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3 3433 06818813 9

THE COUNTRY CHURCH
IN COLONIAL COUNTIES

MARJORIE PATTEN

,tr.

znv.

THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN
COLONIAL COUNTIES

TO THE ORIGINAL AMERICAN
The fine bronze statue in Lake George Park

COMMITTEE ON SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS SURVEYS

TOWN AND COUNTRY DEPARTMENT

Edmund deS. Brunner, Director

THE COUNTRY CHURCPI

COLONIAL COUNTIES

AS ILLUSTRATED BY

ADDISON COUNTY, VT, TOMPKINS COUNTY, N. Y.

AND WARREN COUNTY, N. Y.

MARJORIE PATTEN

WITH illustrations
MAPS AND CHARTS

NEW XSJr YORK
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY

62(i48A

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 cooperates with other social and religious agen-
cies, 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 Asso-
ciate Executive Secretary. The ofiices are at iii 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 Inter-
church 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 * and adopted by the Interchurch
World Movement. These regions are :

I. Colonial States: All of New England, New York, Penn-
sylvania 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, Colo-
rado, 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.

*See Wilson, "Sectional Characteristics," Homelands, August, 1920.

PREFACE

The original surveys were conducted under the supervision of
the following:

Addison County — Mr. Charles O. Gill, State Supervisor of the
Interchurch World Movement, Hartland, Vermont.

Tompkins County — Rev. Henry Strong Huntington, State Super-
visor of Interchurch World Movement, New York City ; Prof.
Dwight Sanderson, of New York State College of Agriculture at
Cornell University ; Dr. W. L. Thompson ; J. A. Moore ; P. L,
Dunn, and others. In the spring of 1921 the field worker, Miss
Marjorie Patten, of the Committee on Social and Religious Surveys,
visited these counties, hrought up to date the work previously done,
and obtained information missing in the original study.

Warren County, New York, was surveyed in the fall of 1921
by the field workers from the Committee, Benson Y, Landis and
Marjorie Patten.

Acknowledgment should be made to Rev. Edmond Twitchell, of
Glens Falls, for the helpful cooperation and assistance rendered in
the successful completion of the survey.

The statistical and graphical editor of this volume was Mr. A.
H. Richardson, of the Chief Statistician's Division of the American
Telephone and Telegraph Company, formerly connected with the
Russell Sage Foundation.

The technical adviser was Mr. H. N. Morse, of the Presbyterian
Board of Home Missions, who was also associate director of the
Town and Country Survey in the Interchurch World Movement.

Valuable help was given by the Home Missions Council ; by the
Council of Women for Home Missions through their sub-Committee
on Town and Country, and by a Committee appointed jointly by the
Home Missions Council and the Federal Council of Churches for
the purpose of cooperating with the Committee on Social and Reli-
gious Surveys in endeavoring to translate the results of the survey
into action. The members of this Joint Committee on Utilizing
Surveys are:

Representing the Federal Council of Churches
Anna Clark C. N. Lathrop

Roy B. Guild U. L. Mackey

A. E. Holt A. E. Roberts

F. Ernest Johnson Fred B. Smith

Charles E. Schaeffer

PREFACE

Representing the Home Missions Council and the Council of Women
for Home Missions

L. C. Barnes, Chairman
Rodney W. Roundy, Secretary

Alfred W. Anthony Rolvix Harlan

Mrs. Fred S. Bennett R. A. Hutchison

C. A. Brooks Florence E. Ouinlan

C. E. Burton W. P. Shriver

A. E. Cory Paul L. Vogt

David D. Forsyth Warren H. Wilson

Vll

INTRODUCTION

THE POINT OF VIEW

THIS book is a study of the work of Protestant town and coun-
try churches in three counties in New England and New
York. Its purpose is to show the efifect of prosperity upon
the Hfe of the Church by describing the interaction of the Church
upon these communities and of these communities upon the Cliurch.
This survey does not, therefore, attempt to deal directly with the
spiritual eiTect of any church upon the life of individuals or groups.
Such results are not measureable by the foot-rule of statistics or
by survey methods. It is possible, however, to weigh the concrete
accomplishments of churches. These actual achievements are their
fruits and "by their fruits ye shall know them."

The three counties studies in this book are Addison, Vermont,
and Tompkins and Warren, New York. Many considerations en-
tered into their choice. For one thing, it must be borne in mind
that this book, while complete in itself, is also part of a larger whole.
From among the one thousand county surveys completed or nearly
completed by the Interchurch World Movement, twenty-six counties
situated in the nine most representative rural regions of America
were selected for intensive study. In this way it was hoped to obtain
a bird's-eye view of the religious situation as it exists in the more
rural areas of the United States. All the counties selected were
chosen with the idea that they were fair specimens of what was to be
found throughout the area of which they were a part.

In selecting the counties an effort was made to discover those
which were typical not merely from a statistical standpoint but also
from the point of view of the social and religious problems they
represented. For example, the three counties in New England and
New York described in this pamphlet were chosen because they are
representative of large sections throughout the Colonial area.

It is recognized that there are reasons why exceptions may be
taken to the choice of counties. No area is completely typical of
every situation. A careful study of these counties leads, however,
to the conclusion that they are fair specimens of the region they
are intended to represent.

INTRODUCTION

All these studies have been made from the point of view of the
church, recognizing, however, that social and economic conditions
affect its life. For instance, it is evident that various racial groups
influence church life differently. Germans and Swedes usually tend
toward liturgical denominations ; the Scotch to non-liturgical. Again,
if there are economic pressure and heavy debt, the church faces
spiritual handicaps and needs a peculiar type of ministry. Because
of the importance of social and economic factors in the life of the
Church the opening chapters of this book have been given over to
a description of these factors. At the first glance some of these facts
may appear irrelevant, but upon closer observation they will be found
to have a bearing upon the main theme — the problem of the Church.

Naturally the greatest amount of time and study has been de-
voted to the churches themselves. Their history, equipment and
finances ; their members, services and church organizations ; their
Sunday schools, young people's societies and community programs,
have all been carefully investigated and evaluated.

Intensive investigation has been limited to the distinctively
rural areas and to those centers of population which have less than
5,000 inhabitants. In the case of towns larger than this an effort has
been made to measure the service of such towns to the surrounding
countryside, but not to study each church and community in detail.

The material in this book itself will present a composite picture
of the religious conditions within these three counties. Certain
major problems which were found with more or less frequency in
all three counties are discussed as problems and all available infor-
mation from any of the counties has been incorporated within such
discussion. The opening pages of the book give, however, a summary
of the condition within each county. While this method has obvious
drawbacks, it is felt that these are outweighed by the advantages
and that this treatment is the best one possible to bring out the
peculiar conditions existing throughout this area. The appendices
present the methodology of the survey and the definitions employed.
They also include in tabular form the major facts of each county as
revealed by the investigation. These appendices are intended espe-
cially to meet the needs of church executives and students of soci-
ology who desire to carry investigation further than is possible in the
type of presentation used for the main portion of the book.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I The Northern Colonial Area 17

II The Three Counties 20

III The Churches 28

IV Social Agencies and Activities 39

V Folk Depletion and Missed Opportunities . . 44

VI Foreigners on the Land 55

VII The Problem of the Summer Resort .... 57

VIII What Do the Young People Need? .... 60

IX Over- and Underchurching ....... 64

X One Way Out — Church Federation and the Ver-
mont Plan 68

XI New Rudders for Old Ships 71

XII The Hand of the Dead 75

XIII A Backward Look yy

XIV Concerning the Rural Pastor 83

XV Conclusion 86

Appendices

I Methodology and Definitions 93

II Tables 97

ILLUSTRATIONS, MAPS AND CHARTS

ILLUSTRATIONS
To THE Original American Frontispiece

PAGE

Typical New England 21

Where Boston Gets Its Milk 22

A Beauty Spot of New England 23

Where Farmers Are Prosperous 24

The Hub of the County 26

A Reminder of Early Days 28

True to Architectural Type 32

Transportation De Luxe 39

Quite Happy, Thank You! 40

Does It Pay to Advertise? , . 42

An Up-to-Date Farmer 45

Where Education Lags 46

A Versatile Pastor 62

One Side of a Village Square 64

Growth and Decay 65

A Rural Library 7^

A Live Church in Tompkins County 81

The Only Community-Minded Church in Warren

County 90

MAPS

New York and Vermont: Locating the Three Counties 18
Church and Community Map of Addison County, Vt. 30-31
Church and Community Map of Tompkins County, N. Y. 34-35

Church and Community Map of Warren County, N. Y. 37

xiii

ILLUSTRATIONS, MAPS AND CHARTS

CHARTS

PAGE

I How THE Typical Dollar is Raised 36

n The Churches and Their Memberships ... 50

HI Gain and Loss in Membership 51

IV Gain and Loss in Membership ... .51

V How the Church Dollar is Raised ..... 75

\T Comparative Trends of Population, Church Mem-
bership AND Attendance 78

VH How THE Diminishing Dollar is Spent ... 81

Vni Salary Scale of the Ministers 84

IX Distribution of Membership 87

THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN
COLONIAL COUNTIES

Chapter I
THE NORTHERN COLONIAL AREA

THE Colonial area was the birthplace and childhood home of a
great nat'on. It was here that voting America received her
early education, when the rest of the cotmtry was a wilderness.
The early colonists were a stern folk, apt to be harsh in creed,
gloomy in viewpoint, intolerant in religion, btit they were enterpris-
ing, fearless and filled with indomitable will to succeed. They were
leaders in trade and unmatched in political sagacity. Their code of
living was established on a rock foundation of lofty ideals, sound
principles and, most of all, love of home and fear of God.

America has long since emerged victorious from her early
struggles and taken her place among the great nations of the world.
Today in the old Colonial area, which still serves as a living example
to American civilization, it is amazing to behold the transformation
three centuries have wrought. No longer is agriculture supreme.
Here are cities, great and small, with congested population and mam-
moth industries holding multitudes in their grip. Here is the na-
tion's greatest trade area, the very core of its tremendous industrial
and financial development. These changes have brought their prob-
lems, not alone in the growing cities, but in the country at wdiose ex-
pense so much of urban civilization has been built. It was in the
Colonial area and especially in New England that the "rural prob-
lem" first lifted its head and forced itself upon the attention. But
the tide of rural life which was ebbing has begun to turn. Transition
and reconstruction are in process. Rural New England is coming
back, not to ascendancy but to a proper place of social usefulness.

The present vohune is one of three publications dealing with
the Colonial area and describing intensive studies made of six
cotnities which together fairly typify the variety of its rural condi-
tions. The first volume treats of Salem Coimty, New Jersey, studied
as tvpical of the great trucking area. Harford County, Alaryland,

THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES

and Columbia County, Pennsylvania, are the subject of a second
publication. These two counties are widely separated as to location
but show striking likenesses and contrasts. In the former the popu-
lation has been increased by a recent influx of farmers from the
south, and during a normal year 8,000 migrant laborers are engaged
in its seasonal canneries. In the Pennsylvania county, the original
stock has been augmented by foreign immigration to its anthracite
coal mines and to the industries of its two cities. Both counties
are progressive and primarily agricultural in their make-up. The
three counties considered in this volume are Addison County, Ver-
mont, a general farming region in the fertile valley of Lake Cham-

NEW YORK AND VERMONT
Locating the Three Counties

plain ; Tompkins County, New York, a typical dairying section of
central New York State, and Warren County, New York, one of
the beauty spots of the Adirondack mountains.

Certain characteristic problems are common to these three coun-
ties. Certain others are distinctive, and others again are important
for the light they shed on the evolution of American rural life. All
three counties have suffered depletion of population. Communities
big and little, have felt the pull of industry toward the larger centers.
With the revolutionizing influence of the automobile, better roads
have been built. Isolation has been greatly lessened. Markets have
been brought nearer to the gardener. Towns which formerly be-
lieved themselves a great way ofif from anywhere have suddenly

THE NORTHERN COLONIAL AREA

found themselves closely connected with the outside world. The
"Pied Piper" call of the cities, sounding ever louder as western agri-
cultural competition increased, has made many ohlivious to the values
of New England agriculture, so that it is relatively in an undeveloped
state. The Colonial area has all the facilities for a big future in
the open country. It has a splendid system of highways and it has
better markets than any area in America. The soil is far from ex-
hausted and is capable of more intensive cultivation. Agricultural
colleges are relatively more numerous than elsewhere and are well
equipped.

The natural beauty of this area has been responsible for the an-
nual pilgrimage of multitudes of pleasure-seekers to certain favored
regions, a circumstance which has changed the entire social struc-
ture of some rural communities. In many other localities the coming
of the foreigner onto the land has created a new order in every
phase of community life. Much has been heard of the abandoned
farms, of isolation breeding degeneracy, of fields going fallow, of
rural life tending toward the development of a backward American
peasantry. The other side is told by L. H. Bailey in "The Country
Life Movement." He looks forward to the dawn of a new day in
agriculture of the like of which the world has never dreamed. He
says: 'I have no fear of the abandoned farms. Little of the older
land is worn out. Some of the best farm values now lie in the old
east and south. In some cases farms are not being abandoned
rapidly enough, but they will all be used in good time, and we shall
need them." His prophecy has begun to be fulfilled. Evidences of
reconstruction are seen in the newly developed friendly relationships
between town and country ; in the scientific reforestation and culti-
vation of the soil ; in the effective activities of the agricultural agen-
cies, and also in the very spirit of the farmers themselves. It is with
the effect of these changes upon the social and especially upon the
religious life that this study will deal.

These counties also illustrate many of the problems which char-
acteristically beset country churches in a changing social and eco-
nomic order. Here we have the familiar story of declining influ-
ence, of weak organizations insufficiently manned and poorly
equipped, of a shifting pastorate meagerly paid, of fields over-
churched and fields overlooked, of inadequate programs and a too
easy acceptance of the limitations of a difficult situation. But the
survey also reveals various roads of progress opening before the
churches which are prepared to follow them and has examples to
cite of churches which have found the way out.

Chapter II
THE THREE COUNTIES

TYPICAL NEW ENGLAND

OF the three counties under consideration, Addison is the most
typical of "The Man with the Hoe." It is entirely rural in
its make-up. Middlehury, the largest community and county
seat, has less than 3,000 inhabitants and though it is the hub of the
entire county and the center of its culture, industry and social life,
it is still essentially a farmers' town. Wander along the main
street, with its huge elms ; observe through their branches the proud,
slender spire of the sturdy Colonial church keeping watch over the
village from the brow of the hill ; stop a moment and count the sleepy
farm horses waiting patiently at the line of old-time hitching posts
by the Common. This is New England indeed. The traveler looking
out over the county in its entirety is reminded of the old Shake-
spearian stage with its three distinct levels. The Green Mountains
and the heavily forested hills rise out of the east. The central level
presents rolling lands, steep, stony hillsides and pastures within the
limits of whose scraggly stone walls graze numerous cattle. The
western level slopes gently down to the rich, fertile valley of Lake
Champlain, whose farms are the pride of all New England.

The early history of this region is marked by the many cjuarrels
of Iroquois and Algonquins whose homes and favorite hunting
grounds bordered the shores of Lake Champlain. The first white
settlement was made in 1731 at Chimney Point, in what is now the
town of Addison. The county remembers scenes played upon her
stage by the Green Mountain boys and by such heroes as Ethan
Allen and Commodore MacDonough. Vergennes was the site of the
speedy building of the fleet with which MacDonough defeated the
British at Plattsburgh in 1814. Tradition, history and romance
cluster thick about this beautiful valley, through which the tides of
war and trade and travel have surged back and forth for three hun-
dred years. As industry succeeded conflict, the rough lands were
made productive, and now for nearly a century this region has been
a center of peaceful communities.

