County Unveils Commemorative Plaques

During the commissioner’s meeting last week, Sole Commissioner Robert Jones unveiled a series of plaques commemorating each Pickens County Commissioner or Ordinary, from the founding of the county in 1854 to 2012. Appropriately, the unveiling came at the close of the final sole commissioner’s meeting, ending this form of county government. In January, the county moves to a three-person board. As such, the unveiling coinciding with the last sole commissioner meeting underscored the close of an era and marked the start of another.

The plaques showed photos of the commissioners and were arranged on the wall behind the table at the front of the commissioner’s meeting room, starting on the left with the 1854 plaque and moving chronologically to the right to 2012. Also, painted on the wall behind the table in the front of the room was the Pickens County Seal.

As the commissioner removed the dark cloth from the face of the plaques, he delivered a brief commentary regarding the commemoration.

“Those are the ordinaries (commissioners) from 1854 to 1921,”

Jones said, gesturing to the first series of plaques on the left side of the room. He went on to say the local lawyer Bill Pickett’s great- grandfather and father served as Pickens County commissioners. He also encouraged the crowd to look at the plaques before it left.

“You might have some kinfolk up here that you didn’t know (about),”

he said. Jones also noted that as the county moved to a three-person board, it will install another plaque for the new form of government with the same lay-out.