Category Archives: News
DAR to honor area newspaper pioneer
By Riley Morningstar
Courtesy The Journal
rmorningstar@upstatetoday.com
CLEMSON — A local nonprofit organization is set to honor an 18th-century newspaper pioneer later this month.
The Fort Prince George chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution will host a public dedication event for a historical marker for John Miller, who emigrated to Charleston in 1783 from London and served as state printer and publisher of the first daily newspaper in South Carolina.
Miller died from the flu in November 1807, and his body is buried in the Old Stone Church Cemetery in Clemson on land he owned after then-Gov. Ben Guerard granted some 640 acres on the Eighteen Mile Creek and allowed the Hopewell Congregation to build a new sanctuary on it, according to a DAR news release. The ceremony is scheduled to happen at the cemetery at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, April 23.
Printing History
A lengthy DAR news release on Miller said his newspaper career began when he was just 15 in Great Britain, where he was fined and arrested at least five times for seditious libel for his criticisms of the government and King George III.
“He stuck to his convictions that everyone had a right to know what their government was doing,” the release said. “This brush with the law did not deter Miller.”
Miller learned the newspaper and printing trade in 1760 from his future father-in-law and started the London Evening Post nine years later, the release said. He reported on the First Continental Congress in 1774 and called on the British public to support the American colonists.
He eventually connected with South Carolina statesman Henry Laurens and arrived in Philadelphia in January 1783 with the intention to get into agriculture, but the DAR said Miller “couldn’t turn down the South Carolina delegates’ request to serve as the state’s first printer.”
He printed South Carolina’s laws and started the state’s first daily newspaper, called the SC Gazette and General Advertiser. In 1790, Miller was appointed to a commission to start a government for the newly formed Pendleton County with Andrew Pickens, for which Miller was unanimously chosen to serve as clerk.
In January 1807, he started Miller’s Weekly Messenger, making it the first newspaper in the region, according to the DAR.
Anthony, Smith receive inaugural Pinnacle Award
By Jason Evans
Staff Reporter
jevans@thepccourier.com
PICKENS — Two Pickens County residents were recently recognized for their service to Pickens County.
Tammy Anthony and the late Bobby Smith were awarded the Pinnacle Award during Pickens County Council’s
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Lions sweep county track meet
By Bru Nimmons
Staff Reporter
bnimmons@thepccourier.com
LIBERTY — Pickens County’s four public high schools took to the track at Liberty High School last Tuesday for the annual Pickens County Championships. The meet proved to be a record breaking day for all four schools as they head into the home stretch of the spring season.
The big winner on the day was Daniel High School taking both the boys and girls championships for the third consecutive meet.
The Daniel boys team produced the most county champions with 13 different athletes taking championships as individuals or members of a
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Semper Fi Barn offers place of respite for vets
CENTRAL — A new place of respite for veterans was a gathering site last week to remember the 895 South Carolina service members who died in the Vietnam War.
At his property on Furman L. Smith Memorial Highway in Central, Semper Fi Barn CEO and founder Tom von Kaenel welcomed more than 150 people to remember National Vietnam War Veterans Day last Wednesday, marking 50
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years since the last American combat troops were withdrawn from the country in a war that divided many. Von Kaenel and others stamped out 895 dog tags to hang on the front of a restored barn that also has as an armed forces tribute memorial wall of maps, medals and war heroes, along with three bunkrooms and a bathroom. He said of the 895 killed in Vietnam, there were 38 men killed at the age of 18, and 718 of those killed were 25 years or younger.
Von Kaenel, a 20-year Army veteran who served from 1977-97, said the tribute and barn were a “labor of love.” He said three Marines came up to him and said that if he provided the material, they would put in the labor to build the barn.
“You’re seeing the folks now that are finally getting their due and their credit and understanding what’s so very important for the rest of us,” von Kaenel said. “It’s a great opportunity to honor these veterans and let the younger people know how important it is that we do honor them.”
He clearly values his military ties, with his father serving in World War II and Korea, a son in Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq and a grandson in Afghanistan.
‘Time to remember’
Retired Marine Col. Philip Smith, a Semper Fi Barn board member, said the nonprofit was created about a year and a half ago with the goal
of creating a “place for any veterans and their families to come and hang out and rest, relax, remember and take a break from whatever ails them.”
He said he believed Vietnam veterans were treated poorly upon their return home, and the country has since “done a lot of things now to make up for the sloppy treatment” of them.
“It’s a pretty neat ceremony where we are specifically remembering that person on the dog tag and their family member if they are here,” Smith said. “We hang the dog tag, ring a bell, and it’s a good time to remember.”
Von Kaenel said he hoped veterans would be able to share about what troubled them or memories they had in a more open environment by a fire pit or in the tranquility of the woods.
“We’ve had veteran cookouts here,” he said. “It’s a place for them to recharge themselves. They can stay in the barn for up to three days (at no charge).”
There are even walking trails and chickens around to feed, he added.
“It’s so important we have this kind of atmosphere,” von Kaenel said.
School district budget proposal includes raises
By Andrea Kelley
Courtesy The Journal
akelley@upstatetoday.com
LIBERTY — The Pickens County School Board gave the initial go-ahead to a nearly $164 million budget for fiscal year 2023-24 last week, including provisions to increase pay for employees across the district.
School district chief financial officer Matt Owens presented the first reading of the budget at the board’s meeting March 27. The proposed
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Pair of Prisma Health docs offer advice to treat and beat allergies
UPSTATE — ‘Tis the season for itchy eyes, sneezing and surfaces covered in a fine yellow-green coat of dust.
Just reading that sentence may trigger your eyes to water and nose to sniffle.
Two physicians from Prisma Health talked last week about what causes allergies, available
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Derrell Jackson named new Easley boys’ hoops coach
Wren grad helped lead ‘Canes to state title in 2022
By Bru Nimmons
Staff Reporter
bnimmons@thepccourier.com
EASLEY — A little more than a month after its coaching search began, Easley High School has found the man who will lead its varsity boys’
basketball program in the coming years.
The school announced Derrell Jackson as its new boys’ basketball coach in a press release last week.
Jackson comes to Easley after a 12-year stint at Wren High School in various coaching roles. Most recently, Jackson has been serving as associate head coach at Wren High School under head coach Fran
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