The Frontier in American HistoryTurner, Frederick Jackson
History
The Frontier in American History
Turner, Frederick Jackson
Frontier and pioneer life -- United States; Frontier thesis; United States -- History; United States -- Territorial expansion
Some of the social modifications in this State are more or less typical
of important processes at work among the neighboring States of the Old
Northwest. In the north, the men who built up the lumber interests of
the State, who founded a mill town surrounded by the stumps of the pine
forests which they exploited for the prairie markets, have acquired
wealth and political power. The spacious and well-appointed home of the
town-builder may now be seen in many a northern community, in a group of
less pretentious homes of operatives and tradesmen, the social
distinctions between them emphasized by the difference in nationality. A
few years before, this captain of industry was perhaps actively engaged
in the task of seeking the best "forties" or directing the operations of
his log-drivers. His wife and daughters make extensive visits to Europe,
his sons go to some university, and he himself is likely to acquire
political position, or to devote his energies to saving the town from
industrial decline, as the timber is cut away, by transforming it into a
manufacturing center for more finished products. Still others continue
their activity among the forests of the South. This social history of
the timber areas of Wisconsin has left clear indications in the
development of the peculiar political leadership in the northern portion
of the State.
In the southern and middle counties of the State, the original
settlement of the native American pioneer farmer, a tendency is showing
itself to divide the farms and to sell to thrifty Germans, or to
cultivate the soil by tenants, while the farmer retires to live in the
neighboring village, and perhaps to organize creameries and develop a
dairy business. The result is that a replacement of nationalities is in
progress. Townships and even counties once dominated by the native
American farmers of New York extraction are now possessed by Germans or
other European nationalities. Large portions of the retail trades of the
towns are also passing into German hands, while the native element seeks
the cities, the professions, or mercantile enterprises of larger
character. The non-native element shows distinct tendencies to dwell in
groups. One of the most striking illustrations of this fact is the
community of New Glarus, in Wisconsin, formed by a carefully organized
migration from Glarus in Switzerland, aided by the canton itself. For
some years this community was a miniature Swiss canton in social
organization and customs, but of late it has become increasingly
assimilated to the American type, and has left an impress by
transforming the county in which it is from a grain-raising to a dairy
region.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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