The trade and commerce of the West Branch Valley were strictly confined to its own locale. Mountain barriers, limited transportation facilities, and insufficient contact with the settled areas of the Province only served to heighten the essential self-sufficiency of the Fair Play settlers. The result was an economic independence which doubtless had its political manifestations.[42] Economic conditions have their political implications, but it was the total impact of the frontier and not simply the commercial restrictions of some outside authority which made the Fair Play settlers self-reliant and independent "subsistence" farmers. The farmers' frontier did not result from the impact of any particular national stock groups, for Scotch-Irish, English, and German settlers reacted similarly. As the most recent historian of the Scotch-Irish, the most numerical national stock on this frontier, suggests, "authentically democratic principles, when the Scotch-Irish exhibited them in America, were rather the result of their experiences on colonial frontiers than the product of the Scottish and Ulster heritage."[43] The farmers' frontier with its characteristics of individualistic self-reliance was a product of the frontier itself. FOOTNOTES: [1] Turner, _The Frontier in American History_, p. 18. [2] Henry Bamford Parkes, _The American Experience_ (New York, 1959), p. 44. [3] Dunaway, _The Scotch-Irish of Colonial Pennsylvania_, p. 59. [4] Paul A. W. Wallace, _Indian Paths of Pennsylvania_ (Harrisburg, 1965), pp. 66-72, includes two maps. [5] Chester D. Clark, "Pioneer Life in the New Purchase," _The Northumberland County Historical Society Proceedings and Addresses_, VII (1935), 18. [6] Meginness, _Otzinachson_ (1889), p. 400. [7] _Ibid._, p. 401. [8] Linn, _History of Centre and Clinton Counties_, p. 472. [9] Meginness, _Otzinachson_ (1889), p. 401. [10] Meginness, _Otzinachson_ (1857), p. 454. [11] _Ibid._, p. 458 [12] Carl and Jessica Bridenbaugh, _Rebels and Gentlemen: Philadelphia in the Age of Franklin_ (New York, 1962), p. 76. [13] Barck and Lefler, _Colonial America_, p. 409. [14] Walter Prescott Webb, _The Great Plains_ (New York, 1931), pp. 238-244. [15] Herbert H. Beck, "Martin Meylin, A Progenitor of the Pennsylvania Rifle," _Papers Read Before The Lancaster County Historical Society_, LIII (1949), 33-61. [16] Clark, "Pioneer Life in the New Purchase," p. 19. [17] Lewis E. Theiss, "Early Agriculture," _Susquehanna Tales_ (Sunbury, 1955), p. 89. [18] Norman B. Wilkinson (ed.), "Mr. Davy's Diary," _Pennsylvania History_, XX (1953), 261. [19] James W. Silver (ed.), "Chauncey Brockway, an Autobiographical Sketch," _Pennsylvania History_, XXV (1958), 143. [20] Maynard, _Historical View of Clinton County_, p. 11. [21] _Ibid._