Immigration did not start in earnest until after the signing of

THE THREE COUNTIES

the Declaration of Independence. Then settlers began to pour mto
the valley, lured by the fertility of the soil and the possibilities for
mills and industry afforded by the heavy forests and the splendid
water power of Otter Creek. In the first census, taken in 1791, six
years after the organization of Addison County, there were 6,489

TYPICAL NEW ENGLAND
Congregational Church at Middlebury, Vt.

inhabitants. From that time up to 1880 the population steadily in-
creased. Since then there has been, however, a decline of 30 per
cent., checked only by the influx of French Canadians who have
bought so many of the old farms.

Addison County is primarily agricultural. The land is well
drained by the several small rivers and streams which rise in the
eastern hills and flow in a westerly direction to empty into Lake

THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES

Champlain. Buckwheat flourishes and nature has wisely provided
plenty of maple syrup, which, the nation knows, is second to none.
Dairying is the chief industry and quantities of milk are shipped to
Boston and New York. Hay and forage are important money crops.
This is the home of the Morgan horse, and the "banner county" for
the raising of Merino sheep. Farms occupy more than three-fourths
of the land area. One of the chief handicaps to the county's growth
and progress is its lack of adequate transportation facilities, there
being only one railroad in its entire area. The summer tourist has
done much to bring about the improvement of highways, which for
the most part are very good, though 45 per cent, are common dirt

WHERE BOSTON GETS ITS MILK
The Sheffield Milk Station, Vergennes' largest industrial plant

roads. Industry centers only in the larger communities and consists
of marble-dressing and the manufacture of lumber and lumber
products.

So it is that Addison County makes its strongest appeal to the
nature lover and the true countryman. It is a land of splendid tra-
ditions, of mountains, forests and picturesque drives, and above all,
of well developed farms.

A CROSS SECTION OF AGRICULTURAL NEW YORK

In the very heart of the Finger Lakes region in south-central New
York is a high plateau cut by many picturesque gorges and glens.
This is Tompkins County, with a land area of 476 square miles.

THE THREE COUNTIES

Roughly speaking, there are two types of land in the county. On the
south, the country is hilly but the tops of these hills are nearly level,
though their slopes are steep and even precipitous as they drop down
toward the deeply cut valleys. In the north the country is more

A BEAUTY SPOT OF NEW ENGLAND

gently rolling. Cayuga Lake occupies a deep gorge in the northwest
and receives the stream drainage of the greater part of the area. At
the head of the lake is Ithaca, a city of 17,000 inhabitants and the
county seat from whose hilltops stretches a panorama of lake, hill and
valley that once seen is never to be forgotten. Ten miles north of

THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES

Ithaca are the famous Bridal Veil Falls, dropping 220 feet into a
gorge which is more than a mile long.

The district around the southern end of Cayuga Lake was the
home of the Indians of the same name, one of the tribes of the
Iroquois Confederation. There was some travel through the district
before the Revolution but no permanent settlement. In 1779 Gen-
eral Sullivan's expedition passed through here and camped on the
present site of the city of Ithaca.

In this most picturesque spot eleven men from Kingston, New
York, began the first settlement in what is now Tompkins County.
This was in 1789. The county was organized in 181 7 and named

jnnrs :

WHERE FARMERS ARE PROSPEROUS
High School at Dryden in the best farming district of Tompkins County

for Daniel Tompkins, a governor of the State. The early settlers
came principally from counties of the lower Hudson Valley and
some from New England and New Jersey. The maximum popula-
tion was reached in the year 1840. Decline from that peak has been
checked considerably by the recent immigration of western farmers,
and also of a few foreigners. Most of the latter are engaged in in-
dustry, though some are on farms, especially in the southern part of
the county. These include Bohemians, Finns and Poles.

From an agricultural standpoint, Tompkins County is a fair
average of the counties of New York State, lying between the dairy-
ing region of eastern New York, the fruit section of western New
York and the grain and alfalfa section of central New York. The

THE THREE COUNTIES

soil of the southern part of the county is not naturally fertile, but
some of the foreigners have successfully demonstrated that under
careful management it can produce good crops. The northern half
of the county is richer by nature, its most important products being
milk, hay, potatoes, buckwheat, fruit, eggs, corn, wheat and oats.

Ithaca is the hub of the county. It furnishes a splendid market
for farm products, particularly for fruits and vegetables. The bulk
of the industrial activity of the county is carried on here, though the
industries of Groton, Myers and Portland Point together employ
about an equal number of workers. Ithaca is not only the center of
business and educational interests but it is a city of homes. High
above the city, overlooking Lake Cayuga, stands Cornell University
on the most beautiful campus in America. This consists of nearly
1,500 acres on which there are thirty-five main buildings. Nearly
6,000 students spend the college year here and the summer session
and other courses enroll 3,000 more. Here is also the New York
State College of Agriculture, which has an international reputation
and has had a large influence on the agriculture of the county.

A tourists' paradise

At Glens Falls, the imposing front entrance to Warren County,
someone remarked: "Have you traveled through our entire county?
Then you have beheld scenery that is not surpassed this side of
Switzerland." This section may well be called "The Tourist's
Paradise" for here are the beauty of the Adirondacks and the charm
of historic Lake George and of the smaller inland lakes with their
wooded shores.

The forest lands have made Warren County what it is, for they
have supplied timber for the finely developed industries of Glens
Falls and the cities further south along the Hudson. It is to these
same lands that the county turns for its future when the forests shall
again have grown to usefulness. Agriculture will never be highly
developed here, for the soil is sandy, and where there is fertility
pine grows up in abundance, defying successful production of any
other crop. Nature has been prodigal with beauty, but frugal in
giving fertility to the soil, so that while the summer resort in-
dustry flourishes and provides a not difficult means of livelihood,
farming seems a continued struggle to w^est a mere existence from
an obstinate land.

Warren County was formed from Washington County in 181 3,
and contains 876 square miles of rugged mountain and valley lands.

THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES

In the southern half of the region there are productive level lands
and here the dairying industry has hecome of prime importance.
In the early days this was the hunting ground of the Iroquois In-
dians of whose struggles vivid tales are told. History recounts the
dramatic coming of the Half Moon, north, up the Hudson, and of
Champlain, south, down the Sorel, the English following the one
and the French the other. The war cries that rang through the
forests as a result of the ensuing clash of interests, were not finally
silenced until after the thirteen colonies became one nation. Until
1789 this was frontier land, fit for forays, but not safe for settle-

THE HUB OF THE COUNTY
Picturesque and conservative old Chestertown, a favorite summer resort in W'arren County

ment. After the signing of the Treaty of Paris, the Governor of
New York issued a proclamation welcoming settlers, and sturdy New
Englanders began to migrate to the region until, in 1813, there were
8,000 inhabitants.

From the close of the Civil War to 1910 the population steadily
increased. During the last decade every community except Glens
Falls has, however, decreased considerably. The original stock is
dying out. There is little immigration and scarcely any foreigners
are found outside of Glens Falls. The county is handicapped by
poor railroad facilities, though the Hudson Valley Electric Line
connects Glens Falls with Lake George and Warrensburg and with
the cities to the south. The Delaware and Hudson Railroad runs
through the central part of the county terminating at North Creek.

Highways are splendid. The main thoroughfare from New
York City to Montreal passes through this area, and one may sit
on the hotel veranda at Chestertown and see auto licenses from al-
most everv state in the Union, as the cars go by in endless procession.

THE THREE COUNTIES

At Lake George is the throat of the great system through which all
north-bound traffic must pass.

The industrial development of Warren County belongs to Glens
Falls, where there are at present sixty-eight establishments em-
ploying more than 3,000 people. The rest of the county is largely
holiday country, busy in summer and quiet in winter. Thirty per
cent, of the population are engaged in lumbering, but the summer
industry reigns supreme in this Adirondack region.

Chapter III
THE CHURCHES

ADDISON COUNTY

THE Congregationalists organized the first church in Addison
County in 1785 and hefore 1800 fifteen churches had heen
huih. Detailed figures regarcHng the religious life of the
county hegan with the Federal Census of 1890. At this time there
were 7,014 church memhers of all denominations in a jjopulation of

A REMINDER OF EARLY DAYS
The Congregational Church at Shoreham, Vt., whose organization dates back to 1790

22,277. I" 1906 there were 7,565 members, of whom more than 50
per cent, were Roman Catholics. At the end of the next decade the
Roman Catholic membership had decreased somewhat and the total
church membership numbered 7,581. During the last ten years,
though the population of the county has decreased 6.7 per cent., the
total Protestant membership has increased 14 per cent.

At present there are forty active Protestant church organiza-
tions, all but one of which were organized before 1881. Thirteen
of these are located in villages of from 250 to 2,^00 inhabitants and

THE CHURCHES

the other twenty-seven are in smaller hamlets or in open country dis-
tricts. All of the churches serve a population dependent in one
way or another upon farming. There are also six Roman Catholic
churches, the congregations of which exceed the total Protestant
church membership. There is one Protestant church for every 467
people. Except in one or two villages, there is little overchurching,
and there is very little territory which is not included within the
parish area of some church. All of the organizations own their
church buildings, which have an average value of $15,154 for
village churches and $7,101 for country churches. All of the village
and nineteen of the country churches own parsonages which they
endeavor to keep occupied. Church property is for the most part
in splendid condition.

Thirty -one pastors serve these Protestant churches, five of w^iom
carry on some other occupation in addition to the ministry. One
church has no regular pastor but is served at present by a student.
Every village has a resident pastor and three- fourths of all the
churches have pastors resident within their parishes, an unusually
good showing. Most of the pastors receive salaries which range
from $1,250 to $1,450, if $250 be added to the cash salary as the
estimated yearly value of a free parsonage when provided. The
maximum salary is $2,050 and the minimum is $750. The average is
$1,404 for those giving full time to the ministry and $1,031 for those
also carrying on some other occupation. Here as elsewhere pastoral
changes are frequent. Twenty-nine churches have changed pastors
every three years or oftener. Sixteen pastors, or 42 per cent, of
the total number, report that they have been in their present parishes
one year or less.

The total membership of the forty churches is 3,689, of which
number 75 per cent, are reported resident and active. Only 19 per
cent, are under twenty-one years of age. Addison County's churches
are above the average for a rural county in the proportion of those
having systematic financial methods. Twenty-six churches budget
all the money that they raise and five others use a budget system
in raising money for local expenses. The average per capita contri-
bution for the entire county is $17.61 — $17.15 for village and $18.38
for open country churches.

Foreigners are reported residing in the parishes of twenty-eight
churches, though only in one community has the Protestant
church any foreign members. Thirty-seven churches maintain
Sunday schools, with a total enrollment equal to only 58 per cent, of
the total church membership. On a typical Sunday a little more than

/ >

CHURCH AXD COMMLXlTV MAP

County Boundary

- ^ Community Boundai^
'"""Ne'ighborhood Bounder^

P<ir;.h Boundor^

Pariah A Church ConnpcT.'og Lin#

CircuH of Potior

^Town '©vor 5.000
D Church -Whit.
8 Ch-rch-Celorad

O Ch>lrc1^-Wh;tl «lth Pattor'i Rrsidinci
S Church -Ctlcrfd. with Pastar'i Riii'4cncr

CIV-«uit

4 Poitor'i Rrsidrno without Chi
^ Posforj Reiidtnct without Chui
■ Abandoned Church, a Inacf
IS Sunday School without Church '
B Sundoij School without Church -
g§ Church u&ing School 8ldq.

»rch-H*;t»
■ch-Celorcd
i»e Church
■Whit»
Colored

OF ADDISON COUNTY, VERMONT

THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES

one-half of the entire enroHnicnt attends. The churches do not
suffer from lack of services. Only three hold less than four services
a month. In only two communities are union services held.

Addison County's churches are facing grave problems of small
memberships, declining attendance, widespread indifference and a
lack of united effort.

TRUE TO ARCHITECTURAL TYPE
The Congregational Church at Cornwall, Vt.

TOMPKINS COUNTY

In Tompkins County there are at present, outside of Ithaca, fifty-
seven active Protestant churches, one mission, one non-denomina-
tional organization at the George Junior Republic, one inactive
church, four separate Sunday schools, a Spiritualist organization
and four Roman Catholic churches with 700 or 800 members.

Religious activities began here at an early date. The circuit
riders of the Methodist Episcopal Church and the pastors of the
Baptist, Dutch Reformed and Presbyterian denominations were
early on the ground. In many cases the establishment of churches
antedated township organization. Methodism, now the largest de-
nomination in the comity, struck root in 1797 when the first church
was organized at Lansingville. Thirty-three other churches had
their beginnings during the opening decades of the last century.
Since the Civil War church organization has proceeded very slowly.

Of the fifty-seven Protestant churches twenty-two are in villages

THE CHURCHES

and thirty-five in hamlets or open country. Church equipment is
above the average. There are more buildings with more than one
room than is usual and better social equipment than is found in
the average county, but the most effective use has not been made
of this equipment.

Thirteen villages and sixteen country churches use the budget
system for raising all moneys. Thirty-five churches make an an-
nual every member canvass. The per capita contributions of village
and country churches are $20.36 and $17.91 respectively. The
county average is $19.39.

There are thirty-five pastors in Tompkins County. Twenty-five
churches have pastors resident in their parishes. Twenty-eight
churches have non-resident pastors and four are at present pastor-
less. Only eight of the twenty-eight communities have full-time
resident pastors. Salaries are exceedingly low, the average being
only $1,177.56, estimating the cash value of a free parsonage,
where provided, at $250 a year. The average minister receives some-
what more than this mathematical average but usually not in excess
of $1,100 or $1,200 and free use of a house or its equivalent.

Most pastors regard the future of their congregation as promis-
ing. They all recognize, however, serious problems, among them
the declining and changing population, the increase in the number
of pleasure cars, the lack of resident ministers and of leadership
and cooperation in and among the churches, the small number of
young people, the slowly increasing foreign population and the ex-
isting overchurched conditions.

W^ARREN COUNTY

Warren County has in winter one church to every 354 inhabitants
and in the vacation season one church to every 700 inhabitants. This
fact furnishes the problem that is foremost in the religious life of
the county.

The first religious services in the county were held by a chaplain
of the English Army which was encamped along the shores of Lake
George, in September, 1775. The earliest permanent settlers were
Friends and their first church at Bay Road dates back to 1785. At
present there are forty-seven Protestant churches and seven Roman
Catholic churches in the county outside of Glens Falls. There are
also two non-Evangelical organizations, three missions, one unor-
ganized church, four preaching points and Sunday schools, four
separate Sunday schools, seven inactive and seasonal churches and

CHURCH AND COMMUNITY MAP

OF TOMPKINS COUNTY, N. Y.

THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES

nine abandoned churches. Twenty of the forty-seven organized
Protestant churches are in villages and twenty-seven are country
churches. Half of the total number depend to a greater or less extent
on the summer traffic. Nine diiferent denominations are represented,
the largest number of churches, fifteen, belonging to the Methodist
Episcopal Church. There are eleven communities having one church
each. In the larger centers there is, however, considerable over-
lapping of parishes, and in one case a serious overlapping of two
parishes of the same denomination. Aluch territory is not included
within the parish of any church, especially among the mountains
in the western part of the county. The farms here are scattered
and isolated. The land yields only enough for the farmers' needs
and the drifts in winter prevent traveling. It was said that two
entire townships were absolutely neglected during the winter of
1920 and that no services of any kind were held.

