Time to remember

NORTH AUGUSTA - James U. Jackson, the city's founder, shook hands with well-wishers and admired the scene at the North Augusta Community Center on Thursday.

"I'm quite proud of my accomplishments, that my vision has brought great things to this area," said Mr. Jackson, also known as Daniel Bollman. "And I'm quite proud of what I see before me."

Mr. Bollman portrayed North Augusta's founding father at the Centennial Day to Remember, which kicked off North Augusta's celebration of its 100th anniversary of incorporation this year.

Hundreds of people came to the event, which featured table after table of exhibits from the city's past. The artifacts included old photographs, gold coins, personal collections of longtime North Augusta families, period clothing, pottery and scrapbooks.

George Jackson Alexander Sr., James U. Jackson's grandson, and his wife, Donna Lou, sat at a table filled with mementos from Rosemary Hall, the Jackson family home.

The display included the March 19, 1889, marriage license of Mr. Jackson and Edith B. King, which Mrs. Alexander discovered earlier this week.

"I was so excited when I found that in the middle of a book," she said.

The family exhibit also included Mr. Jackson's beaver skin hat, silverware, a copper tea cozy from the Hampton Terrace Hotel and a blueprint of the hotel.

North Augusta native Lashonda Robertson, of Evans, flipped through a 1987 North Augusta Middle School yearbook.

"I went to North Augusta Middle School," she said. "They dug up the time capsule that we buried in 1988."

A notebook filled with the buried treasures, which ranged from an Aerosmith cassette to a pink disciplinary referral, was part of the school's exhibit as well.

Shadrick Clay, 12, said the old yearbooks, where he spotted high school photographs of aunts and uncles, were his favorite exhibit.

Shadrick and other children also signed a birthday banner for the city.

"The man that was just here said they might show this on the 200th birthday," he said.

Reach Betsy Gilliland at (803) 648-1395 or betsy.gilliland@augustachronicle.com.