The Importance of County History
From the book entitled “Agricultural Mecklenburg and Industrial Charlotte – 1926”, produced by the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce. Chapter 1, “The County’s History” was written by Julia M. Alexander. This commentary is from one section of that chapter entitled “The Importance of County History”
*The following is directly quoted from the above source*
“Place as well as time allots its problems and the county, the state, the locality of our birth has the right to demand our energies and intelligence in their solution. It is incumbent upon citizens of Mecklenburg county to fulfill the task which our particular environment has laid down for us, and work out our salvation through our own local culture. And a beginning toward this end can best be made by acquiring a sympathetic understanding of our county – an understanding resting upon a knowledge of its historical aspirations, beliefs and actions. For the character of Mecklenburg county, any county, is what it is in part because of the ideas, struggles and arrangements of the past. No generation begins a new world but always it enters upon a social life already organized, whose knowledge, laws and purposes arose in earlier times. The difference between the historical incidents and conditions of one county as compared with another started each of them upon divergent roads so that after the passage of years, these counties, perhaps very similar in the beginning, have often become very different as a consequence of these differences. County history is therefore indispensable as a means of understanding the present and of forming rational judgments about what the future is likely to be.
Local history has other values in that it plays a group-making role. A common tradition and a common history welds the people of a county into a sense of community and causes them to possess a solidarity and a consciousness of themselves impossible in counties without such traditions. No people can attain notable achievements without a keen appreciation of the worth of their institutions and this worth cannot be esteemed without a knowledge of their history. And again it is partly the gift of a knowledge of local history to make us more susceptible to the impressions of the particular place in which we live. Habit has so accustomed us to the sights that surround us that we have ceased to ask any questions about their meaning. People are constantly declaring that they are worn out and in need of a holiday; they speak in rhapsodical language of the delights of taking a distant journey because they feel that when they travel one of the conditions under which they have taken their tourist tickets is that they should begin to open their eyes. But why do we not begin to open our eyes at home? Local history can enhance the appreciation of the commonplace and invest home-made and home-bred institutions with meaning and interest.
Yet with these values evident our people have suffered from a failure to appreciate the importance, to say nothing of the interest, of county history which is, in the words of a recent writer, “that field of historical research now the most vital and compelling of all, in which the returns are probably the greatest and the requirements in time and money least.” The general historian must depend more and more upon the local historian for his materials for the full story of America is largely the story of the thousands of American communities collectively told. And while thinking of past history and the need for a fuller knowledge and appreciation of it diffused among our people we should not forget the time to come when true records of present events and conditions will be sought. If local historical material is not collected and preserved in permanent form now much upon which the true history of the county will depend will be hopelessly lost.”
*The following is directly quoted from the above source*
“Place as well as time allots its problems and the county, the state, the locality of our birth has the right to demand our energies and intelligence in their solution. It is incumbent upon citizens of Mecklenburg county to fulfill the task which our particular environment has laid down for us, and work out our salvation through our own local culture. And a beginning toward this end can best be made by acquiring a sympathetic understanding of our county – an understanding resting upon a knowledge of its historical aspirations, beliefs and actions. For the character of Mecklenburg county, any county, is what it is in part because of the ideas, struggles and arrangements of the past. No generation begins a new world but always it enters upon a social life already organized, whose knowledge, laws and purposes arose in earlier times. The difference between the historical incidents and conditions of one county as compared with another started each of them upon divergent roads so that after the passage of years, these counties, perhaps very similar in the beginning, have often become very different as a consequence of these differences. County history is therefore indispensable as a means of understanding the present and of forming rational judgments about what the future is likely to be.
Local history has other values in that it plays a group-making role. A common tradition and a common history welds the people of a county into a sense of community and causes them to possess a solidarity and a consciousness of themselves impossible in counties without such traditions. No people can attain notable achievements without a keen appreciation of the worth of their institutions and this worth cannot be esteemed without a knowledge of their history. And again it is partly the gift of a knowledge of local history to make us more susceptible to the impressions of the particular place in which we live. Habit has so accustomed us to the sights that surround us that we have ceased to ask any questions about their meaning. People are constantly declaring that they are worn out and in need of a holiday; they speak in rhapsodical language of the delights of taking a distant journey because they feel that when they travel one of the conditions under which they have taken their tourist tickets is that they should begin to open their eyes. But why do we not begin to open our eyes at home? Local history can enhance the appreciation of the commonplace and invest home-made and home-bred institutions with meaning and interest.
Yet with these values evident our people have suffered from a failure to appreciate the importance, to say nothing of the interest, of county history which is, in the words of a recent writer, “that field of historical research now the most vital and compelling of all, in which the returns are probably the greatest and the requirements in time and money least.” The general historian must depend more and more upon the local historian for his materials for the full story of America is largely the story of the thousands of American communities collectively told. And while thinking of past history and the need for a fuller knowledge and appreciation of it diffused among our people we should not forget the time to come when true records of present events and conditions will be sought. If local historical material is not collected and preserved in permanent form now much upon which the true history of the county will depend will be hopelessly lost.”
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