HOW THE

TYPICAL DOLLAR IS RAISED

ADDISON

WARREN TOMPKINS

COUNTY

COUNTY COUNTY

COLLECTION ^^^

COLLECTION

COLLECTION ^^^^^ ENDOWMENT & \^ ^^^B
^^^^^^ IMI5CELLANE0US \ ^^^B

ENDOWMENT & Ih^^^^^^B

J^^^k ''^'^W/i/i/m^^^

MISCELLANEOUS H^^^^^B

^^^^^^^^^^^CRIPTION ////MMMI^^^^^

■

■^^\1 II Uli^^^^^^V

^^^^HV^° V^^^K

JBSCRIPTION

r .7,

^^^^^^^p^PTION

^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^

^^■i^63

ENDOWMENT &

MISCELLANEOUS

.30

All but six of the churches are in good repair, although thirty-one
are still heated by stoves and twenty-four are lighted by oil lamps.
Thirty-five churches are of the traditional one-room type, a preaching
auditorium and nothing more. Thirty church buildings are valued
at $2,500 or less, and only three at more than $10,000.

Twenty-one churches use a budget system and twenty-five con-
duct annual every-member canvasses. At least one-third of the
organizations may be said to be without any organized financial
system, depending upon collections and special appeals for their
support. Twelve churches receive home mission aid amounting in all
to $2,300, $800 of which is received by one circuit, covering a large

THE CHURCHES

CHURCH AND COMMUNITY MAP OF WARREN COUNTY, N. Y.

THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES

and scattered field which is largely mission territory. The per capita
contributions for village and country churches are $25.44 and $22.96
respectively. For the county as a whole, it is estimated, however,
that 30 per cent, of the total receipts are obtained from gifts of
summer people and from miscellaneous sources.

The forty-seven churches command the service (in whole, or in
part) of twenty-six pastors, five of whom also follow other occupa-
tions. Salaries run generally from $1,250 to $1,500. There are no
large circuits and only one pastor serves more than three points.

The total enrollment is 2,480. The average active membership
for village churches is sixty-seven, for country churches only seven-
teen. As the total population is 15,350, this means that only 16
per cent, of the inhabitants are Protestant church members. Only
thirty-six of the forty-seven churches conduct Sunday schools, and
these have a total enrollment of 1,880, or an average of fifty-two
per school.

Every year Warren County grows more popular as a summer
resort. Every year Glens Falls increases in wealth, industry and
community progressiveness. Afifairs are in no way at a standstill.
The land is being extensively reforested. Educational methods are
being improved, and between town and country a better, more
friendly feeling is rapidly growing. There is less suspicion and
more of a spirit of cooperation all along the line. There are no
greater tasks to be accomplished than those presented by the churches
of the county today. If the county boasted only of beauty these
problems might never be unraveled, but fortunately it has also brains
and a well remembered tradition.

Chapter IV
SOCIAL AGENCIES AND ACTIVITIES

IN Addison County, as in nearly every section of America today,
a spirit of unrest is abroad. People are not satisfied with things
as they were. There is desire for better schools, better farms,
better business conditions. As in other sections of the Colonial area,
schools were among the county's first institutions. Since 1845 the

■gOt**'-- "^^P

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- --, «»*.^' "^.r^.,.

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IKA.Nal'uRTATlUN DE LUXE

Part of the caravan that regularly carries the children of the Consolidated School at
New Haven, Vt., to and from their lessons

State of Vermont has seven times made important modifications in
its system of school administration, the present code having been in
effect only six years. Substantial progress toward improvement in
educational methods has been made on the basis of extensive surveys
under the best professional supervision. In Addison County there is
as yet only one consolidated school. There are two junior-senior
high-schools, in one of which forty-eight of the 105 pupils enrolled
are non-resident. At Vergennes is located an Industrial school in
which there are nearly 300 pupils. Within the county there are no
welfare or benevolent institutions or agencies, nor is there a county

THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES

health or nursing association. Plans are under way for a new county
hospital, the funds for which have already been raised.

In twenty-one of the twenty-six communities there are free
public libraries. Newspapers are published in four communities.
As for recreational life, little has been done outside of two or three
of the larger centers to meet the demand. Six communities have
dance-halls, four have moving-pictures, four have organized athletics,
seven have pool-rooms and there are three bands and three orchestras.
Twenty-one lodges in the county have a combined membership of
1,741 and are a chief factor in the promotion of social life. Other
societies ninnber nineteen and include nine women's clubs, a gun

QUITE HAl'I'V, THANK VOU !

The playground at Bristol, Vt., is only one of many boons conferred by the Community

Club

club, the Cedar Lake Boys' Club, a business men's club, the Fort-
nightly Club, four D. A. R. societies, a W. C. T. U. and a country
club. There are fourteen Granges whose memberships total 1,420,
and which are active socially besides taking the lead in aiding eco-
nomic development. In only three communities is the Church con-
sidered a factor in supplying recreational activity. In four-fifths
of the communities the presence of leaders is recognized, although
in the majority community spirit is not in evidence. Middlebury
and Bristol have proved the worth of "getting together" socially
and religiously and in business life, but the more rural districts still
show the need of cooperation, several inactive community clubs being
an evidence of this.

SOCIAL AGENCIES AND ACTIVITIES

Tompkins County presents a marked contrast in that it is splen-
didly organized. The Grange and the Farm and Home Bureaus are
the leading farmers' organizations. There are eighteen Granges
with 2,200 members. Half of them own their halls. The County
Farm Bureau has been largely instrumental in organizing the Dairy-
men's League, the County Sheep Growers' Association, the Guernsey
Club, the Holstein Club and the Market Gardeners' Association, and
is of constant assistance in their work. The County Home Bureau
has 900 members and is developing interest in many directions, one
being the travelling libraries in rural communities. It cooperates
with the Red Cross in encouraging health work and hot lunches in
schools, and is working with some of the churches. Its program
covers a wide range of activities, including household management,
recreation and civics, and does for the rural home what the Farm
Bureau does for the farm.

Of twenty-eight rural communities in Tompkins County all but
one report one or more leaders. Not all of them, however, have as
yet been able to unite their localities so that they possess that in-
tangible but valuable quality known as community spirit. This seems
to be present in only fourteen communities. The county has an
excellent school system. The Red Cross in 1920 had 8,685 members,
of whom 3,270 were in rural centers.

There are a Tuberculosis Sanitarium in the county and a nurse
who works throughout the area in locating cases and assisting in
their treatment. A summer Preventorium devoted to the building
up of under-developed children is at South Lansing. Ithaca has an
endowed children's home. The Ithaca Women's Clubs have recently
purchased a large residence in the heart of the city which has been
converted into a real Community House. Many rural women belong
to this Federation and the County Home Bureau and W. C. T. U.
use the building constantly. The George Junior Republic at Freeville
has attracted nation-wide attention by its successful attempt to teach
self-government, self-control and the dignity of labor to young
people between the ages of sixteen and twenty-one, who otherwise
might remain useless members of society. It is financed by fees and
gifts and is one of the most remarkable industrial and educational
communities in the country. There is also a well kept County Home.
A State Home for dependent families is being erected by the State
Odd Fellows Lodge.

Even Calf Clubs and Farm Bureaus furnish social life for their
members to an unusual degree in this county. Commercial amuse-
ments center largely at Ithaca. Only four communities have moving-

THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES

picture theaters, and there are but seven pool-rooms. Dancing seems
to be the most popular form of recreation. Thirty-one lodges have
2,288 members and are very active. The W. C. T. U. has twenty-
five local Unions and 1,500 members. It has also ten young people's
branches with 107 members. There are sixty -one other societies
and clubs having more than 2,700 members, showing that rural
Tompkins County is not lacking in varied social activities. Every
community has one or more places for recreation and one or more
social organizations, but in most cases there is no definite plan for
promoting this phase of community life.

In Warren County there is no influence for social development
greater than that of the Farm Bureau. Not only does it aid in

DOES IT PAY TO ADVERT1SI-:

agricultural enterprise but it also provides many social occasions,
conducts a song school and holds a large number of successful
community meetings. Less than half of the twenty-eight communi-
ties acknowledge the presence of community spirit, developed chiefly
by the summer population, the Farm Bureau, the churches and the
schools. Nineteen communities report leaders. Social life is plenti-
ful in summer, but sadly lacking at other times of the year. Deer
hunting is the chief sport in the fall. There are only three Granges
and only thirteen active Lodges, although their membership numbers
nearly 2,000. In only four communities is the church mentioned as
a factor in social activity. Summer hotels are used for occasional
dances and parties. Now and then a lodge-hall, school or town-hall
will be found serving as a social gathering place, but in winter social

SOCIAL AGENCIES AND ACTIVITIES

activities are scarce indeed. Seven communities have halls for
dancing, six have moving-picture theaters, and six have pool-rooms.
Three communities have organized athletics and there is one howling-
alley.

Schools in the rural districts are generally of the one-room type,
lacking in modern equipment. At Silver Bay the conference build-
ings are used in winter by a Preparatory School for Boys, the en-
rollment of which is seventy-five. Bolton has a private school for
girls with fifty pupils. There are libraries in only six of the twenty-
eight communities. There is only one newspaper published outside
of Glens Falls, the County Weekly at Warrensburg.

Health w^ork is well organized at Glens Falls and more is being
done each year among the rural inhabitants. The Warren County
Committee for Prevention of Tuberculosis is conducting vital work
and organizing educational activities. A commendable program has
recently been adopted, and there are hopes for a fresh-air camp for
under-nourished children. At Glens Falls is located the tri-county
Blind Home which cares for patients of Warren, Washington and
Saratoga counties. The Red Cross, since the War, is directing its
etTorts toward aiding ex-service men throughout the county. The
county has a poor farm located at Warrensburg and consisting of
about 200 acres. The Associated Charities direct their attention
chiefly to Glens Falls, except on urgent call from outside.

Of the three counties under consideration, Tompkins alone is ade-
quately organized to meet the needs of the health and the social and
recreational life of its people. Addison County has only two well
organized communities and Warren County, outside of Glens Falls,
is more or less indifferent to the need of organized endeavor for
public welfare.

Chapter V
FOLK DEPLETION AND MISSED OPPORTUNITIES

VITAL changes have taken place within the rural regions of
the Colonial area during the last decade. The 1920 census
shows that every state in New England except Massachusetts
has declined considerably in rural population, and even in Massachu-
setts it is likely that the farming districts have lost population. Rural
New York State reports a decline of 6.9 per cent, and the Vermont
figures show a loss of 5.7 per cent. Of the three counties under
consideration Warren County has declined the most rapidly, there
being hardly any immigration and little foreign influx outside of
Glens Falls. The death-rate exceeds the birth-rate and young people
still continue to flock to the cities. Warren County reports a decrease
of nearly 12 per cent, in rural population, while Tompkins County
declined 1 1 per cent, and Addison 7 per cent, in the last census period.
For the entire Colonial area there was a decrease in the number
of farms of 11 per cent, for the last decade as against a decrease of
only 2 per cent, during the preceding ten years. New York and
Vermont reported a decrease approximating the average for the area.
In Addison, Tompkins and Warren counties the loss in the number
of farms was from 11 to 15 per cent., there being 122,874 acres less
in farms in the three counties today than a decade ago. On the
other hand, wherever there is industrial growth there has been in-
crease in population. Ithaca increased one-seventh and Glens Falls
nearly one-tenth during the last ten years, the rate of growth having
been somewhat accelerated in Ithaca and considerably retarded in
Glens Falls as compared with the previous decade. Five agricultural
villages in the three counties which have some industrial interests
are growing ; but, of the seven hill towns of Addison County only
one increased in population during the decade aiid that only slightly
because of increased lumber industry. Thirteen of the sixteen valley
towns in the same county declined. The great cityward surge has
continued now for more than two centuries. The people of the coun-
try districts have answered the call of industry and the city. Migra-
tion has far exceeded normal proportions.

The agricultural colleges are endeavoring to give back to the

FOLK DEPLETION AND MISSED OPPORTUNITIES

country its share of efficient workmen. Every year sincere students
of the soil, a surprising numher of them city born and bred, are
turning from the crowd toward what they are sure is a better future
in the open country. There is an increasing number of more pro-
gressive farmers, husbandmen indeed, who have achieved agricul-
tural success and have by wise, fair methods checked migration from
their farms. For example, there is a successful farm in the foothills
of the Berkshires, which has been in the hands of the same family
for three generations. The family consists of father, mother and
two sons, both of whom are now young men. The father, having
been elected a Representative to the Legislature, and needing more
free time to fulfill his political duties, wisely placed his farm in the

AN UP-TO-DATE FARMER
The racing car brings the advantages of the city within easy reach of the farm

hands of his two sons and gave them the complete management of it.
Unlike too many farmers, he has always paid his boys a generous
sum each week, and under the new arrangement he raised their
salaries. In addition, he gave them money with which to buy an
automobile for their own use. They bought a racing car. They
know that there are no city wages higher than their own, for they
have been there to find out. If they wish to enjoy what advantages
the city offers, the racer is at their service ; but as a matter of fact
they do not care for city life. Their land is fertile ; their crops are
the pride of the community. The sense of ownership and the fact
that they hold responsible positions have kept these boys contented
on the farm. Though both are less than twenty-five years of age,
they are already well established in a business that pays.

THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES

Successful experiments of the kind described may help to check
the exodus from the more productive lowlands. In the hills, on the
other hand, farming is beset with many difficulties, and there de-
pletion is still going on and will doubtless continue. In the eastern
half of Addison County, for example, the seven hill towns previously
referred to, whose total population now numbers only 3,245, declined

W HERE EDUCATION LAGS
A school in the abandoned farm region in the hills of Vermont

more than three times as rapidly as the valley towns of the same
county during the last ten years. Here the farms are usually too
small for modern methods of cultivation. Many are overgrown with
stubble or consist of run-out land, where the only hope of future
prosperity lies in reforestation. Foreigners have not been attracted
by them. Young people are few and the ambitious have long ago
departed. Schools are inadequately equipped. No lodges are active
and no social organizations make any consistent efforts to bring
people together oven to talk things over. Grange suppers arid

FOLK DEPLETION AND MISSED OPPORTUNITIES

occasional dances alone break the monotony of life in the hills. The
churches are weak and are declining rapidly in membership, interest
and attendance. Of the ten hill-town churches, just one (a Fed-
erated church) has gained in members during the last decade. Al-
though none are pastorless at present, seven of them have each had
five or more pastors during the last ten years. Not one of them
has retained the same pastor for that length of time while three have
had eight and one has had ten pastors during the decade.

One would suppose that the salaries of pastors in the larger, more
thrifty valley churches would greatly exceed those paid by these
weak and declining hill-town churches. The margin of advantage
is, however, only lo per cent. The average salary paid to the hill
church pastor is $1,203 and to the valley church pastor $1,324, while
the average for the entire county is only $1,321, It is interesting
to note that the average annual per capita contribution toward
salaries is larger in hill churches than in valley churches, $15.70 as
compared with $12.23. The average church devotes more than three-
fourths of its total income to its pastor's salary, giving only 12 per
cent, for benevolences, and has an average annual per capita con-
tribution for all purposes of $20.04. I11 this matter of per capita
giving for all church purposes the hill churches, with an average of
$22.31, have again a marked advantage over the valley churches in
which the average is only $16.77, which seems to indicate that the
greater the struggle to live the greater the sacrifice a church's mem-
bership will make.

In the relative frequency of churches there is not much difference
between the two sections. There is one church for every 467 persons
in the hill communities and for every 510 persons in the valley
communities.

