Modern Pioneers
by Alan King

     Many people don't know that Xenia Township exists separately from the city of Xenia.  In reality, the Township encompasses over 46 square miles all around Xenia's city limits. We have a population of over 7600.  Xenia Township includes the communities of Wilberforce, Oldtown, and Goes Station as well as many clusters of homes without specific names.  There is a separate Township government, fire department, road department, zoning board, etc.  So we really are a separate community.

    We are mostly rural folks who appreciate the quiet and spaciousness of the open farmland around town.  We're just like the people in Xenia, except a little different.  If I had to name four things that separate us from city folks, they would be: 1) We like to have some land around the house, 2) We don't have to pay city tax unless we work there, and 3) We mostly drink well water.

       The fourth thing that I think is different is that there are more than the average number of pioneers out here in the country.   When I think of the old time pioneers, I think of men and women with an independent streak.  They left the more settled lands of the East or the countries of their birth to find more "elbow room."  Many of them were not the first born and couldn't expect to inherit land of their own.  Some were getting away from bad situations of one sort or another.  Nearly all came to this fertile valley to make something of themselves.  The American Dream if you like.

     The pioneers of today are the inheritors of that "do it on your own" gene.  First of all, there are the farmers.  My father sold Ford tractors and other farm equipment to local farmers for about 25 years up until the late '60's.  My brother Nelson and I worked in the shop fixing chain saws and lawn mowers for quite a few summers and weekends between the ages of 13 and 20.  During those times, there would always be one farmer or another in the shop to get a part or to check with Hop or Bud or Wendell about some repair or other.  They would sometimes have fingers missing from farm accidents, but they almost always carried with them an air of independence and pride in themselves and the work that they had chosen.

     You could never tell the successful farmers from the not so successful ones, though.  They all wore pretty much the same uniform of denim coveralls and work boots.  They could have thrived as easily in the 1800's as the 1960's.  Some you could just imagine shooting their dinner and walking behind a plow horse.   Independent and self-sufficient.

     These days,  I think that the farmers have been supplemented in the role of independent spirits by the small business owners, the men and women entrepreneurs who live here in Xenia Township.  There are carpenters, massage therapists, plumbers, painters, welders, electricians, shop owners, used car dealers, cosmeticians, skydive operators, mechanics ... you name it.

     Many of them work out of their homes as I do.  I have operated the Kiddie Kingdom Child Care center for over 25 years in the downstairs of my home.  Many of them have a little acreage and a small building for their business.  Many of them have another job to pay the bills while they try to make it on their own.  Some have a little sign out front and some just have a pickup truck for an office.  They are pioneers in the world of work.

     There's something about not having to call anyone your boss, not having to double check all your decisions with a higher-up that can't be bought at any price.  Usually the price that you do have to pay is to endure a few years of abject poverty, work your tail end off, take any work that you can scrounge up, and hope to build up a word-of-mouth clientele before you go broke.  The national statistics on new businesses that survive for 2 years is something like 1 out of 6.  And the myth that you don't have a boss if you work for yourself is quickly replaced by the horrifying realization that every person who walks through your door, no matter how obnoxious, is your boss.  Instead of one boss you end up with hundreds.

     The upside of that, if you manage to survive for those first few years, is that you really do get to take a day off once in a while without having to ask anyone.  If you have provided a good service for a good value, people will start to come through the door without you having to spend all of your profit on advertising.  People will send their friends and they will say that they have heard good things about you and your business.  When you have been doing something for as long as I have, you even get the children of your first customers coming back to use your services 20 years later.

     I can imagine early pioneer men and women sitting out on the porch of their cabins after having cleared a field, planted a crop, canned a bunch of beans, or brought in some meat for the family supper.  They must have put their feet up on the rail, leaned back and breathed a sigh of contentment at having conquered their little corner of the world one more time.  Times like those make up for all the long hours, insecurity, and frustrations of trying to make it on your own.  The spirit of the first pioneers lives on.
© 2000 Alan D. King

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