Last month, Jan and I drove to Cincinnati, a city we had not previously visited. Along the way, we drove past New Harmony, Indiana, a small farming community in the southern part of the state, on the banks of the Wabash River, just upstream from where it empties into the mighty Ohio River. I explained that while training to be Peace Corps volunteers in the fall of 1964, Ann and I had spend two weeks there with fifty other would-be volunteers. The town had prospered as an agricultural service center, but with improved roads and advancing technology on all fronts, that business was drying up. The town was down to fewer than a thousand inhabitants. They were considering building their future economy on their historic past. The town had been settled in 1814 as a religious community by a group from Harmony, Pennsylvania, called the Rappites. In 1825, they sold the town lock, stock & barrel to a socialist utopian community led by a Welsh philanthropist named Robert Owen. The Rappites were excellent managers; but the administration of the Owenites was a bit unfocused. Example -- they forgot to sew a crop their first year there and only survived because the Rappites had left much of their food in the towns granaries. But the Owenites did bring philosophers and doctors and scientists and artists and musicians; the work of those cultural leaders lasted for generations. Folks today speak metaphorically of the Owenites arriving in the BOAT OF KNOWLEDGE, crammed to the gunnels with books and instruments, both scientific and musical, and all that was needed to make New Harmony a cultural beacon on an otherwise barren frontier. In 1964, the town was considering making itself a tourist center for folk interested in early American history. We spent two weeks going door to door, talking with folks and doing a survey to see what they thought about their town and its future. Then we wrote up a report and gathered together in the old Opera House to present our findings to the town. The New York Times did an article the following Sunday on our work and the towns plans for its future. I dont know if our survey was in any way instrumental –– we were pretty green (the word callow comes to mind) –– but the town has made itself over into an historical tourism destination. Of course, no one is self-made, and New Harmony is no exception, Theyve had a lot of help from the State and Federal governments, from the University of Indiana, and from private philanthropists. Four spokes to their Wheel-Of-Progress. But, there has been a fifth spoke, too. Thats the people of New Harmony themselves, acting as individuals and collectively as the Town. New Harmony happened to be celebrating its 150th birthday when we went there, bright eyed and bushy tailed in 1964. And by the irrefutable workings of arithmetic, it was celebrating its 200th birthday when Jan and I drove by. Now here are a few pictures for your enjoyment, some taken with Jans cell phone, the rest harvested from Google Images.
Posted on: Wed, 06 Aug 2014 01:09:19 +0000
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