2018 October Colony Magazine

LAST WORD
By Nicholas Mattson
In 1859, Abraham Lincoln addressed the
Wisconsin fair, advocating for the art of agriculture
and delivering the exact phrase still
etched above the front door of the Atascadero
Colony Administration Building in downtown
Atascadero.
During the speech, Lincoln delivered that
“The thought recurs that education — cultivated
thought — can best be combined with agricultural
labor … and ere long the most valuable of
all arts, will be the art of deriving a comfortable
subsistence from the smallest area of soil. No
community whose every member possesses this
art, can ever be the victim of oppression of any
of its forms. Such community will be alike independent
of crowned-kings, money-kings, and
land-kings.”
Nested in that terrific statement — which was
then nested within a speech which broadly appreciated
agriculture while likening its practice
to that of a “Free Labor” theory — was so profound
to the heart of E.G. Lewis that while he
dreamed of a utopia
on the Central
Coast, it drove him
to raise the words
above the majestic
columns that still
reflect the massive size of his dream for a new
world within the New World.
“The most valuable of all arts will be that of
deriving a comfortable subsistence from the
smallest area of soil” was one of four rallying
cries that has lived on for eight scores and nine
years since it passed from the pen of Abraham
Lincoln, to his voice. E.G. Lewis was born 10
years later, 1,000 miles away.
Our community, our city, the Mudhole, Lewis’
Colony, is awakening to itself and at times has
looked itself in the mirror and gasped. What
happened? This is not the masterplanned community
boasted about in the pages of Lewis’
bulletins. This is not a community focused on
deriving a comfortable subsistence from the
76 Gas Station 35
A Beautiful Face 17
A-1 Mobility 09
Almond Country Quilters 08
American West Tire Pros 11
Arlyne’s Flowers 19
Atascadero Greyhound
Foundation 15
Atascadero Pet Hospital 22
Awakening Ways 19
Baby’s Babble 29
Bob Sprain’s Draperies 35
Bottom Line Bookkeeping 25
Branches of Wellness
Acupuncture 17
Cal Paso Solar 17
CASA 09
CB - Diane Cassidy 12
Colony Days Committee 05
Five Star Rain Gutters 35
smallest area of soil by the means of independent
agriculture and education. This is a community
that has long slept comfortably as Los Angeles
and San Francisco sprawled toward us, creeping
quietly and far enough away as not to be heard.
But that harvest fruit has gotten its deserved attention,
and the shire is no longer hidden in the
Middle-Earth world between the “Two Towers.”
Where do we go from here? Do we surrender
the ideals that brought an entrepreneurial
pioneer to establish this enclave for seekers, or
do we dust off the blueprints
that formed the
mind that imagined this
“Home Community” to
be a place of both sanctity
and labor that would
produce a harvest that
would so honor those
cherished words now
standing above the town
center for 100 years?
Such community will be alike independent of
crowned-kings, money-kings, and land-kings.
Lincoln continued
“Free Labor argues that,
as the Author of man
makes every individual
with one head and one
pair of hands, it was probably intended that
heads and hands should cooperate as friends;
and that particular head, should direct and control
that particular pair of hands. As each man
has one mouth to be fed, and one pair of hands
to furnish food, it was probably intended that
particular pair of hands should feed that particular
mouth — that each head is the natural
guardian, director, and protector of the hands
and mouth inseparably connected with it; and
that being so, every head should be cultivated,
DIRECTORY TO OUR ADVERTISERS
Foss Electric 23
Foss Farms 23
Glenn’s Repair 11
Greg Malik RE Group 07
Healthy Inspirations 25
Hearing Aid Specialists
of the Central Coast 03
Hope Chest Emporium 17
La Bellaserra - Inoteca 07
Las Tablas Animal Hosp 10
Lube N Go 29
Mid Coast Mower 22
Mikulics, Dr. 14
Natural Alternative 24
Odyssey World Cafe 25
Paderewski Festival 02
and improved, by whatever will add to its capacity
for performing its charge. In one word Free
Labor insists on universal education.”
As we begin our celebration of Colony Days
and Tent City of 1916, let us ruminate for a moment
on the seeds that were planted in those
early days of this home to us all, and remember
that while we have matured in our sensibilities,
there is a tangible power of establishment that
still bears fruit for us today in this small town.
Nothing more clearly represents the return
to those roots than the
reclaiming, rehabilitating,
and repurposing of the
Atascadero Press Building,
also known as the “Printery.”
As it was a haven for
the written word, and a
beacon for the pioneers
who traveled thousands of
miles to live in tents among
new friends here 100 years
ago. The restoration of the
temple of the press can be
no more valuable at any
other time in history than
it is right now.
Just as Abraham Lincoln
passed on words to his posterity,
and just as Thomas
Fuller gave the phrase “Do
something worth writing,
or write something worth
reading” to Benjamin Franklin, who in-turn
wrote it down for my eyes and heart to find, our
words and actions will forever shape the course
of history in some small or great way.
I encourage you, yay I challenge you, to make
the Press Building a beacon of hope for those
seeking truth, that a community can overcome
all differences in the name of high ideals that
should one day be emblazoned in new stone for
all who visit our city to see — that our spirit is
uninhibited, and our goals are attainable.
Ray Buban, EA - Tax & Financial
Services 13
Reverse Mortgage Pros 17
San Joaquin Valley College 35
SLO County Office of Educ. 27
Solarponics 11
Spice of Life 12
Sue Hubbard - Farmers Ins. 25
Susan Funk for City Council 09
Templeton Door & Trim 12
Tent City After Dark 36
The Carlton Hotel 09
The Laundromat 14
Topher Mobile Detail 17
Triple 7 Motorsports 08
Triple 7 Tractor 13
Whit’s Turn Tree Service 05
34 | colonymagazine.com COLONY Magazine, October 2018