What a time to be alive. Simpson County celebrated a birthday this past weekend that brought people together from every town, city, and community. The bicentennial celebration has been the talk of the town and has been heavily anticipated since planning began early last year.
Believe it or not, I was not alive for the sesquicentennial, but from witness accounts the celebration was exciting and did a great job paying homage to Simpson County History up until that point. We have an additional 50 years of rich history to celebrate with each community having a designated time from now until July to host events.
Pearl S. Buck said, “If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday.”
History is important because it’s the story of what shaped the society we live in today. When it comes to Simpson County History, we were blessed to be able to partner with a few exceptional historians that helped us complete our Profile Edition. Richard Rankin, Barbara Fuller, Dr. Scottye Holloway, Kevin Davis, James Davis, Don Steen, Jean Allen, Earnest and Clara Jaynes, Frances Meadows, and Ross Walton have all shared their knowledge on the history of Simpson County. Our Profile edition will feature stories on Braxton, D’Lo, Pinola, Harrisville, Shivers, Mendenhall, Magee, and others in our attempt to capture the complete experience of living in Simpson County over the last 200 years. These contributors provided a wealth of knowledge and insight into these communities that gives a basis for imagining how different these communities were compared to what we see today.
This year’s Profile will be a magazine style product and will definitely be a keepsake worth having for the next 50 years at the sestercentennial. Profile will be available on February 29.