Only two of the hill churches are self-supporting, the other eight
receiving Home Mission aid to the total amount of $1,487, or an
average of $186 per church. Half of these churches have active
memberships of twelve or less and only one church (Federated)
has more than fifty active members. The membership of all ten
churches includes 108 families, four-fifths of whom live in purely
rural districts. Only forty-eight boys and girls are on the rolls and
four churches report no young people whatever. During last year
two churches gained twelve members, four others lost seventeen and
four remained stationary. There are no organizations for men, boys
or girls in these ten churches, though in nine of them the Ladies'
Aids are as usual quite active. As to the future there seems to be
little hope. Pastors and leading laymen regard indifference and

THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES

isolation as their chief problems. Where leadership is lacking, there
is always a lack of incentive to follow. Where there are few young
people, the older people inevitably lack ambition and social advan-
tages mean little. Religion becomes a task which often is left
undone. So much for the hill towns.

A different situation is found on a visit to five agricultural
communities, three in Addison and one in each of the New York
counties, which are developing not only along agricultural but also
along industrial lines. Their combined population is about one-
fourth of the total rural population of the three counties and includes
more than 800 foreigners. During the last decade they have in-
creased in population 5 per cent. One thousand seven hundred and
twenty-five people are employed in the several industrial plants,
1,050 of them in one community. All five of these more enterprising
communities have adequate leadership and all but one manifest con-
siderable community spirit. Each according to its make-up is well
organized in its social, religious and economic life.

In one community, life revolves principally around the Corona
Typewriter Corporation, which maintains an employees' club, a band
and a gymnasium. Organized athletics are conducted by the cor-
poration which is to employ a paid director of sports who will also
serve the schools and townspeople. A new school has recently been
built in which community rooms are an important factor. In another
community, lodge activities are most prominent. Still another is domi-
nated by the college close at hand, and this community is not only the
county seat and chief shipping point but is the hub of its entire county.
Social life is not wanting and the women's clubs have been a moving
power in bringing about a splendid cooperative spirit in the village.
Another community, lying in a deep valley in the Green Mountains,
has an organization of men of which it may well be proud. Its
members are business and church men and through their efforts
much civic improvement has been made possible. A park, which
is also a community playground, in the center of the village is one
evidence of their successful, unselfish endeavor. The fifth com-
munity is the smallest city in the United States and the third oldest
in New England. A very typical Vermont village is this, with fine
ideals and worthy traditions, but not easily adapted to change. The
beautiful old buildings stand in striking contrast to the fine new
library on the main street and very clearly typify the problem which
is slowly being solved here, a struggle between the old and the new,
evidenced not only in its industrial and social but more especially

FOLK DEPLETION AND MISSED OPPORTUNITIES

in its religious life. The D. A. R. and women's clubs are influential
and the lodge and Grange have also large memberships.

The churches in these five communities are a good deal above the
average in their organizations. There are twenty churches, which
are surely too many, though three-fourths of them have more than
fifty members each. Including five Roman Catholic churches, there
is one church for every 491 persons in these communities. During
the last decade, 50 per cent, of the Protestant churches have in-
creased considerably in membership, and last year nine churches
made a net gain. Salaries paid to pastors show the same unfair,
low average as in all the communities in the three counties. The
maximum salary is only $1,800 and the average salary only $1,178,
a pitifully low sum for a thriving community to expect any self-
respecting family to live on in these days of high prices. Each of
the tw^enty churches has a resident pastor, in fifteen cases on full time
and in five instances serving two points each. With fewer churches
memberships might be strengthened sufficiently to pay the pastors
adequate salaries.

These contrasts already shown between the less favored hill
towns and those more fortunate agriculturally and industrially in-
dicate the efifects which these economic factors have upon church
and community life. What such a situation means in the aggregate
can be conceived only through a glimpse at the whole picture.

There are in the three counties eighty-two well-defined communi-
ties, and 93 per cent, of them are declining in population. Sixteen
communities have populations of 200 or less. Twenty report that
there are no leaders among them, and more than half show no
evidence of community spirit. But if community life has been
undermined by depletion, religious life is threatened with extinction.
Of the 144 churches in the three counties, 61 per cent, have remained
at a standstill or declined in membership during the last ten years.
More than one- fourth of them have now twenty-five members or
less; two-thirds have fifty members or less. Addison County has
sufifered the largest loss in church membership during the past year.
Of its forty churches eleven gained eighty-five members, but fifteen
churches lost ninety-nine members and fourteen churches remained
stationary. That is to say, nearly three-fourths of the county's
churches are declining or are barely holding their own, and there was
a net loss of fourteen members from all churches during the year.

In view of the abandoned farms, it is not surprising to find that
there are thirty abandoned church buildings in the three counties.
Some have been closed because no members were left in the parish,

THE COUNTRY CHURCH IX COLONIAL COUNTIES

some because of nearness to the city or to a stronger church of the
same denomination, others simply for lack of support and interest.
Some of these abandoned churches are being used as lodge or grange
halls, but many of them seem to be waiting. For what? Perhaps
till the time when the community house ceases to be a dream. There
are church organizations everywhere with inadequate equipment for
any sort of recreational program. With a little renovating and
rearrangement some of the abandoned church buildings might well
till the need of a real "meeting house" where neighbors should
become acquainted.

THE CHURCHES AND THEIR MEMBERSHIPS

11 Q

Churches r-u :..u.-

n r-i

Under 50-100 100-150 Oyzr
50 150

MEMBERSHIP

Two-thirds of the churches have less than 50 members

Besides the abandoned churches, there are the inactive churches.
There are seven in Warren County whose organizations are still
intact, though no services are held in them except possibly in summer.
Members of the majority of these attend the services of other de-
nominations during the winter or until they can procure regular
pastors. They are all in communities too small to support more
churches than are now holding services, but no organized effort is
made to have their members regularly support the churches which
they have taken to attending. The result is that no sooner have
they become interested in the services of other churches than their
own churches are once more opened for the summer. These, how-
ever, seldom have regular pastors. Usually they are served by a

FOLK DEPLETION AND MISSED OPPORTUNITIES

student supply, which comes and goes and serves only to keep alive
the smoldering fire of denominational loyalty.

GAIN AND LOSS IN MEMBERSHIP

SUMMER RESORT AND INDUSTRIAL COMMUNITY CHURCHES

SUMMER RESORT
CHURCHES

INDUSTRIAL COMMUNITY
CHURCHES

36%

REMAINED

STATIONARY

CHART ni

A situation of this kind is indefensihle from any point of view.
In all instances where there are inactive churches, there are other

GAIN AND LOSS IN MEMBERSHIP

AGRICULTURAL COMMUNITY CHURCHES

13°/o
REMAINED
STATIONARY

MORE FAVORED
COMMUNITIES

LESS FAVORED
COMMUNITIES

39%
LOST

CHART IV

churches active throughout the year. The only hope of the small,
weak churches in Warren County is in united effort, not only for a
few months during the winter hut throughout the year; not in a

THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES

half-hearted, indifferent attendance, but in a genuine spirit of
cooperative rehgious enthusiasm. If denominationaHsm ceased to
run so high there might be many a successful community church like
that at Chestertown. and the buildings closed thereby would be
available for additional equipment in carrying out a real community
church program, so much needed in Warren County. Church ad-
ministrators carry a heavy responsiljility in so far as they perpetuate
this situation or even allow it to drag along.

Within rural Glens Falls there are five abandoned churches, and
the question arises: "What is the relation of a growing city to its
surrounding area? What is its killing range vs. its service range?"

Cities as a rule are still quite indifferent as to the services just
outside their limits. Until recently, there has l)een little cooperation
of any sort between Glens Falls and the outlying country. On the
other hand. Ithaca, with her cooperative agencies well established
and her fine roads leading out in all directions into the rural dis-
tricts, has related herself in a friendly and very helpful way to the
entire county. Striking contrasts have been brought to light by the
survey of the areas surrounding these two busy industrial centers,
not only in their social l)ut especially in their religious life.

Within a six-mile radius of Ithaca there is just one abandoned
church. There are six well organized churches, five of which are of
Alethodist and one of Baptist denomination. Though pastorates
have been short during the last ten years none of these churches is
at present pastorless and none is receiving home mission aid. ]\Iem-
berships are the average size for the county, only one church having
less than fifty members. The Sunday school enrollment equals 95
per cent, of the total resident membership. This situation is, how-
from farm homes. These rural churches are organized on a sound
financial basis. All but one use a budget system and all hold annual
every-member canvasses for the systematic raising of funds. A net
gain of six members was made by three churches during last year.
Though their programs are meager, three have the use of stereopti-
cons occasionally and one church reports special meetings with
speakers from the Agricultural College. None of the churches has
organizations for men. boys or girls, although these constitute 53
per cent, of the total church roll, and 55 per cent, of the pupils are
ever, not unusual in the three counties, all of which are negligent
in organizing church social life for their people. Rural Ithaca at
least names the church as its main institution and boasts of com-
munity spirit and cooperation among its peo])le. It is evident that
Ithaca is not "living unto herself alone." We find her banks, stores,

FOLK DEPLETION AND MISSED OPPORTUNITIES

schools, and all her cooperative forces giving aid to the rural area,
furnishing a market for its product, capital for its agricultural en-
terprises, and welcome to its citizens.

Glens Falls presents a different situation. The city, unlike Ithaca,
is situated at the very southeast corner of the county and helongs
partly in other counties. Agriculturally, Warren County has been
unable to furnish any great supply for the city. She has given
timber, and in time will give it again. She has also given citizens
to the industries in Glens Falls. It is, however, only recently that
this busy, industrial, growing city has been moved to give anything
back to the rural areas, and it is the Church which has just seen the
needs of the neglected fringe of the city. In the rural area about
Glens Falls is a good farming district in which more than i,ooo
people are resident. There are just three organized churches, all
of which are at present very weak and irregular in their activities.
There is no resident regular pastor in the entire area, but services
are held at seven points, and during the last year the associate
pastor of the Glens Falls Presbyterian Church has held services
every Sunday at as many points as possible.

In one parish there are more than forty children, but only a
dozen attend Sunday school. Two of the leading church members
are at present holding mission study classes and endeavoring to keep
the organization together. One of them remarked : "We need a
young pastor and a regular Sunday school superintendent, who can
wake up the young people." Several of these points — an unorgan-
ized church, the County Line Mission, etc. — have been served by
"anyone who would come." At one point midweek services are
very successfully carried on. Much unselfish service has been ren-
dered in the entire area by laymen and interested neighboring pas-
tors. It is, however, the vision of the Presbyterian church at Glens
Falls that has instituted "the larger parish" plan which will reopen
some of these weak, struggling churches, put them on a systematic
basis and place a regular pastor in the area. The type of pastor
needed is one who will be disinterested denominationally and will
really get acquainted with the people, not only from a religious but
from a social point of view.

The foregoing pages point to the development of a closer co-
operation in mutual interest and understanding between farm and
community, between religion and society, between town and country.
The farmer will perhaps succeed in inducing his sons and daughters
to remain willingly on the farm, but the churches also have their
part to play in interesting these boys and girls in live programs and

THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES

dynamic recreational activities as well as in preaching sermons to
them on Sundays. With the activities of the churches the life of
the rural community rises or falls. It must be expected that those
fitted to forward industrial activities will go where industry is;
but there are others who might succeed in the country and who
would lose the urge of the city if some of the advantages offered
by the city were brought to them in the country. Above all other
agencies the Church is best fitted to assume leadership in the task
of revitalizing the community life of rural America.

Chapter VI
FOREIGNERS ON THE LAND

FOREIGNERS are found in all but nine of the communities
of Addison and Tompkins counties. Thirty-one per cent, of
the urban and 19 per cent, of the rural populations of the
three counties are foreign-born or of immediate foreign extraction.
Of the total number of foreigners in the rural areas, 45 per cent,
are in Addison, 33 per cent, are in Tompkins and 22 per cent, are
in Warren County. In the last county they are chiefly engaged in
the garnet mines at North River or are resident in Graphite, where
mines were formerly in operation. There are hardly any foreigners
on the farms of Warren County.

Whether the foreigners are engaged on the farms or are indus-
trially employed, their presence raises serious problems in religion,
society and education. Little has been done in the way of American-
ization outside the larger centers. Class distinction is strong. The
majority of churches report that the foreigners attend the Roman
Catholic church "if any," which seems to indicate a general indiffer-
ence toward this incoming population and little intelligent effort to
reach it. These foreigners have, however, done much toward bring-
ing rural life back to its own, economically if not socially, and among
them are many scientific farmers.

In a certain community in Massachusetts are two farms side by
side. One is owned by a typical American and the other by a
Polish peasant farmer. The two are equally productive at the
present time. The Polish farmer landed in America only six years
ago. He worked for two years on the American's farm. He saved
money and he observed the methods used by the American, who
has lived all his life here. Today this Pole owns his own farm, fills
his own silo, cuts his own tobacco, for which he gets prices envied
by his American neighbor. He has his own home and a thriving
young family. He is a good citizen and is quite typical of a large
percentage of farmers in that region.

The French Canadian continues, as of old, to trust in the land
of the Champlain Valley, in Addison County, and in ever increasing
numbers he is buying up farms and settling there. In consequence,

THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES

the membership of five Roman CathoHc churches now exceeds that
of forty Protestant churches. Everywhere is felt the growing
strength of the Canadian influence. The French Canadian is loyal
to his own church to a degree which might well he duplicated by
Protestants.

Some assimilation might be attained on a purely human basis if
denominationalism did not run so high and if the Golden Rule were
more definitely practiced. Successful inter-racial cooperation has
been developed in Middlebury by the Federation of Women's Clubs
whose committees take turns visiting in the homes of the foreign-
born. Sincerity has won these New Americans. If they desire to
learn English, classes are arranged. In the home of one of the
town leaders there was a beautiful bowl of flowers on the table.
They were the gift of "an Italian friend" of the hostess. She had
come with her large family on Sunday afternoon, had talked of
current happenings, strolled through the garden, and enjoyed the
new records on the phonograph. There are few homes in which
such hospitality is to be found. The habit of following the line of
least resistance and indifiference is too much a matter of course.
Especially in rural New England, people need to "thaw out" in their
attitude toward their leaders, toward each other, and toward the
stranger within their yates.

Chapter VII
THE PROBLEM OF THE SUMMER RESORT

EVERY summer Warren County is host to more than 15,000
visitors. The normal year-round population is douljled. Ten
communities, containing ahout half the rural population of
the county, are dependent to some extent upon the summer visitor.
The more enterprising communities make great preparations. The
stores with their summer stock become quite up-to-date shops. All
the business resources are assembled. Some of the people rent rooms
or furnish board. Others run automobiles to "any place you want
to go." Everywhere, everyone hustles to entertain the "city folks"
in the best possible fashion, on the lakes, through the shaded drives,
over the mountains or in the tea-rooms. For all this the summer
folk pay and so do the winter folk. September comes and the
vacationist returns home. The year-round residents, with their
easily earned incomes, begin to turn in for the season and all social
life comes to a sudden standstill like a clock run down. The curtains
of the gift shops are drawn for the season. Tea-rooms become
restaurants or go out of business. Automobiles are glad to take
traveling men from town to town and to attend funerals once again.
Some of the inhabitants take to the woods and go to lumbering.
Others, like one well-to-do taxi man, "do not worry," having laid
aside a sum of "between $6,000 and $7,000 in two months."

