The 1968 centennial celebration was a big event honoring the 100th anniversary of Pickens County’s founding.

Charles Dalton, retired longtime President and CEO of Blue Ridge Electric Cooperative, was involved in the Pickens Jaycees in 1968 and spoke to this writer about the 1968 centennial celebrating Pickens County’s history. “It was a pretty big deal,” he said. “A lot of people in the county got involved. They had several different events.” He spoke of the beauty pageant, as well as the outdoor pageant he attended, entitled “So Lives the Dream”, held at the Liberty High School football stadium and relating the history of Pickens County. “The parade,” he added, “was in Pickens, and it was really, really big. During the wrap-up to get to the final event of the centennial, they had clubs formed. I think the men’s were called Brothers of the Bush, and everybody grew a beard and wore period clothes. I don’t remember what the ladies groups were called, but they had all of these different groups, whether it was a Sunday School class or a community group or the Jaycees or the Lions Club, different organizations. In the parade, each of those groups would ride a float. It was a very large parade, a huge turnout of people. They had banners decorating the street. It was a really fun time. I don’t know exactly how long it lasted, but it was over a period of several weeks with the different events that sort of stretched it out, and then I guess the culmination was the parade. And then they buried two time capsules, one for 50 years and one for 100 years, and the Jaycees were asked to head that up. And different individuals, different families, and businesses would put memorabilia items in those capsules. We put some items in. It was a really good time. It was widespread. There was no part of the county that did not participate. Everybody across the county, with different towns, different clubs, different organizations, everybody got involved, and they kind of spread the events around. It was an interesting time. It was fun.” Dalton said that he dressed up in period clothing for the centennial year. “I had a beard,” he added. “And the day of the parade, I remember wearing my top hat and beard and a little bow tie. And anytime the Jaycees would meet, from time to time, we would wear our period clothes.”

Dean Holder, a longtime Pickens County educator and owner of The Gatehouse Restaurant in Pickens, told this writer that he was living in Georgia in 1968, but he remembers coming home to Pickens for the centennial celebration, and he has fond memories of riding horses in the Centennial parade with his father, the late Edgar Holder.

South Carolina State Representative Davey Hiott and his sister Kay, of Hiott Printing, and a son and a daughter of the late Gary and Eloise Hiott, were young at the time, but they have fond memories of the centennial celebration, which culminated with a big parade that included old-timey cars and horses. “I remember it was a big celebration,” Kay told this writer, referring to the entire Centennial year. “Everybody in town was involved. They had street dances. It was a fun time.” The men, she said, grew mustaches or beards. “Everybody wore their dresses and their centennial outfits.” She added that the dresses were all handmade. “We’ve still got Dad’s tie that he wore,” said Davey. Main Street in Pickens was blocked off for the dances, they said. “They’d bring in a band,” said Davey. “Everybody would participate. It wasn’t just the young people. It was everybody. Everybody came dressed up. It was a big party, and it went on for quite some time during that year. I wasn’t but eight, but I remember those things. We came up town and participated, too. It was quite an event. Everybody during that time participated. If you had a business here, you participated.”

The Hiott family owned The Pickens Sentinel at the time, and the newspaper staff worked hard at publishing special editions detailing the history of Pickens County and the centennial celebration. The building that is now Hiott Printing was the new home for The Pickens Sentinel in 1968, housing a new press to print the newspaper. “That was an exciting time for us,” Davey told this writer, “because we moved into the new building and had a centennial edition. A lot was going on for us.”

Tommy Webster, Building Maintenance Director for Pickens County who oversaw the excavation of the 1968 time capsule in October, 2018, was not born until the year following the centennial, but he told this writer that he was honored to be a part of something that his grandparents, Eugene and Ethel Cannon, and other family members were a part of in 1968. “I was born the year after it (the time capsule) was put into the ground. It’s neat to see something that they were a part of back then. It’s an honor to be a part of it.” He has a photograph of his grandparents, with his grandfather in top hat and wearing a beard. “That was the only time I saw my Grandpa with a beard, in that picture,” he said. “He never had one except for that. I think that was a really big deal then, getting all dressed up.”

Charles Burkett, Gabby Hayes, Jerry Hughes, Joe Black, and Joe Waldrop all attended the 1968 centennial celebration and were excited to see the time capsule excavated in 2018. Burkett told this writer that he rode a Model T car in the 1968 Centennial parade, and Hughes has photographs that his father, E.D. Hughes, made of the parade. Waldrop, who was a member of the Pickens Jaycees in 1968, said that the time capsule was one of their projects.

Vicki Crawford, also excited to attend the excavation of the time capsule in 2018, remembers the centennial well. “I got married in 1968, in April,” she told this writer, “and we were here in October for the parade. My step dad was in the parade. I remember for weeks, not just that week, for weeks leading into it, all of the ladies had their centennial gowns made, their centennial dresses and bonnets. We had chapters, and we met weekly to go out to dinner somewhere. That was big for us back then. Men had chapters, too, and the women really got into it, and the babies had their centennial clothes.”

Jo Ann Gilstrap Brewer told this writer, “I was young then, only 19, working at Blue Ridge Electric.” She has a photograph of herself and other Blue Ridge Electric Cooperative employees dressed in period clothing to celebrate the centennial. “I remember lots of people sewed their own clothes,” she said. “And we celebrated for a full year and had a great time.”

Pat Mulkey remembers the October 5, 1968 parade, the day of his fifth birthday, and he has a photograph of himself, dressed in 1860’s type clothing, standing atop the marker for the time capsule. On October 5, 2018, the day of the ceremony for the official opening of the time capsule at the courthouse, Mulkey, with a full beard for this celebration, wore a similar outfit.

Pickens County Clerk of Court Pat Welborn told this writer that he was 10 years old the year of the 1968 celebration, and he remembers the centennial parade well. “My granddaddy had a little farm up north of Pickens,” he said, “and we brought his horse and one-horse wagon down here, and he let me drive the horse and wagon through the parade. As a 10-year-old boy, that was always special to me.” He was excited to see the excavation and opening of the time capsule in 2018. “I’ve been the one to watch over it for the last 10 years, as Clerk of Court,” he told this writer in 2018. “This is really special to me, to see it opened and find out what’s inside and to be able to put something in the one that’s going back in the ground.”

Glenn Brock, owner of the historic Brock’s Department Store on Main Street in Pickens, has a photograph of himself, wearing overalls and a beard, during the 1968 centennial. Brock grew a beard for the beard-growing contest that year. “If you didn’t grow your beard, they would put you in ‘jail’, and then you would have to pay your ‘fine’ to get out,” he told this writer. He remembers boys wearing overalls and the ladies and young girls wearing long dresses and matching bonnets. He took home movies of the October 5, 1968 centennial parade, which included horses and old cars. A centennial banner from 1968 is on display in his store. “It was a lot of fun,” he said of the big celebration.