Looking Back

About the Book

This book consists three sections: first, feature stories about various local area people and events taken from old issues of the Keowee Courier; second, items from an editorial-page column written by the book’s author, Ashton Hester, during a forty-four-year period from 1974 to 2017; and third, week-to-week highlights from the years 1966–1968. It is the author’s hope that these stories and commentaries will bring back some nostalgic memories for longtime residents and provide some historical insight for younger people and newcomers to the area. The Keowee Courier, founded in 1849, is upstate South Carolina’s second oldest newspaper—second only to the Abbeville County Press and Banner / Abbeville Medium, which was founded in 1844.

About the Author

Early in his career as a reporter, photographer, and editor for the Keowee Courier, Ashton Hester became fascinated by the volumes containing issues from past years of the paper, which was founded in 1849. He began compiling a weekly column containing news highlights from the corresponding dates 10, 20, 30, 40, etc., years ago. He first titled the column From the Past but eventually changed it to Looking Back, which is also the title of this book and five previous books highlighting the years 1888, 1907, 1911, and 1914; the years 1915, 1918, 1924, and 1935; the years 1941-1945; the years 1950-1955; and the years 1963-1965 along with feature stories.