MILLENNIUM ESSAY CONTEST WINNERS; LOOKING BACK FIRST PLACE WINNER: HISTORY AND GENEALOGY

History is made up of more than just recorded names and dates. History and genealogy are inseparable, the same as politics and history are inseparable. Missouri has a unique place in American history because it played an important role in the expansion of a young nation. St. Charles, St. Louis, Ste. Genevieve, Cape Girardeau and New Madrid districts were the western boundary of frontier American two hundred years ago. It is hard to conceive how violent and uninhabited this country was at the time of the Louisiana Purchase as compared with present conditions. We owe much to the pioneer families who endured the hardships to make this country what it is today.

Travel by horses, covered wagons, steamboats, trains, automobiles, airplanes and shuttle missions are all elements of our past. These are also the foundation of our future. People who saw better ways of getting from one place to another continued to improve on methods of transportation. Those who will invent future modes of transportation must study the past to make improvement in the future.

Basic values of hard work, respect for others, and belief in oneself and personal integrity were important to our ancestors and must be important to us and to future generations. Family traditions, old and new, will never got out of style they are the glue that binds a village, a state, a nation and the world. Looking back across the centuries, we discover that family connections are what move events forward. Without the hard work of everyday ordinary people there would be nothing to reflect upon. Great men and women are but a few, it is the common people that make up our primary history, and thus, determine our future. We are wise to remember this important characteristic.

At the close of the year and of a millennium, let us be kind to each other and remember the values that are truly important in life. Material things come and go, but it is people who are important. Written history has proven this true. We are wise to reflect on the past as we move forward to a better future.