Lauren Virgo and Leah Walker

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Aiken County — Celebrating 150 Years | Cabinet of Curiosities

Here at the Aiken County Historical Museum, we normally have a Founders Day celebration during March to celebrate the creation of our county. This year’s celebration is particularly special because Aiken County turns 150 years old in 2021. The land that Aiken County encompasses has thousands of years’ worth of stories about a multitude of lives that existed between heartbreak and hope. With that, let’s delve into a smattering of curious stories that took place in our fair county. A rose by any other name would still be… Aiken County After decades of petitioning the South Carolina State Legislature, a bill was finally passed in March of 1871 to create

The Sport of Flirting | Cabinet of Curiosities

The history of flirting is a long and seductive tale, stretching back to the first stolen glance across a primitive cave lit by fire. Long before language was conceived, we were flirting. It has been employed as a social tool since the dawn of creation, from insects to fish to birds and all mammals. Now, let us step back in time to the Victorian and Edwardian eras when the sport of flirting was given its own instructional manuals. Valentine postcard, postmarked in 1916. ACHM Collection There’s something in my eye … The first step in flirting is most often establishing eye contact, and it can include a wink or a

The Beginnings of a New County | Cabinet of Curiosities

2021 is a special year for the residents of Aiken County — not only is it a new year of hope after a year of chaos, but it’s also the 150th anniversary of Aiken County’s founding. In January of 1871, state legislator Charles D. Hayne (Barnwell District) proposed an act to create a new county with Aiken as its seat. On March 10, 1871, the act was formally enacted by the South Carolina state legislature. While Hayne was not the first person to promote the idea of a new county, he was the one to get the bill through the state legislature successfully. Names for the new county included the

Rocking Around the (Metal? Holly?) Christmas Tree | Cabinet of Curiosities

Have you ever watched A Charlie Brown Christmas television special and wondered about the metal Christmas tree lot that Charlie Brown visits? Did you know that cutting down a holly tree almost became illegal in our area? Let’s explore this curious affinity for metal Christmas trees and an early effort to save the holly tree in the latest episode of the Cabinet of Curiosities! The History of Christmas Trees When imagining our ancestors and how they may have spent Christmases a few hundred years in the past, many of us picture a happy family around a large, decorated tree, with a blazing fire in the hearth and children playing at

July Cabinet of Curiosities | Can You Can? | Aiken Bella Magazine

Creativity in Moments of Momentous Change – Time and Time Again

Never was more emphasis on creativity in the history of our country than during the Great Depression. Newspapers, magazines, radio commercials, and the like were filled with suggestions of how to apply creativity to your everyday life. You’ve most likely heard of sackcloth dresses or feed sack dresses, of which the author’s grandmother wore and sewed many. No fruit? Let’s make a water pie! No stockings? Let’s paint a seam down the backs of our legs! A Silver Lining Among the Chaos The beginning of the Great Depression can be traced to the stock market crash in October of 1929. Over the next decade, unemployment skyrocketed, banks failed, and charity

Cabinet of Curiosities | Moments of Momentous Change – Time and Time Again

This month’s focus for Bella is “change.” 2020 has been especially full of changes, and the year isn’t over yet! With the idea that nothing is ever quite new, let’s explore our community’s history and how we have handled periods of great change. The time period is the early 1940s and World War II is in full force. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, young American men left their hometowns, their jobs, and their families to fight against the Axis powers of Germany, Italy, and Japan. While they were away, their mothers, wives, and sisters kept the home front going by working in factories, tending Victory

July Cabinet of Curiosities | Can You Can?

This month’s focus for Bella is “youth.” So, we thought we would tell y’all about the awesome Tomato Girls. Early in 1910, a 25-year-old rural Aiken County school teacher named Marie Cromer noticed a lack of organizations the local young ladies of her school could join. The young boys had several agricultural clubs to choose from, but the girls had none. Marie Cromer set out to change this by founding the Girls’ Tomato Club of Aiken County at the Talatha School. The club charged the young girls to grow and can 1/10th of an acre of tomatoes. Her goal was that the club members would “not learn simply how to

Cabinet of Curiosities | Depots of Aiken County

When the Charleston to Hamburg Railroad crisscrossed through what is now Aiken County in the early 1830s, the need for train depot stations along the new railroad line soon followed. And where a depot developed, so did a community. In an era prior to the invention of automobiles, the trains that stopped at the depots brought friends, family, groceries, clothing, and other daily essentials to a growing community. Thus, train station depots became an integral part of life. Depots provided travel, supplies, and communication. For a bit of a time travel, we have included a late 1800s photograph of the Aiken passenger depot station, which was located near the intersection

Cabinet of Curiosities | Aiken Bella Magazine

April Cabinet of Curiosities | If you think playing golf is hard today…

If you think playing golf today is difficult, let’s take a trip to the late 1800s and early 1900s. Several golf courses existed in the Central Savannah River Area (CSRA) at the turn of the century. The first golf course in our county was the Palmetto Golf Club of Aiken, which was founded in 1892 by Thomas Hitchcock. Next up was the Hampton Terrace Hotel’s golf club in North Augusta, laid out in 1903 for guests of the North Augusta hotel. This article will focus on those two golf courses. Not for the faint of heart. A quote from an 1899 article about the upcoming match between Augusta’s Bon Air

March Cabinet of Curiosities

The curious case of bicycle polo for Winter Colony equestrians If you live or work in Aiken County, you most likely know of the Winter Colony. Do you know the history behind this trend of going South for the winter and how the Winter Colonists brought an unusual sport to our area? Well, you’ve come to the right place! Let us enlighten you. In the late nineteenth century, the well-to-do set of Long Island was hearing talk of a beautiful Southern town. It had mild winters, fewer mosquitoes than the coastal areas, and fine, loamy soil that would be ideal for the hooves of their sporting horses. Among the first