And what of the churches? In a good many cases they have
been nearly wrecked. During the summer their pews have been
filled with wealthy visitors. The resident congregation has been
necessarily kept away from services to see that the guests' dinners
are properly prepared. Different pastors give different versions of
the effect upon their organizations. One pastor sighed and shook
his head. "If the summer folks would stay at home," he said, "we
might be able to manage the winter ones." On the other hand, a
certain Episcopal rector remarked that if it were not for the summer
people his church would have to close. In the words of Joseph
Lincoln, the summer residents live on the lands about Lake George,
and the "natives live on the summer residents." They depend on
them not only for their daily bread, but for the support of their
churches.

THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES

On the surface the resort churches seem to be better off finan-
cially than those in non-resort communities. A good many churches
do not make up their budgets until after the vacation season. Sum-
mer guests are, as a rule, regular attendants at services and liberal
with their collections. In non-resort communities the churches raise
seven-eighths of their funds by subscription. Those in resort centers
depend largely on collections, more than a third of their money
being raised by this means. The non-resort churches exceed the
resort churches in average per capita contribution toward benevo-
lences. The average per capita expenditure is $26.99 ^^^ the resort
church and only $21.94 in non-resort churches. Pastors' salaries
in resort churches range from $975 to $2,500, averaging $1,557,
which is larger than the average for the county. In non-resort
churches the average is $1,225.

The task of the summer pastor is not easy. He must please two
entirely different congregations. At the end of each season there
comes a sudden change. The year-round congregation has become
disorganized. Programs so easily carried out with the summer life
in the community, become impossible because their leaders have
returned to the cities. They came here to play, familiar with organ-
ized life and full of novel ideas, not afraid to express them and put
them into practice. The country folk under their leadership found
it easy to play with them. The guests have failed to do the real
service of developing local leaders. In October, when a question
was put concerning the social life of village and church under ordi-
nary winter conditions, there were shakings of the head and replies
of "nothing doing," or "not during tbe winter."

A survey of the twenty-two churches affected by summer traffic
shows that only three interest themselves in civic affairs, four aim
to aid in agricultural enterprise, eight have socials, three have study
classes or other educational programs and three bave entertainments
of some sort. Only four have any organizations for men, three of
these holding joint meetings and proving a vital moving force in the
community. Twelve churches have Ladies' Aids and only five have
organizations for young men and women, while there is not a single
club or society for boys or girls. Yet the net active membership of
these twenty-two churches is 1,010, nearly one-third of whom are
young people under twenty-one years of age. There are more than
300 young people in the summer resort churches wondering each
fall what to do until next summer when "life" will begin again.
They will demand recreation. Their parents may be tired of the
hurry and the social demands made upon them. They may be

THE PROBLEM OF THE SUMMER RESORT

content without a social program. But the young people will never
be content without it and if it is not provided by the Church they
will find it elsewhere.

It would seem quite natural that the Church should take upon
itself the responsibility of leadership in social affairs of the com-
munity in winter as well as in summer. In the ten communities
where vacationists gather there are only four libraries. Only one
grange is active and in only four communities are there lodges. If
the churches were better business organizations they would be found
getting together to form some sort of organized program, realizing
that here is an opportunity to make good. It is a new field ripe for
cultivation. The summer folks have sown the seed and demonstrated
the value of cooperation. It is not fair that the vacationists should
have had all the fun. But there must be permanent leadership to
organize the new ideas and not new leadership every season or
oftener. Pastoral changes are all too frequent in these communities.
Two-thirds of the churches in the resorts have had three or more
difl^erent pastors each during the last decade. Four have had five
pastors, one has had seven and one has changed pastors eight times.
It is no wonder then that half the churches are either stationary or
declining in membership. Fourteen out of the twenty-two churches
have memberships of fifty or less, although in the ten communities
where they are located there are 371 persons for every church.

Only 12 per cent, of the total population of these summer resort
communities are included in the net active membership of the
churches. To be sure some of the communities scarcely exist except
during the summer, and then several of them have large Roman
Catholic and other non-Protestant populations. In a county where
farms are so scattered and parishes stretch far out into the hills it
is almost impossible to get people together unless there is a sufficiently
interesting center of activity. The Farm Bureau has proved of
unquestionable value in breaking down barriers of that type of
indifference which is caused by isolation. It should be the task of
the churches, not only in summer, but in winter to supply similar
programs of such calil^er as to bring together old and young for
social as well as religious activity. Whether it be stereopticon lec-
tures or socials, suppers, amateur theatricals or musicales, it is for
the leaders of rural churches to consider. Recreation there must
be, and if it is supplied by the Church as a center the entire com-
munity gains both socially and spiritually.

Chapter VIII
WHAT DO THE YOUNG PEOPLE NEED?

THE Farm and Home Bureaus in most counties have asked
themselves this question and set out to tind the answer.
So too have some of the churches, though too few have paid
sufficiently serious attention to the prohlem. Tompkins and Addison
counties are experimenting under the auspices of Farm and Home
Bureaus along ditYerent lines of cluh activity with boys and girls.
There are calf clubs, potato clubs, canning clubs, etc. The Farm
Bureau in /\ddison County was the first in the state to adopt the
plan of family membership, the success of which is not to be doubted.
The voung people share in the activities of their parents and are
not only gaining much information regarding scientific farming but
are learning to be better citizens, to know the value of team work
and to realize that their help is necessary in the making of a better
country life.

In Warren County there is at present no Home Bureau. The
opportunity for the churches is evident. The young people would
gladly welcome any form of program. Twenty-nine per cent, of the
church enrollment is under twenty-one years of age and yet in all
the county there is but one "Soup Club." Such organizations are
not only for the "par churches" of a county, but might be duplicated
in every community. This boys' Soup Club stands for hikes, skat-
ing parties, athletic contests, winter socials, serious talks, friendliness,
and at the end of the program — soup. But it means more. It means
strength and a future for the church of the day after tomorrow.

In the three counties, in addition to a few Boy Scout and Camp
Fire organizations (the value of which must not be under-estimated)
and the usual organizations of ptirely religious character for young
men and women, there are in the churches only seven societies for
boys and six for girls — thirteen social grotips with a membership
of 255, compared with twenty-five societies and clubs outside the
churches with a membership of nearly 2.000. A little less than one-
third of the church members under twenty-one years of age are
active in church organizations. The Epworth League and the
Christian Endeavor are a very great influence in Christian life but

WHAT DO THE YOUNG PEOPLE NEED?

they cannot altogether take the place of the informal, get-together
social cluhs. llie churches lack such activities hecause they are
too satisfied with things as they have always heen. Organizations
outside the church are all the time providing something new, vital,
related to life, and have therefore won to their ranks a large follow-
ing of young people who thrive on "something new." Until the
churches are willing to make serious efforts to appeal to their young
people in a like manner, church organizations for them will not be
popular.

Could the older people encourage the organization of young
people's societies? They most assuredly could if only by the activity
of their own organizations. Concerning the work of the ladies'
societies, nothing need be said. The survey shows that 88 per cent,
of the women on the church roll are active workers in church or-
ganizations. They are, indeed, the pillars of the Church today.
The men have not yet considered to any extent that a socially organ-
ized effort on their part would benefit their churches. There are in
three counties only eleven church organizations for men, enrolling
about one man in every six of the church membership. Twenty-
seven churches out of 144 report no social organizations whatever,
and twenty- four entire communities have no social organizations in
the churches. Contrast this situation wdth that which exists in the
way of community organizations outside the Church. There are
thirty-five granges whose membership is nearly 4,000. There are
sixty-five lodges with 6,029 members (approximately) and in
seventy-three other social and civic organizations there are more
than 5,000 members. It is evident that something is lacking some-
where in the church program.

Here and there are pastors w'ho have solved the problem of or-
ganizing their people for service. For example, in one rural com-
munity of one of these counties there lives a busy pastor of three
churches, one of which is seven and another ten miles from his home.
In order to bring his salary up to a living wage he teaches school
four and one-half miles away, making the trip to and from his
school on foot since two miles of the journey are over mountain
land. He is not only a pastor and a teacher. He is also the local
correspondent for the county paper and special reporter for the
county seat's two newspapers. He plays the cornet in the town band.
He also fills the position of Conference Secretary to the Sunday
School Board. He is the County Superintendent of Sunday schools.
He teaches Sunday school every Sunday and directs a rural teachers'
training class. The main and most vital reason for his success in

A VERSATILE PASTOR

Here is a rural minister whose life is just one long holiday. Above are represented
two of his diversions — playing the cornet in the town band and "hiking" with his Boy
Scouts. His other activities include preaching in three churches, teaching day school and
Sunday School, acting as County Sunday School Superintendent and sitting on various
committees. He devotes his spare time to reporting for two newspapers.

WHAT DO THE YOUNG PEOPLE NEED?

the community lies in his hold upon the young people. He has three
troops of Boy Scouts. They camp together, hike, and hold social
meetings. These boys do not have to be dragged to prayer meetings.
They come to the pastor's house and ask where the meetings are
to be held, and then they attend and take active part in them. When
asked as to how he had managed to break down all barriers and so
solidly gain the absolute confidence of his boys, he said : "Well, when
I was a boy, I remember" — and he needed to say no more.

There should be more leaders of this sort. Rural churches all
but entirely neglect boys' and girls' work. Church and school should
cooperate more closely in the building up of Christian citizenship.
Churches, which have undertaken special work among young people
and tried programs for a long enough time to prove their value,
have realized that through organized effort among boys and girls
comes the larger devotion both in faith and in service for the future.

Chapter IX
OVER- AND UNDERCHURCHING

ONE of the reasons for the small church memberships and for
the decline in attendance is to be found in the overchurching
which exists throughout the area. In Tompkins County this
is especially apparent. The rural population of this county divided

ONE SIDE OF A VILLAGE SQUAkE

The School and the Universalist and Methodist Episcopal Churches at Speedsville,

Tompkins County

by the number of churches gives a proportion of one church to every
332 people. When the Roman Catholic membership is deducted this
figure drops materially. Tv^o communities have five churches each ;
one of the communities has a population of only 900, and not one
of its churches has a resident pastor. Sectarianism is strong enough
to have divided this community and none of the churches has more
than forty-five active members, two having only eleven each. Six

OVER- AND UNDERCHURCHING

strictly rural communities, most of them in the southern part of the
county, have sixteen churches, although in each of these places the
constituency cannot properly support more than one church with a
resident pastor. Some of the observers of the situation frankly state
that the Church would be greatly strengthened if one-third of the
churches in the county were eliminated. Certain it is that parish
lines need to be reorganized, especially within denominations, for
there are certain cases within the county where that least excusable
of overchurching sins is committed — namely, competition between
churches of the same denomination.

.Ki'Will AMI HKCAY

The successful Wesleyan • Methodist Church at Bakers Mills, Warren County, and by
its side the dilapidated Pentecostal Holiness Church still struggling along with a pastor
living in the church building and about a dozen members. The Wesleyan Church would
be still further strengthened if another church of the same denomination, served by the
same pastor, less than two miles away, would consent to close its doors.

The larger communities of Warren County are overchurched.
In one town there are five large Protestant church organizations
besides other smaller groups worshiping separately. The popula-
tion is only 2,500 and only one-fifth are active church members.
The smaller, weaker organizations prove a stumbling block to the
larger ones and they themselves can hope for no more than a static
existence. Lack of unified force makes adequate financial support
an impossibility. Small memberships where the population is not
increasing deprive any church of whole-hearted service. If some
of the small, struggling memberships would join with the stronger
organizations their influence might be more than doubled. Unless
some such step is taken there will surely be continued poverty in

THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES

religious activity. Pastors will continue to "carry on," though ill-
supported, and be forced to follow other occupations besides the
ministry in order to live. Some will give up and join the silent
strikers from the ranks of the ministry.

In one instance, in a purely rural area, there are two churches
of the same denomination holding services within a mile of each
other. They have the same pastor, who serves also another church
not far away. Some of the members of one church live in the parish
of the other and the people at the latter attend service frequently in
the community where the pastor lives rather than in their own, yet
refuse to have their churches united. Thus the service this pastor
might render to one strong church is divided into two parts and he
must hold services for two small, weak congregations instead of for
one large, responsive one. Contrasted with these areas, which have
more churches than they can possibly support, are the neglected
areas. There are three communities in Warren County and one in
Addison County, with a total population of 549, having neither
church service nor Sunday schools. There are not enough people in
any one of the four to support a pastor and drifted roads in winter
make traveling next to impossible. The consequence is that these
people, excepting a few in one community who sometimes attend a
school-house service, are absolutely neglected.

Goshen, Vermont, has two unused church buildings, one of which
is in very good repair. The pastor of a neighboring church is willing
and anxious to serve the Goshen people, who number more than
100, but they have no interest in the church, and there is little use
in a hard trip to preach to empty pews. The community is satis-
fied with Grange life as its backbone. In a little neighborhood of
southwestern Warren County there is a pastorless church, which,
however, continues to grow. Its Ladies' Society and Sunday school
are active, and regular services are held. Once a month a neighbor-
ing pastor sends a written sermon, which is read from the pulpit
by one of the leading members. Last year a splendid revival service
was held here resulting in twenty-one converts and a new awakening
of enthusiasm in the organization. The chief problem of this little
neighborhood is its scattered population. Leading members predict,
however, a good future in this field if a resident pastor is sent to
the rescue. Few are the country churches that are so alive to their
responsibility that they register a definite gain even though they
have no pastors.

In the Industrial School at Vergennes, Vermont, are nearly 300
persons. Of these, at least 160 are Protestant, and yet no kind of

OVER- AND UNDERCHURCHING

strictly religious services are held for them. The state pays a
Roman Catholic priest for his services to those of his faith in the
institution and they are well cared for. The school authorities are
not in favor of one denomination taking charge of services, but
would welcome Protestant ministers of different denominations in
turn. On the other hand, the Protestant pastors feel that little could
be accomplished in this way, and the result is that no Protestant
minister goes out to the school. Ethical talks, music and services
of a general nature are provided on Sundays, but they are not
especially of a religious nature and religious services are much
needed.

In the mountainous sections of Warren County there are folks
who are not unlike the mountaineers of the Appalachian range and
though a few are reached by a traveling missionary who serves a
six-point circuit, there are many who know very little about religion.

If the stronger churches in all three counties could in some way
extend their parishes further out into the hills they might do a piece
of real missionary work. This would mean better citizens, more
church members and larger attendance and would check the decline
in church strength. One-third of Warren County's churches have
less than twenty-five members and of these 86 per cent, are declining.
There are only seventeen churches in the county with as many as
fifty members. Unless some definite measures are speedily taken,
at least one-third of the present active churches must soon sufifer the
fate of the nine churches already abandoned.

Chapter X

ONE WAY OUT— CHURCH FEDERATION AND THE
VERMONT PLAN

FOUR years ago the leading representatives of the Congrega-
tional. Methodist Episcopal and Baptist denominations in
the State of Vermont together worked out a plan in defense
of religion in the rural community. They realized that unless some-
thing was done immediately, a large proportion of the Protestant
churches would soon be closed.

The Vermont plan recognized the following methods for carrying
out their ideals in particular overchurchcd communities:

1st. — The alisolute withdrawal of one denomination in favor of
another.

2nd. — The federation of the existing churches without the with-
drawal of either denomination.

3rd. — The temporary maintenance of the ecclesiastical organiza-
tion of the denomination withdrawing until the entire with-
drawal could be wisely effected.

In the main, the superintendents have favored and effected the
first plan. A denomination which surrendered its rights to any
given community was compensated by being given sole responsibility
in another locality. This plan retains in each community one strong
working church with overhead supervision properly geared up to the
driving power of the ecclesiastical body to which it belongs. The
federated plan provides for union in worship of two or more
churches, with one pastor, but maintains each church organization
fully and does not look to the withdrawal of any denomination.
Alternation of pastors between the denominations concerned is a
frequent but not a necessary feature. The local program is thor-
oughly unified. Each organization contributes to its own denomina-
tional benevolences and a joint committee handles the local affairs
of the federation.

