historical meaning of it, it’s a privately owned residence, and our hands are kind of tied with what we can and can’t do,” city
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Church vandals call for bomb suspect’s release
By Jason Evans
Staff Reporter
jevans@thepccourier.com
PICKENS — Investigators do not believe that the man charged with planting hazardous devices at the Pickens County Courthouse and the Pickens DSS office is connected with recent church vandalisms, 
despite graffiti at one of the churches calling for his release.
Chief Deputy Creed Hashe said in a release that the Pickens County Sheriff’s Office is investigating damages to three churches in Pickens that took placed between Saturday
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Local woman wins national gold medal
PICKENS — Pickens County native Jessika Pace is a rising young female martial arts athlete who is certainly not wasting any time setting goals and achieving them, and that dedication recently led to national honors.
At the 2019 AAU taekwondo nationals in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., earlier this month, Pace shined bright on the big stage, winning her first national gold medal in the 18-32-year-old division.
But despite accomplishing such a lofty personal goal, Pace said her passion for taekwondo is not about winning medals.
“It’s about setting personal goals, discipline and perseverance,” she said. “It was a great honor and achievement to compete on such a level with some of the best athletes in the nation. This was my personal Mt. Everest, something I won on an individual level in the ring.”
The 22-year-old has become well known to
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All we need is love
I found a copy of the resolution passed by the House of Representatives last week and read it. It includes inspiring quotes from presidents and statesmen who helped make America great.
It states, “the Founders conceived America as a haven of refuge for people fleeing from religious and political persecution, and Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison all emphasized that the Nation gained as it attracted new people in search of freedom and livelihood for their families;
“The Declaration of Independence defined America as a covenant based on equality, the unalienable Rights of life,
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Simply the best
Youth baseball players converge on Easley to decide world champion
By Bru Nimmons
Staff Reporter
bnimmons@thepccourier.com
EASLEY — The Senior League World Series, which pits the best 13- to 16-year-old baseball players from around the world against each other, is descending upon Pickens County once again.
The tournament, which is in its third year in Easley, will feature six international teams and six U.S. teams and will kick off Saturday at the J.B. “Red” Owens Complex.
The tournament’s championship game is set for a 2:30 p.m. first pitch Aug. 3 and is scheduled to be televised on ESPN2.
As of press time Tuesday, the international 
division’s qualifiers had all been chosen, while all United States division teams remained
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Blue Ridge Fest raises record $238K for local charities
UPSTATE — Blue Ridge Electric Cooperative presented checks to four Pickens area charities from the 22nd annual Blue Ridge Fest.
Pickens County Meals on Wheels, The Dream Center of Pickens County, the Cancer Association of Pickens County and Feed a Hungry Child of Pickens County each received $17,000 from Blue Ridge Electric’s annual fundraising event.
Blue Ridge Fest attracted nearly 8,000 attendees and more than 400 classic cars from across the Southeast to benefit 12 local charities in the cooperative’s four-county service area.
Since the inception of Blue Ridge Fest more than two decades ago, the event has raised nearly $3 million for Upstate charitable organizations.
‘On the mend’
Businessman planning to bring ‘little
industrial park’ to former OWT site
By Jason Evans
Staff Reporter
jevans@thepccourier.com
PICKENS — A businessman who has become enamored with the area plans to bring new life — and a number of new businesses — to 
the former Singer/Ryobi/OWT site in Pickens.
David Hosea said Tuesday morning he is set to close on the property “exactly one month from today.”
“On my birthday,” he said. “I’m really excited.”
His Kentucky-based company, Hosea Project Movers, encompasses a lot of operations, and he’ll be moving many of those divisions to Pickens.
“It’s all under the Hosea name,” he said. “Hosea Trucking, Hosea Storage. We do a lot of demolition. We’re going to start a demolition division down here.
“Our family has several businesses,” Hosea continued. “We’re one of the largest moving companies in the United States. We have operations in Augusta, Ga. We’re going to move it here. We build pallet racks — we’re going to start an operation here. We’re going to move our Southern trucking operations here.”
The company also sells and liquidates factories, he said.
“We want to make this our big liquidation center,” Hosea said. “We have a very, very large new and used furniture
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Easley man charged with murder
By Jason Evans
Staff Reporter
jevans@thepccourier.com
EASLEY — An Easley man is charged with murder in the Saturday shooting death of a Greenville woman.
Jonathan Richard Rackley, 38, of Ruby Drive, is charged with murder and possession of a weapon during a violent crime, Pickens County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Creed Hashe said in a news release.
Deputies responded to reports of a gunshot victim on Ruby Drive at 2 a.m. Saturday, Hashe said.
A woman later identified as 37-year-old Jamie Lynn Scruggs was found in an outbuilding behind the home “with significant trauma to the head,” Hashe said.
She was taken to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead
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New name for Pickens post office would honor soldier who gave all
By Jason Evans
Staff Reporter
jevans@thepccourier.com
PICKENS — An effort is underway to rename the post office in Pickens in honor of
Charles Johnson, the first Pickens County resident killed in the Vietnam War.
During a special called meeting Monday evening, Pickens City Council members unanimously approved a resolution in support of renaming the post office.
Councilman Fletcher Perry introduced Johnson’s family members who were present at the meeting.
Perry asked Judge Perry Gravely and Rev. Isaiah Scipio to speak about Charles Johnson and the Johnson family. Charles Johnson Memorial Park, located at the corner of Lee Street and South Catherine Street, has become an important place for Gravely’s Boy Scout troop. They hold flag ceremonies there, he said.
“I knew where it was, but I didn’t know who it honored,” Gravely said. “When I got into it, I realized there was a very special story behind Charles Johnson. Charles Johnson is not the whole story. The whole story involves his whole family.”
Specialist Fourth Class Charles Johnson Jr. was killed on March 30, 1966, in Pleiku Province. He was 25 years old.
As a teenager, Charles enjoyed reading military
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Roper ready to take on new role
As the newly appointed acting administrator for Pickens County, this is the first of many letters I intend to write to enhance communication with the public. I have worked in state and local government for more than 25 years, and this new role is special to 
me because of my love for Pickens County.
One of my first memories is of playing in the creek with my cousins at my Grandpa Cannon’s house on Cove Creek Road above Pickens. I remember my dad teaching me the smell of bream beds on Mauldin Lake, back when you could fish there. I remember being baptized as a child at Flat Rock
