Looking Back

About the Book

This book consists of six sections: first, feature stories about various local area people and places; second, news stories; third, sports stories; fourth, a history of Oconee County government; fifth, stories by Ashton Hester about his experiences with the US Army during the Vietnam War; and sixth, week-to-week highlights from issues of the Keowee Courier from the years 1973–1980. It is the author’s hope that these stories 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 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 six previous books which highlighted different years and contained different stories.