#Advantage April 13

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In the late 1890’s an immigrant from Mexico crossed into the US. His arrival turned out to be quite an ADVANTAGE for Enterprise AL.

The name of our Rio Grande river crossing friend was Anthomus Grandis. He went by a more familiar name but I will get to that later.

He found a way to make a notorious name for himself in the cotton industry. In short order he quickly established a foothold in not only Texas but all the Deep South. Some twenty years later he was met by a community in 1915 that was fed up with his dominance. He had been in Enterprise, AL for five years when the entire city embarked on a radical and unpopular change. That decision became an ADVANTAGE.

In 1915 the farmers in Enterprise, AL and most of Coffee County decided to stop planning cotton and replace that crop with peanuts. They were doing this as a protest to Mr. Grandis. In two short years Coffee County, AL, became the economic envy of the south because they decided to replace cotton with peanuts. Town leaders in Enterprise erected a monument in honor of Anthomus Grandis on December 11, 1919. That monument still stands today. In fact the monument is listed on National Register of Historic Places.

Now the back story on just who and what Mr. Grandis did to have a monumental presence in Enterprise AL.

Anthomus Grandis is more common known as Mr. Boll Weevil.

The Boll Weevil had so decimated the crops in Alabama that in desperation Enterprise, AL farmers decided to start planting peanuts. The peanuts replaced valuable soil nutrients and eventually led to crop rotation that today is a farming best practice. The ADVANTAGE of growing peanuts resulted in the Boll Weevil becoming eradicated. More importantly peanuts became an economic agriculture ADVANTAGE.

If you want to read more about Enterprise’s Boll Weevil Monument go here.

Enterprise, AL took the disadvantage caused by the Boll Weevil to cotton and changed to planting peanuts. An ADVANTAGE that never would have surfaced if Anthomus Grandis had not created an economic disaster for Enterprise.

In life we often find that troubles and disappointments force us to change. Change is often the catalyst for creating an ADVANTAGE in our lives.