Celebrating Colesville’s 200th Birthday….
Like pearls that nestle in the occasional oyster, there are small towns hidden here and there all over America…. remnants of a simpler time. They are the surprise gems of our society….where people still know each other’s names, care for one another…..and, yes - talk about each other, too! That’s what people do when they know and care for their neighbors….and it’s often more entertaining than what’s on TV!!!
Colesville is OUR little gem…..and this year, we celebrate it’s 200th birthday….long may we love, laugh, learn and live together.
On the morning of May 8, 2021, Stalwart Collesvillians gathered to kick off the year-long birthday party. Among other wonderful tributes, Tony Villecco sang “Battle Hymn of the Republic”……Sarah Young unveiled a truly beautiful new seal for Colesville, based on her winning design…visiting dignitaries spoke…and the poem below was delivered to a loyal though shivering crowd!
This is my tribute to the dear little town that has been my chosen home for over half a century (small “potatoes” I know compared to 200 years) and a love letter to those who live here.
Once….
There were Native People in these hills:
Where now there is a traffic flow of cars and trucks
And Yellow Busses,
There once were absolutely none of “usses”…
Only leathered footfalls
And the muffled calls of stealthy hunters on the prowl.
A guardian owl alerts the woods…
The human’s near. Let chatter cease!
Can this be good?
Good for his family, fed and warm…
He bags the meat…she grinds the corn…
They nurture babies as they’re born…
And life goes on in peace.
Once….
New settlers came with settlers’ dreams…
They trampled through the woods and rills…
They rambled…..more and more, it seemed,
The Strangers’ Voices echoing in the hills:
They floated swiftly on the streams.
And with them, too, came change…
The drive to rearrange this pristine land:
To stand…So loud and large these Europeans,
Armed with muskets and ideas…
The forests cut…the herds were thinned,
For food and clothing, slaughtered…..skinned.
More birds came spiraling from the skies…
The mournful sound of old ways dying,
As Native villages made way for settlements
Now gone away….
The streams’ and rivers’ Great Largesse became
A primitive GPS to all the resources and wealth,
Of peaceful balance in the health
Of Mother Earth…
Once…
They were here, they organized!
Governments…had been despised and left behind…
Yet soon, they recognized the need for order.
In eighteen-hundred and twenty-one (1821),
The Town of Colesville was begun…
With proper pomp……and official decree!
Soon an industrial bonanza,
Blossoming on the Susquehanna.
Names the same as some you know
Identified the ebb and flow of early citizens
And businesses….like buggy builders, whip works,
The smithy and the livery stable…
Every body that was able, engaged in working to survive,
And thus….the Town of Colesville thrived.
Soon…
Rustic cabins, small and rough,
Were not quite comfortable enough…
Real houses made with finished lumber
Replaced them as the past went under
The rolling tide of pride and progress
That greater human congress causes…
Worship and learning occurred at home,
‘Til children gathered in one-room schools
And churches emerged from the wilderness…
Learning and faith their blessing tells
In the tolling of belfry and steeple bells…
And the march toward civil war gained strength
Not just here, but the breadth and length of a nation
Torn almost asunder by the stifling of freedom’s call
That can’t exist unless free for all.
Yet…
We survived the Civil War…
Imperfectly, life was somehow restored…
Though nothing was quite as it was before…
Enter World War One.
Meanwhile Railroads had crossed the nation
Conducting industrial revolution.
Business migrated to the city…
While villages shriveled…
O, what a pity! When change destroys
Familiar places and treasured joys.
But Colesville, now a century old,
Unlike some villages, did not fold…
Farming was strong in the fields along the Susquehanna.
The Railroad followed the river’s edge,
With barge and horse-drawn sledge… a rival
Delivering goods to cities and towns,
Where goods were coveted for survival.
We survived much change and the Spanish Flu…
We lost young folks in World War Two,
Korea and Viet Nam.
Today…
Where Native People roamed these hills:
There is a traffic flow of cars and trucks
And Yellow Busses,
And there are many, many “usses”…
Our school is large and sprawling…As are most farms…
Some hunters still are on the prowl.
A guardian owl may still alert the woods…
The human’s near. Let chatter cease!
Sometimes we are our own worst threat to peace.
The past 200 years have brought great change…
The landscape has been rearranged…
So many houses dot the hills and fields.
Yet still we see horses, cows and corn…
We nurture babies as they’re born…
And this, my dears, is still place of peace,
A place where neighbors care…
And where we celebrate
Each other’s joys…as well as share our woes.
And so…
Change will come, as future days unfold…
But, I for one,
Will do my best to hold the memory of this small town
Safe in my heart…
And never let it go.
Happy Birthday, Colesville!!
Written Just for You
By The Q.O.E.
May 8, 2021