The Vermont plan has been successful in the main. Thirty-four
communities have been organized with but one congregation each.
Seventy-four churches have been affected by the readjustments.
More than a .score of pastors have been freed for service elsewhere
and approximately $3,000 in missionary money has been saved. The

ONE WAY OUT— CHURCH FEDERATION

net average salary of the ministers has been increased, although in
a number of communities the total amount paid for salaries has
decreased. It must be admitted that while church attendance and
membership have been increased in some places they have remained
stationary or have decreased in quite a number. This is due to
population changes. Two mail carriers in one community, for
instance, report that in the last six years eighty farms have changed
owners and all but six of these have passed into the hands of
Catholics.

In none of the instances reported in a state-wide canvass of the
situation by the Rev. C. C. Merill, Congregational State Secretary,
was there any question as to the success of the movement. In some
cases the adjustment was proceeding slowly but hopefully. The
standing of the church in the community was materially bettered in
all cases. The chance for more effective community service was
greatly enhanced, and in many cases a number of community ac-
tivities under church auspices had been successfully inaugurated.

In Addison County the movement for church consolidation was
under way before the denominational superintendents and secre-
taries began their epoch-making work. Under these circumstances
the federated church was the way out, and there are more federated
churches in Addison County than there are congregations to which
has been given sole responsibility for a particular field.

Evidence appears in many communities of a successful attempt
to stay the movement toward the disappearance of Protestantism in
declining open country areas. There are five federated churches in
the county, four of which are a combination of Methodist and Bap-
tist denominations located in country districts, and the other a
Federation of Methodist and Congregational denominations in a
village. The latter has been most successful. Its membership has
increased and during last year its net gain was twenty-nine members.
The leading men of the community are the leading men of the
church. Interest in community activity has been developed through
the initiative of the Brotherhood. The Sunday school has increased
in devotion, attendance and organized endeavor. In the country
churches, federation has been more difficult. Church membership
with them has not increased except in one case. During the last
five or ten years the total membership of the five federated churches
has remained nearly stationary. There is no reason to believe, how-
ever, that any better record would have been made under circum-
stances of competition.

Although there have been favorable results in some cases, the

THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES

effort toward federation in Addison County has not yet proved
entirely successful. As to the success of the arrangement in one
community, a leading citizen remarked : "It is our only salvation,
we could do no other way." In another community, however, the
Baptist part of a Federated organization desires to leave and unite
with an organization of its own denomination in another community.
Another federated organization uses the Methodist Episcopal and
Baptist buildings each for six months of the year. Members of each
organization are more or less inactive during the half of the year when
their own building is closed. But these are rather defects in human
nature than in the ideal of cooperation. In some cases the arrange-
ment seems to have drawn tighter the lines of denominationalism.
Four Protestant churches, besides a large Roman Catholic church,
are holding regular services in a community of i,8oo people. The
Roman Catholic constituency is estimated at 500, which means that
there is a Protestant church for every 325 non-Catholics. The
church records show, however, that only about one-fifth of the
population are active church members. One of the stronger churches
here has very cordially invited a weaker organization to join in its
services. The weaker church has few members, is not self-
supporting and has suffered from too frequent pastoral changes.
The arrangement has not been successfully carried out, however,
and both churches hold regular services at present.

It would appear on the strength of the state- wide results of the
Vermont plan that the denominational community church with sole
responsibility obtains somewhat better results than the federated
church. Probably this plan in certain communities would be a con-
siderable improvement over the present situation and would effect a
solution of the problems which could not be brought about by
federation, for federation is sometimes blocked by dislike for change
and lack of leadership along with well defined denominational lines,
which always mean possible withdrawal of one body or the other
from the federation.

Many causes for success and failure in federation are evident in
Addison County. Dislike for change in the older, settled communi-
ties; lack of leadership; denominational lines; a sentiment for things
as they have always been — all these causes have tended to block a
genuine getting together, not only in religious but in social and
economic efforts toward cooperative progress.

Chapter XI
NEW RUDDERS FOR OLD SHIPS

GOOD Fences Make Good Neighbors," says the farmer in one
of Robert Frost's most typical New England poems, "Mend-
ing Wall." There are many farmers who still cling to that
belief and continue to look upon life as a one-man job. Without
adequately trained leadership rural communities can never hope to lay
aside their non-cooperative creed. A pastor alone cannot make a
church successful ; nor can two or three laymen — everyone imist
"carry on." No community can expect to grow, while its people,
when interviewed as to their leading citizens, say that "they just
lead themselves."

The country needs new rudders for its old ships. It needs more
efficient business men in its country stores ; trained librarians who
will not only teach the young people how and what to read, but who
will, by their sympathetic understanding and desire for the com-
munity's welfare, join whole-heartedly in leading the community to
better things. One young librarian is proving what may be accom-
plished in a community in the West. She does more than stamp
books and put them away and scowl at lads who make too much
noise. She has a weekly story hour — she arranges picnics and on
days when the library is closed she hikes with different groups and
they read and tell stories together. She writes inspiring articles for
the weekly paper and addresses the Parent-Teachers' Association
from time to time. She cooperates with the school teacher. In
brief, she is the village advisor, a real power in the community, wel-
comed always at socials and public gatherings, and the secret of all
her success is her sincerity and her desire to be of service.

Twenty-one communities in Addison County have libraries, but
it is doubtful if one of them can boast of activities of such interest
and influence as have just been described. In the three counties
there are fifty communities which have no free public libraries. The
churches could and should fill the need adequately and without
serious effort. There is no way in which churches might more
easily become real community centers than by supplying their people,

THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES

old and young, with the right kind of hooks. Less than half of the
churches report libraries in their Sunday schools. Many of those
which have them need a great deal of weeding. Up-to-date collec-
tions of readable, interesting books are rarely found. In every parish
it should be possible to discover someone to take charge of the
library.

If the libraries were revolutionized, the leadership of another
great neglected field might become transformed, namely, that of the
Sunday schools themselves. Religious education is usually the weak-
est point in rural churches. Schools are poorly organized, and far
behind the times in their methods of teaching. In the three counties
there are 123 regularly organized Sunday schools connected with

A RURAL LIBRARY
One of the twenty-one libraries in Addison County

the churches. Including the membership of nine separate Sunday
schools these schools have a total enrollment of 8,080, or 74 per cent,
of the number in the total church membership of the three counties.
Forty schools endeavor, by means of contests and rewards, to
increase their attendance, which averages 57 per cent, of the enroll-
ment on a typical Sunday morning. Although membership is smaller
in Warren County, the average attendance is higher than that
reported by the Sunday schools of the other two counties. The
enrollment of the schools of Tompkins County ecpals 80 per cent, of
the number on its church rolls, and they average twice the number
enrolled in either Warren or Addison Sunday schools, though in
attendance they show a lower average, only 52 per cent, being present
on a typical Sunday. Only thirty-four of the 123 Sunday schools
report organized departments, sixty have cradle rolls and fifty -one

NEW RUDDERS FOR OLD SHIPS

have home departments. Only 50 per cent, of the Sunday schools
report regular periods given to mission study.

Religion is not yet a subject taught in public schools. The home
has largely failed to teach it directly and many parents are indifferent
to the Sunday school. One hour a week is set aside for teaching
Christianity to our young people — that is, two days a year given
to the direction of the spiritual development of the next generation.

Of the 123 Sunday schools connected with churches, only seven
make any special provision for training in leadership. That this
training is at once necessary and difficult to provide is evident to all
who have attempted to provide it. Bad roads, long hours of labor
in the country and the difficulty of obtaining the proper leaders make
the task seem next to impossible. It has been done, however, in
many communities where training classes for young people are held
weekly at the regular Sunday school hour. There are in the three
counties sixteen teachers' training classes, but Warren County has
only two.

There is also a lack of adequate social activity. Boys and girls
cannot be expected to be satisfied with annual picnics and class
socials. The playground and the community service room are rap-
idly becoming necessities in Sunday school equipment. In these
three counties three-fourths of the schools held picnics. Fifty-six
schools report class socials and fifty-three report social times as a
whole. As for other organizations of a social nature, Addison
County reports none, Warren has just one and Tompkins County
reports eight.

One pastor, interviewed on the subject of recreation, replied:
"We don't want any such 'high jinks' in our Sunday schools." ISTow
the dictionary gives the following definition of "high jinks": "an
old Scotch game in which one was chosen by lot to perform a task;
hence, jollification" — and jollification is nothing more than merry-
making. A social program is as necessary to religious education
as food is to the health of the body. The wheels in the machinery
of a "going" organization are many, and the social wheel is in no
way insignificant. If such a program is carried on mefely to get
the young people into the Sunday school Jt deserves to fail, but if
its motive is more fully to interest members and thereby create a
desire in their youthful hearts to become loyal church members, then
it becomes a vital part of the Christian message and program.

From 35 per cent, of the Sunday schools, 276 pupils were made
church members last year — an average of only 5 per school. Nearly
one-half of this number joined Tompkins County churches, 21 per

THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES

cent, were in Warren and 30 per cent, were in Addison County.
Thirty- four pupils have entered some form of Christian work during
the last decade, and twenty of these came from Tompkins County.
There are many successful Sunday schools in rural America which
serve as prophets of a new day. All three counties studied firmly
believe in Sunday schools, but as in so many other activities, they
still cling to the old-time methods. It seems unfortunate that in
only twenty-six schools are classes reported which prepare pupils
for church membership. Regular classes for that purpose might
be held during a stated period each year. In such a way the mean-
ing of the Gospel could be presented so that the leak from the
Sunday schools would be checked and the "teen" age scholars car-
ried over into full church membership and Christian service. For
this purpose men and women are needed of vivid personality, of
energy and of imagination. It is as easy for children as for their
parents to drift. Unless there is sufficient dynamic force in the
heart of the organization to hold them, they lose interest, and the
Sunday school becomes a burden to all concerned instead of a place
of preparation for future church prosperity.

Chapter XII
THE HAND OF THE DEAD

IN a county adjoining Warren is a small community in which
there are three endowed churches. All of these endowments
are more than one hundred years old. The provision of the
original gift in each case stipulates that, if the church ceases to be
an organized congregation of the particular denomination to which
the donor belongs, the endowment shall revert to the heirs. The

HOW THE CHURCH DOLLAR IS RAISED

IN 18 CHURCHES HAVING ENDOWMENTS

COLLECTION'

MISCELLANEOUS
■15

SUBSCRIPTION
.62

45% of the churches have endowments.
72% of the total receipts of the county
come from endowed churches.

CHART V
(Addison County only)

combined membership of these churches is barely one hundred.
They have been anxious to federate, but the hand of the dead
prevents this progressive step. Consequently, each continues to
support a resident minister who is condemned by the terms of the
gift to minister to the few people who remain in the comipunity.
It is sometimes an open question whether an endowment is a bane
or a blessing to a church organization.

There are in Addison County forty active churches, and eighteen
of them have endowments, the interest on which amounts to more

75.

THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES

than $6,000 annually. Seven of them are in the open country and
eleven are in villages. They have 70 per cent, of the total Protestant
church enrollment of the county and nearly three-fourths of the
financial receipts of all its churches. All but four of these organ-
izations are served by full-time resident pastors. Three have half-
time pastors and one a pastor who serves three points. Fifty-two
per cent, of their expenditures are for salaries, only 20 per cent, for
benevolence and 28 per cent, for contingent expense. Of their total
receipts, 19 per cent, is from interest on endowment, 62 per cent, is
raised by subscription, 4 per cent, is from collections and 15 per
cent, from miscellaneous sources. The average annual per capita
contribution per active member is $14.05, about one-fifth less than
the average for the county.

During the last ten years, seven of the churches have declined
in membership and during last year less than half made any gain.
It is human nature to expect nothing for nothing. The unpaid
entertainer has usually a disinterested audience. When people have
really paid for something, they grow interested in its success. To
drift along on the smooth waters of endowments is easy and once
having drifted it is doubly difficult to take the oars in hand again
and pull for a definite mark. The system of tithing is a severe
one, but it keeps an organization fit, though to deserve a tithe a
church must be in reality a station of spiritual and community
service. Instead of proving a check on church welfare, endowments
should provide a greater incentive toward the development of pros-
perity and progress. Their possession is a trust, not a crutch.

7(i

Chapter XIII
A BACKWARD LOOK

MANY of the situations and problems discussed thus far are
concretely illustrated in Tompkins County, which was sur-
veyed in 191 1 by the Rev. Charles Otis Gill. He made a
painstaking comparison of the conditions as he found them with
those existing in 1890.* The study included membership, attendance,
church expenditures and ministers' salaries. These were taken as
indices of the condition of the country churches examined on these
points. This earlier study enabled Prof. Dwight Sanderson, of the
New York College of Agriculture, Cornell University, who made
the Interchurch survey of Tompkins County in 1920, to formulate
comparisons between the figures gathered by him and those of Gill
for 1890 and 1910. This chapter, therefore, summarizes Professor
Sanderson's conclusions.

The results of this comparison seem to indicate that the country
church problem in Tompkins County is still unsolved. As was the
case in a number of churches elsewhere for which Mr. Gill was
able to find records, church attendance in Tompkins County in 1890
exceeded church membership. Whereas 19.7 per cent, of the popu-
lation belonged to churches, attendants numbered 21 per cent, of the
people. By 1910 the membership, in the face of a decline of 14.3
per cent, in population, had risen to 23 per cent, of the population,
but only 71 per cent, of the members and 16.3 per cent, of the
population were found to attend church services. By the end of
1920 there had been a further loss in population of 4.3 per cent.,
but the total membership had increased 13 per cent., equaling 2^
per cent, of the population. Attendants had, however, fallen to 14
per cent, of the population and 51.8 per cent, of the membership.
Even if all but active members be eliminated from the discussion
and it is assumed that the church has no further responsibility
toward those of its members who have become inactive, attendance
shows a falling ofif of ten per cent, in proportion to membership as
compared with 1910.

If the county be taken as a whole, there has been a net increase

* For the detailed results of this survey and for a full description of the
method used see "The Country Church," by C. O. Gill and Gifford Pinchot;
Macmillan Company; 1913.

THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES

of 13 per cent, in church memljership in the last thirty years, almost
all of it in the last decade. This has been in the face of a loss in
population of 17.96 per cent. This gain has been registered by five
of the nine townships, eight of which have lost in population. In
attendance there has been, however, a decline of 45.1 per cent, in
thirty years and of 17.9 per cent, in the last decade.

The exact situation for the county as a whole and for each
separate township is set forth in the table on the page opposite.*

An analysis of the financial situation discloses a somewhat
different story. There has been a steady increase in the number of

Comparative Trends of Population,
Church Membership and Attendance

- Tompkins County -

1890

1900

1910

1920

1930

dollars contributed, an increase especially marked in the last decade

and shared in to a greater or less degree by every township but one.

During the last thirty years the purchasing power of the dollar

has, however, been steadily shrinking. Contributions later than

1890 were, therefore, reduced to terms of their purchasing power

in 1890 dollars. From this point of view there has been a decline

in total giving though a marked increase in benevolences. The

influence of the great denominational and interdenominational drives

and missionary campaigns, beginning with the Laymen's Missionary

Movement and the Missionary Education Movement, is clearly in

evidence here. All these campaigns of education and stewardship

* The figures for 1890 and 1910 in all tables in this chapter are quoted
from "The Country Church," by Gill and Pinchot.

