by Curt Kovener
Crothersville (though first founded as Haysville because the area was deemed suitable for growing hay) came about because of a pioneering spirit. Not the Conestoga wagon traveling across the plains to live in houses built of sod pioneer spirit but of an innovative, hard work and everybody joining in to accomplish good attitude.
By reclaiming the best of our pioneer heritage, by applying past lessons to the future, we can, like the original pioneers, make rural areas prosper, my colleague Paul Hosford of the Omaha World Herald has written in the past.
Re-pioneering is important to revitalizing communities such as ours. Pioneers didn’t have and didn’t expect others to do for them.
“The successful pioneers were courageous. They persevered. They made sacrifices to realize their dreams. The pioneers were builders, innovators and entrepreneurs,” Hosford wrote. “They built farmsteads and dry-goods stores, mills, roads and bridges. They used the latest technology everywhere they could.
“The pioneers cared about community. They created organizations that brought people together to quilt and to husk, to sing and to pray. The pioneers weren’t afraid of diversity- people from vastly different places, with vastly different customs and languages, worked together to settle their community.
“The pioneers didn’t just farm and raise livestock- they were at the same time carpenters, teachers, politicians and planners.
“The pioneers were visionaries. They could see in their hearts what the future could be and understood that through hard work and focus, they could achieve their visions.
“The pioneers were optimists- they didn’t let the challenges of life dissuade them.
“Imagine if more people in rural areas could once again be as inspired by a vision of what the future holds, as reluctant to let challenges stop them, as open to new ideas, as willing to do what has to be done as their predecessors were.”
Ponder on these thoughts as you read and learn about the Comprehensive Plan that has been developed for Crothersville. Remember that it is a participatory plan that requires your 21st Century pioneer involvement.
