Produced by Bryan Ness and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive and the Gooogle Print project.) THE CHURCH ON THE CHANGING FRONTIER [Illustration] [Illustration: BIG HOLE RIVER, MONTANA] COMMITTEE ON SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS SURVEYS TOWN AND COUNTRY DEPARTMENT EDMUND DES. BRUNNER, Director THE CHURCH ON THE CHANGING FRONTIER A STUDY OF THE HOMESTEADER AND HIS CHURCH BY HELEN O. BELKNAP WITH ILLUSTRATIONS MAPS AND CHARTS NEW YORK GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA PREFACE The Committee on Social and Religious Surveys was organized in January, 1921. Its aim is to combine the scientific method with the religious motive. The Committee conducts and publishes studies and surveys, and promotes conferences for their consideration. It cooeperates with other social and religious agencies, but is itself an independent organization. The Committee is composed of: John. R. Mott, Chairman; Ernest D. Burton, Secretary; Raymond B. Fosdick, Treasurer; James L. Barton and W. H. P. Faunce. Galen M. Fisher is Associate Executive Secretary. The offices are at 111 Fifth Avenue, New York City. In the field of town and country the Committee sought first of all to conserve some of the results of the surveys made by the Interchurch World Movement. In order to verify some of these surveys, it carried on field studies, described later, along regional lines worked out by Dr. Warren H. Wilson[1] and adopted by the Interchurch World Movement. These regions are: I. Colonial States: All of New England, New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. II. The South: All the States south of Mason and Dixon's line and the Ohio River east of the Mississippi, including Louisiana. III. The Southern Highlands Section: This section comprises about 250 counties in "The back yards of eight Southern States." IV. The Middle West: The States of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa and northern Missouri. V. Northwest: Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and eastern Montana. VI. Prairie: Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. VII. Southwest: Southern Missouri, Arkansas and Texas. VIII. Range or Mountain: Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada and western Montana. The Director of the Town and Country Survey Department for the Interchurch World Movement was Edmund deS. Brunner. He is likewise the Director of this Department for the Committee on Social and Religious Surveys. The original surveys were conducted under the supervision of the following: Beaverhead County--Rev. Charles T. Greenway, State Survey Supervisor of the Interchurch World Movement for Montana. The County Leader was Rev. Thomas W. Bennett.