A BACKWARD LOOK

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THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONL\L COUNTIES

have been made possible through the leadership and fidelity of the
ministers whose own recompense is, however, relatively 38 per cent,
less now than in 1890. Two townships only show increase in total
contributions when measured by purchasing power, and the bulk
of this increase is accounted for by Groton, which has enjoyed an
industrial expansion due to the Corona Typewriter Works situated
there.* The tables following give the detailed results of church
expenditures in terms of dollars raised and in terms of purchasing
power.

EXPENDITURES OF THE CHURCHES OF TOMPKINS COUNTY
DURING SPECIFIED YEARS

Average Yearly Expenditures Percentage of Gain

in Dollars or Loss

1886-90 1906-10 1919-20 1890-1910 1890-1920 1910-1930

County 32,826 35.213 59,780 +7 +82 +70

Salaries 17,128 17,194 27,127 o +58 +58

Benevolences . . 2,821 5,271 17,809 +87 + 53i + 238

Improvement . . 6,430 3,522 • — — — 45 —

Tozvnships

Caroline 4,388 2,649 2,327 — 40 — 47 — 12

Danby 2,539 1,529 4,532 — 40 +79 +196

Dryden 2,744 6,335 ii,5io +131 + 3i9 + 82

Enfield 1.513 1,712 2,284 + I3 + 5i -^ 2>Z

Groton 4,012 4,216 16,498 +5 +311 +291

Lansing 3.857 5,077 5,232 + Z2 +36 +3

Newfield 4,187 2,951 4,835 — 25 +15 +64

Ulysses 7,586 io,744 12,562 +42 +66 +17

EXPENDITURES OF THE CHURCHES OF TOMPKINS COUNTY

EXPRESSED IN TERMS OF THE PURCHASING POWER

OF THE DOLLAR IN 1890

Average Yearly Expenditures Per Cent, of Gain or Loss

in 1S90 Dollars in 1S90 Dollars

1886-90 1906-1910 1919-20 1890-1910 1S90-1920 1910-1920

County 32,826 26,880 23,352 — 18 — 29 — 13

Salaries 17,128 13,125 10,596 ■ — 23 ^38 • — 19

Benevolences 2,821 4,024 6,956 +43 + I47 + 73

Improvements 6,430 2,689 ■ — — 58 ■ — —

Tozvn ships

Caroline 4,388 2,022 909 — 54 — 79 — 55

Danby 2,539 1,167 1,770 —54 — 30 +52

Dryden 2,744 4,836 4,496 +76 + 64-68 — 7

Enfield 1.513 1,307 893 —14 — 41 — 2^

Groton 4,012 3,218 6,444 — 20 +61 +100

Lansing 3,857 3,876 2,044 o — 47 — 47

Nevv^field 4,187 2,253 1.889 — 46 — 55 ■ — 16

Ulysses 7,586 8,201 4,907 +8 — 35 — 40

* It is interesting to note that in the last three census periods the average
value of the farms of Tompkins County has fallen steadily, and from
$3,270 is now $2,550.

A BACKWARD LOOK

HOW THE DIMINISHING DOLLAR IS SPENT

TOMPKINS COUNTY

-1890-

■1910-

-1920-

Although gifts in dollars have increased 82%
in SOyears, the purchasing power of these dollars
has decreased 29% in the same period.

CHART VII

The facts here given are open to the reader's own interpretation.
To ihe author they seem to indicate the inefficiency and waste fuhiess
of the haphazard system of denominational competition. There are

A LIVE CHrRCH IX T(jMPKINS COUNTY
Presbyterian Church at Trumansburg

fifty-seven churches in Tompkins County. Thirty-seven of them
now have less than fifty active members and all but nine of the fifty-
seven compete more or less with other churches for the attention of
the people, although in a dozen cases such competition covers

THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES

one-third or less of the parishes involved. Weak and feeble as they
are, they are losing their lives because they seek to save them. They
are for the most part devoid of any all-round program. Their
failure is evidenced by the response of the membership to the chal-
lenge of world-wide Christian statesmanship as registered in giving,
and by the steady loss of interest in the local work as shown by the
declining attendance in most churches and the increasing interest
and attention freely given to the Red Cross, the Farm Bureau and
other such useful agencies. Those churches within the county which
are conducting their work on a broad basis and which are emphasiz-
ing an all-round program of worship, education and service are
gaining in every respect. Unrestrained denominationalism has had
full sway in Tompkins County these many years. The results cry
to heaven. An inter-denominational, statesmanlike plan of county-
wide action and service in which all now at work might share could
do no worse and might do much better. Here is a situation in which
the Vermont plan might well be tried. Tompkins County has long
ago learned the value of economic cooperation. Might not this plan
of federation be applied here with success? Other agencies have
become "going" organizations by joining forces. Certain it is that
the day has come when it is not a question of whether to save the
Church, but how to save it.

Chapter XIV
CONCERNING THE RURAL PASTOR

LT PON the vision and aggressiveness of the ministers in a large
j measure depend the impact which the Church makes upon the
community and the response which the community gives to
the Church.

Ninety-two pastors serve the 144 churches in the three counties
studied. Of this number, thirty-one are in Addison, twenty-six are
in Warren and thirty-five pastors are in Tompkins County. Nine-
teen of these men have other occupations, in addition to their min-
isterial work. Eleven churches were pastorless at the time of the
survey. Seventy-nine churches have pastors resident in their
parishes, fifty-four churches are served by non-resident pastors.
Only twenty-four of the eighty-two communities of the three
counties have full-time resident pastors, Warren County having but
one community with pastors who serve but one church each and
follow no other occupation. Nearly 58 per cent, of the pastors
serve one point each. Twenty-five pastors serve two points, eleven
serve three points. There is only one six-point circuit in the three
counties.

The question of pastors' salaries has an important bearing upon
efficiency, and the seriousness of this question has been increased by
recent high costs affecting the professional classes more than any
other. Inadequate salaries are one cause of the restlessness every-
where in evidence in the rural ministry. From 69 to 75 per cent, of
the pastors are receiving less than $1,500 a year. Some day,
America's rural ministry will show evidence of more than a silent
strike. Under present conditions it is not surprising that ministers
cease to be ministers and that young men are entering the rural
ministry in fewer numbers. When it is realized that, in the three
counties studied, there are ten pastors receiving salaries of less than
$500, seven receiving from $500 to $750, and twenty-five receiving
$1,000 or less, it is not surprising that two-thirds of the churches
have had three or more different pastors each during the last decade.
One of the most serious drawbacks to the growth of churches is the
short pastorates which prevail throughout our rural areas. One

THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES

church has been served by nine different pastors during the last ten
years.

Seventy-seven per cent, of the pastors are trained men. Eighteen
are college graduates, nine are graduates of seminary or Bi])le
schools and forty-four, nearly 50 per cent., are graduates of both.
Yet the average salary paid in the three counties is only $1,289,
including $250 added as average rental value of parsonages when
provided. Warren County averages higher than the other two coun-
ties in this respect, the average salary of the summer resort com-

SALARY SCALE OF THE MINISTERS

4.4

Ministers

Minisfers

MinisJers

Minist-ers

Under $500" $1000" Over

S500 $1000 S1500 $1500

ANNUAL SALARY

75% of the mtnisfers receive less than $1500 a year

CHART vui

munities being $1,557. Tompkins County, though the best organized,
pays the smallest average salary of $1,177, ^^^ three-fourths of its
pastors are trained men. The churches of these counties believe in
the resident pastor. Seventy-two per cent, of Addison County's
churches are served by resident pastors, yet only in certain instances
are they receiving a living wage. Without adequate means of sup-
port, the pastors must necessarily remain only temporarily in a com-
munity, and with the rapid succession of pastors serving its churches
there can be only a passing acquaintance between the people and their
religious leaders and a lack of mutual understanding as the result.
Too few churches offer the best sort of field for the pastor.
He comes hopeful and optimistic as the reports on the future of the
different churches show. In a year or two the actual situation re-

CONCERNING THE RURAL PASTOR

veals itself in all its hopelessness and the minister seeks another
charge. The fre([uency of these changes has probably several deter-
mining causes. There may be faults on the side of both pastors
and people— but the condition calls for attention among church
leaders, for the churches are stationary while the pastors come
and go.

Chapter XV
CONCLUSION

ADDISON, Tompkins and Warren Counties together present
a land of beautiful scenery, a land of "romantic realism"
and a people facing certain vital, difficult problems bearing
on future church and community life.

There are hill towns struggling for mere existence, with an ever
declining population. There are communities finding themselves
through the development of industry. There are summer resort
centers keenly alive during the vacation season and existing in a
state of comparative lethargy during the rest of the year. Indift'er-
ence exists everywhere. Churches are declining in members and
enthusiasm for service through lack of leadership and short-termed
pastorates. New Americans and the farmers from the West have
found it difficult to break down the barriers of individualistic com-
munities and are still very largely on the "outside of things." Agri-
cultural organizations are found doing the church's share of supply-
ing young people's programs. Again and again have been heard
calls for community houses, unanswered nearly all of them. There
are overchurched communities in which there is need for some such
action as that undertaken in the Vermont plan, and there are others
absolutely neglected as to religious service. Pastors are everywhere
striving to serve without adequate salaries and without the encour-
agement, support or equipment necessary for any measure of success.
On the other hand, people are awakening to the realization that
the day of reconstruction is near. Dawn is approaching, and there-
fore they are waiting, undiscouraged. They are ready for the
weeding out of prejudice, indifiference and neglect. Town and
county are meeting as friends and co-workers, as is evidenced by the
interest of Glens Falls churches in the larger parish plan. There
are leaders all along the line who are demanding better conditions
in agriculture, education and business enterprise. What then, shall
be said of these problems that have presented themselves for un-
raveling in the churches?

Underlying the several problems discussed in the foregoing
chapters are a few basic facts. One of these is that there are many

CONCLUSION

churches for the people. The average is two and one-half Protestant
congregations for every one thousand men, women and children.
If the probable Catholic population be deducted, the average is a
little more than three churches for every thousand of population.
The second fact is that memberships are very small. Two-thirds of
the churches have fifty active members or less, though the average
for the region is 55 per cent. This means that the churches are
weak. The small memberships mean inability to have strong or-
ganizations and to impress the community. The Church then ceases
to be a social institution of considerable value and ceases to be
dynamic enough to lead the individual into a sense of triumphant

DISTRIBUTION OF MEMBERSHIP

CHART IX

living that comes through fellowship with the Church's Founder.
The third underlying factor in this situation is the small number of
young people within the membership of these churches. It is a
fact which makes their future even more dark than the figures, taken
at their surface value, would indicate. In most of the communities
the young people are 15 per cent, or less of the total church mem-
bership, whereas elsewhere in the country the average is around
25 per cent. The few towns in these counties bring the total average
a little higher than 15 per cent, but in the smaller churches, which
constitute two-thirds of the total number, the young folks are the
smallest element in the church membership.

Numerous suggestions bearing on the solution of this and other
problems discussed which are scattered through the text can be

THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES

summarized in one word — cooperation. The decrease in population,
the increased facilities for transportation, the trend of the times, the
lack of interest on the part of the people themselves in the Church
as shown hy decreasing attendance, these and other things condemn
the present system, at least if judged by the results which it has
produced. Cooperation among the churches of these counties, en-
couraged and nurtured by the overhead denominational officials,
could work out a series of advanced steps which are greatly needed.
Amone them are these :

I. ADEQUATE EVANGELISM

At the present time there is indifference to the Church. The
people are not hearing its message as once they did. The young
T)eople are drifting from its influence. There are neglected areas
within some of these counties, notably in Addison. Here and there
are neglected groups of people, such as some of the foreigners who
have moved into Tompkins County or some of the summer resort
people in Addison County. Adequate understanding among the
churches, together with a united program, would remedy this situa-
tion to an appreciable degree.

2. STRONGER CHURCHES

The "Vermont plan," described in Chapter X, needs to be tried
in every one of these counties. It is the only thing which can pre-
vent religious decadence. The churches at present, w^eak as they are,
make no appeal to the unchurched. They are self -condemned. With
a century or more of history behind them in which to appeal for
service and interest, they confess by what they are that they have
been unable to hold their own in the estimation of the community
or that they have 1)een unable to adjust themselves to the changing
conditions around them. Most of these communities need just one
church and imtil they get it with the blessing and help of the de-
nominational executives the cause of Christ will suffer.

3. RESIDENT MINISTERS

The churches in these ccjunties have made a brave struggle to
retain resident ministers. To a large extent they have succeeded, but
at the expense of the ministers themselves. What is happening is,
however, shown in Tompkins and Warren Counties. The latter has

CONCLUSION

only one community out of twenty-eight in which there is a full-time
resident pastor. By a comity agreement among denominations, so
that there would he one denominational church in each of the smaller
communities, it would he possihle to secure the resident leadership
of a trained minister of religion, who could furnish the inspiration
and executive direction for an adecjuate program of spiritual and
community service on the part of the church.

4. LONGER Px\ST0RATES

A resident minister with a man-sized job serving the one church
in a community would he more eager to stay longer in his field. At
the present time the constant turn-over on the part of the ministers is
unsettling the whole church situation. Few of them stay long enough
to do abiding work. Until ministers are willing to invest years of
their lives in touching the lives of people individually and in their
social relationships through the community, the Church cannot make
its greatest contribution.

5. LARGER SALARIES

Stronger churches with resident ministers spending four to ten
years in a community would bring a response from the people that
would insure the larger salaries necessary to obtain this type of
service. The average salaries of the ministers in these counties is
a disgrace to the Church. Inchiding the value of the parsonage,
where it is given free of charge, the average salary is $1,289.30.
Ministers cannot sustain adequate family life on this figure. Under
the present system, however, they can never hope for any larger
economic return.

6. BROADER PROGRAMS

A resident minister, free of the necessity for worrying about the
next meal for his family or the next suit of clothes for himself,
and well trained in the tasks of the Church, can become director of
an all-round program which is so much needed in most of these
communities. Boys and girls must be won. One avenue to their
lives is through recreation. Communities need to he socialized.
The Church, which is vitally interested in economic progress and is
more sensitive to economic changes than any other social institution,
needs to cooperate with those organizations which make for economic

THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES

and social progress. The program of the Church must be all-week-
through, all-vear-around.

THE ONLY COMMUNITY-MINDED CHURCH IN WARREN COUNTY
The Methodist Episcopal Church at Chestertown, N. Y.

7. MORE EQUIPMENT

The type of program outlined above, under the direction of the
type of man who could be procured, will soon call for more ecjuip-
ment. Class rooms will be needed in the Sunday schools, even if
the dividing walls be but curtains ; use of pictures and stereopticons
can be introduced. Strong communities will procure community
houses. All these things are greatly needed for the bringing of an

CONCLUSION

abundant life to the communities for the counties throughout this
region.

8. SOUNDER RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

The Sunday schools of these counties are far behind the best
practices of modern religious education. Even judged by the stand-
ards of the State Sunday School Associations they measure up but
poorly. First, there is need for pressing the present methods to
their fullest usefulness. That done, if the strong united church is
secured, stronger Sunday schools will follow which will become
church schools with all that that term implies in present-day thought.

9. STRONGER FOUNDATIONS

Programs, such as outlined above, cannot be sustained without
the training of leaders. Only sixteen Sunday schools train teachers,
still fewer churches are engaged in training volunteer leadership for
the work of the organizations of the Church. These two tasks are
most important but they can be accomplished as other things are
done.

10. A BROADER BASE

The Church organized along the lines that have been indicated
in this program will broaden its base and stretch out to include all
•racial and economic groups within the community. The neglected
will no longer be slighted and as the home base broadens there will
be still larger possibilities for world-wide service through the foreign
mission machinery of the Church, and more than money — lives will
be consecrated to service for the Kingdom of God.

Appendix I
METHODOLOGY AND DEFINITIONS

THE method used in the Town and Country Surveys of the
Interchurch World Movement and of the Committee on
Social and Religious Surveys differs from the method of
earlier surveys in this field chiefly in the following particulars :

1. "Rural" was defined as including all population living outside
of incorporated places of more than 5,000. Previous surveys usually
excluded all places of 2,500 population or over, which method follows
the United States Census definition of "rural."

2. The local unit for the assembling of material was the com-
munity, regarded, usually, as the trade area of a town or village
center. Previous surveys usually took the minor civil division as
the local unit. The disadvantage of the community unit is that
census and other statistical data are seldom available on that basis,
thus increasing both the labor involved and the possibility of error.
The great advantage is that it presents its results assembled on the
basis of units having real social significance, which the minor civil
division seldom has. This advantage is considered as more than
compensating for the disadvantage.

3. The actual service area of each church as indicated by the
residences of its members and adherents w^as mapped and studied.
This was an entirely new departure in rural surveys.

Four chief processes were involved in the actual field work of
these surveys :

1. The determination of the community units and of any sub-
sidiary neighborhood units included within them. The community
boundaries were ascertained by noting the location of the last family
on each road leading out from a given center who regularly traded
at that center. These points, indicated on a map, were connected
with each other by straight lines. The area about the given center
thus enclosed was regarded as the community.

2. The study of the economic, social and institutional life of
each community as thus defined.

3. The location of each church in the county, the determination
of its parish area and the detailed study of its equipment, finance,
membership, organization, program and leadership,

THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES

4. The preparation of a map showing, in addition to the usual
physical features, the boundaries of each community, the location,
parish area and circuit connections of each church and the residence
of each minister.

The following are the more important definitions used in the
making of these surveys and the preparation of the reports:

GEOGRAPHICAL

City — a center of over 5,000 population. Not included within
the scope of these surveys except as specifically noted.

Tozvn — a center with a population of from 2,501 to 5,000.

Village — a center with a population of from 251 to 2,500.

Hamlet — any clustered group of people not living on farms whose
numbers do not exceed 250.

Open Country — the farming area, excluding hamlets and other
centers.

Country — used in a threefold division of population included in
scope of survey into Town, Village and Country. Includes Hamlets
and Open Country.

Town and Country — the whole area covered by these surveys,
i.e., all population living outside of cities.

Rural — used interchangeably with Town and Country.

Community — that unit of territory and of population character-
ized by common social and economic interests and experiences; an
aggregation of people the majority of whose interests have a common
center." Usually ascertained by determining the normal trade area
of each given center. The primary social grouping of sufficient size
and diversity of interests to be practically self-sufiicing in ordinary
affairs of business, civil and social life.

Neutral Territory— diny area not definitely included within the
area of one community. Usually an area between two or more
centers and somewhat influenced by each but whose interests are so
scattered that it cannot definitely be assigned to the sphere of in-
fluence of any one center.

Neighborliood — a recognizable social grouping having certain in-
terests in common but dependent for certain elemental needs upon
some adjacent center within the community area of which it is
located.

Rural Industrial — pertaining to any industry other than farming
within the Town and Country area.

APPENDIX I

POPULATION

Foreigner — refers to foreign-born and native-born of foreign
parentage.

iVrw Americans — usually includes foreign-born and native-born
of foreign or mixed parentage, but sometimes refers only to more
recent immigration. In each case the exact meaning is clear from
the context.

THE CHURCH

ParisJi — the area within which the members and regular attend-
ants of a given church live.

Circuit — two or more churches combined under the direction of
one minister.

Resident Pastor — a church whose minister lives within its parish
area is said to have a resident pastor.

Full-time Resident Pastor — a church with a resident pastor who
serves no other church and follows no other occupation than the
ministry is said to have a full-time resident pastor.

Part-time Pastor — a church whose minister either serves another
church also or devotes part of his time to some regular occupation
other than the ministry, or both, is said to have a part-time minister.

Non-Residcnt Member — one carried on the rolls of a given church
but living too far away to permit regular attendance ; generally, any
member living outside the community in which the church is located
unless he is a regular attendant.

Inactive Member — one who resides within the parish area of the
church but who neither attends its services nor contributes to its
support.

A''^'^ Active Membership — the resultant membership of a given
church after the number of non-resident and inactive members is
deducted from the total on the church roll.

Per Capita Contributions or Expenditures — the total amount con-
tributed or expended divided by the number of the net active
membership.

Budget System — A church which at the beginning of the fiscal
year makes an itemized forecast of the entire amount of money
required for its maintenance during the year as a basis for a canvass
of its membership for funds is said to operate on a budget system
with respect to its local finances. If amounts to be raised for de-
nominational or other benevolences are included in the forecast and

THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES

canvass, it is said to operate on a l)udget system for all moneys raised.

Adequate Financial System — three chief elements are recognized
in an adequate financial system : a budget system, an annual every-
member canvass and the use of envelopes for the weekly payment of
subscriptions.

Receipts — receipts have jjcen di\ided under three heads:

a. Subscriptions, that is, moneys received in payment of annual
pledges.

b. Collections, that is money received from free-will offerings at
public services.

c. All other sources of revenue, chiefly proceeds of entertain-
ments and interest on endowments.

Salary of Minister — inasmuch as some ministers receive in addi-
tion to their cash salary the free use of a house while others do
not, a comparison of the cash salaries paid is misleading. In all
salary comparisons, therefore, the cash value of a free parsonage is
arbitrarily stated as $250 a year and that amount is added to the cash
salary of each minister with free parsonage privileges. Thus an
average salary stated as $1,450 is equivalent to $1,200 cash and the
free use of a house.

Appendix II

TABLES
I. POPULATION, 1890-1920

,, — Tompkins County, N . Y .-
Urban-incorporated
Addison County, places of 5,000

Year

Vt.

or more

Rural

1920
1910
1900
1890

18,666
20,010
21,912
22,277

18,484
14,802
13,136
11,079

16,801
18,845
20,694
21,844

Gain or
loss

Minus

Plus

Minus

I 890- I 920

3,611—16%

7,405—67%

5,043—24''/

^ — IVarren County, N. Y,
Urban-incorporated
places of 3,000
or more

16,638

15,243
12,613

9,509

Rural

15,035
16,980
17,330
18,357

Plus Minus

24% 7,129—75% 3,322—22%

2. DISTRIBUTION OF RURAL POPULATION, 1920

County

Addison, Vt 7,935

Tompkins, N. Y.
Warren, N. Y..

Total 21,443 29,059

No.

Popu-

Popula-

Total

No.

increas-

lation

tion tn

Rural

xnq in

in Vil-

Coun-

Popula-

Commun-

Popu-

lages

try

tion

ities

lation

7,935

10,731

18,666

7J77

9.024

16,801

5,731

9.304

15,035

50,502

3. FARM FACTS

Addison County, Tompkins County, IVarren County,
Vt. N. Y. N. Y.

Number of Farms.... 2,375 2,550 1,564

Per Cent, of Decrease

in No., 1900-1920. . . 12% 22% 26%

Per Cent, of Land

Area in Farms 77-1% 83.3% 38.2%

Per Cent, of Farm

Land Improved 58.4% 73-7% 37.5%

Average Number Acres

per Farm 157.1% 99-5% 137.0%

Average Value per

Farm $9,787 $8,1 10 $4,820

Average Value of Land

per Acre $ 22.76 $ 29.38 $ 12.96

Per Cent. Owners 77^0 82% 80%

Per Cent. Tenants 23% 18% 20%

THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES

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APPENDIX II

7. NUMBER OF CHURCHES BY DENOMINATION

Denomination Addison, I't.

Methodist Episcopal.... 14

Protestant Episcopal... 4

Baptist 4

Congregationalist 8

Wesleyan Methodist... —

Presbyterian — U.S.A... —

Union or Community. . —
Federated Baptist and

Methodist Episcopal. . 4

Orthodox Friends 2

Pentecostal Holiness... —

Universalist —

Christian —

Brethren —

Christian and Missionary

Alliance —

Advent Christian i

Pentecostal Nazarene . . i
Federated Congrega-
tional and Methodist. I
Congregational yoked
with Alethodist Epis-
copal I

Total 40

Tompkins, N.y. Warren, N.Y. Total

18
13

5
I

15
9

7
3
5

144

8. VALUE OF CHURCH PROPERTY

Addison, Vt. Warren, N.Y. Tompkins, N.Y.

No. of Church build-
ings 42 46 57

Total value $298,250 $153,373 $^73,350

Average value 7,101 3.334 4,796

No. of parsonages. 2)^ 23 31

Total value $ 75,250 $ 50,975 $ 64,956

Average value 2,352 2,216 2,095

No. of other build-
ings 7 6 6

Total value $ 7,820 $36,000 $11,650

Average value 1,117 6,000 1,942

Total

145
$724,973
5,000

86
$191,181
2,223

19
$ 55,470
2,919

6264i

THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES

9. SIZE OF CHURCH MEMBERSHIPS

Church Membership Addison, J't. ]]^arrcn,N.Y. Tompkins. N. Y. Total

o to 25 8 16 15 39

26 to 50 13 14 22 49

51 to 100 9 8 13 30

loi to 150 7 3 I ^i

Over 150 3 I 6 10

Total 40 4-2 57 139

(5 churches (5 churches

without without

membership membership

figures) figures)

ID. INCREASE AND DECREASE IN MEMBERSHIP DURING
THE LAST 10 YEARS

Nutnhcr of Churches

Gaining Losing Stationary

County r-

Addison, Vt 15 21

Warren, N. Y 14 15

Tompkins, N. Y 26 26

Total 55 62

4
18

5
27

Total

47
57

144

II. MEMBERSHIP OF CHURCHES, 1920

Membership Addison, J't. Warren, N.Y. Tompkins, N. Y.

Net Active 2,777 2,030 3.357

Non-resident 77^ 211 836

Non-active 142 239 484

Total Enrollment... 3.689 2,480 4.677

Total

8.164

1,817

865

10,846

12. NUMBER OF FAMILIES IN CHURCH MEMBERSHIP

Number of
Families in

Village Churches. ,
Country Churches.

Total

Addison, Jl.

685
721

1,406

Warren, N. Y. Tompkins. N. Y
480 966

302
782

928
1,894

Total

2,131
1. 95 1

4,082

100

APPENDIX II

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101

THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES

i6. CHURCHES GAINING AND LOSING DURING ONE-YEAR

PERIOD

County

Addison, Vt.. . ,
Warren, N. Y..
Tompkins, N. Y

Gaining Losing Stationary

Number Per Cent. Number Per Cent. Number Per Cent.

II
25
55

28
40
44

Addison County,

17. ANNUAL EXPENSE.
Salaries Benevolences Other Total E.rpcnditures

$28476.39

$ 8.530.41

$11,319.65

$ 48,326.4s

Warren Countj^

59%

18%

23%

N. Y

24,419.10

9,693.12

15,532.20

^ 49,644.42

Tompkins County,
N. Y

49%
27,881.77

20%
17,671.21

31%
19,845.87

65.398.85

43%
$80,777.26

27%

30%

Total

$35,894.74
22%

$46,697.72
29%

%\62>,3'^g.72

49%

18. AVERAGE PER CAPITA EXPENSE

Addison County, JVarrcn County, Tompkins County,

Vt. N. Y. N. Y.

Open Open Open

Village Country J'illage Country Village Country

Salary $8.57 $13.01 $11.52 $13.82 $7.91 $8.94

Benevolence . 3.^7 2.59 5.90 3.07 5.63 4.71

Other 5.10 2.40 7.99 7.58 6.82 4.54

Total $17.04 $18.00 $25.41 $24.47 $20.36 $18.19

102

APPENDIX II

19. HOW THE TYPICAL CHURCH DOLLAR IS SPENT

Addison County, Warren County, Tompkins County,

Vt. N. Y. N. v.

Open Open Open

J'illage Country milage Country Village Country

Salary $0.30 $0.72 $0.46 $0.56 $0.39 $0.49

Benevolence . .20 .15 .23 .13 .2& .26

Other 50 .13 .31 .31 -Zi -25

Total $1.00 $1.00 $1.00 $1.00 $1.00 $1.00

20. THE MINISTER

Number of

Number Communities

Zi'ith Number zcitli

Number other Number Number with Full-time

of occu- Resident Non- no Resident

Pastors pation in Parish Resident Pastor Pastor
Addison

County, Vt... 31 5 29 10 i 15 out of 26
Warren

County, N. Y. 26 5 25 16 6 i out of 28
Tompkins

County, N. Y. 35 9 25 28 48 out of 28

Totals 92 19 79 54 II 24 out of 82

21. PASTORS' SALARIES

Average Range of Maximum Minimum Average
Addison County,

Vt $i,250-$i,450 $2,050 $750 $1,321

Warren County,

N. Y $i,250-$i,500 $2,500 $98.10 $1,412

Tompkins County,

N. Y $i,350-$i,45O $2,050 $250 $1,177

22. PASTORAL TRAINING

College Seminary Both Neither

Addison County, Vt 8 4 14 5

Warren County, N. Y 3 3 I3 7

Tompkins County, N. Y 7 2 17 9

Total 18—19% 9—10% 44—48% 21—23%

103

THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES

Pastors Receiving
o to $ 500

$ 501 to

751 to

1,001 to

1,251 to

1,501 to

1,751 to
Over

750
1,000
1.250
1.500

1 .750
2,000
2,000

23. RANGE OF SALARIES

Addison, J't. Warren, N.Y. Tompkins, N.Y . Total

Total

I
I

5
9
8

S
I
I

I
I

5
6

3
3
3

5
5
2
6
10

4
I
2

5
6

24. PASTORAL SERVICE TO CHURCHES

Pastors Addison,

Serving Vt.

T point 25

2 points 3

3 points 2

4 points I

5 points o

6 points o

(31)

JVarrcn,
N.Y.

Tompkins,
N.Y.

Total Number
Pastors Serving

13
8

4
0

15
14

(26)

0
(35)

(92)

25. PASTORS' SALARIES CLASSIFIED ACCORDING TO TYPES
OF COMxMUNlTIES

Industrial

Afaxiniuni $1,800

Minimum 585

Average 1,178

Summer
Resort

$2,500

975

1,557

Non- All s

resort Hill J 'alley Counties

$1,850 $1,750 $2,050 $2,500

9S.10 375 375 98. 10

1,225 1,203 1,324 1,289.30

104

APPENDIX II

26. SUNDAY SCFIOOLS

Per

Per cent.

cent. Aver- of Aver- Num-

of age Total total age her

total Enroll- Aver- Sunday Attend- pupils

Number Total Church nient age School ancc from

of Enroll- Enroll- per Attend- Enroll- per Eartn

Schools nient nient School ance ment School Homes
Addison,

Vt Z7 ^140 58 58 1262 59 34 1202

Warren,

N. Y 36 1880 76 52 1 168 62 32 595

Tompkins,

N. Y 50 3781 80 175 1981 52 40 1847

Total... 123 7801 72 63 441 1 57 36 3644

279 (Memberships of 9 separate Sunday Schools)
Total 8080

Sunday School enrollment of 3 counties.
(70% of Church Enrollment)

27. SUNDAY SCHOOL STATISTICS

Addison,

Number of Sunday Schools Having: I 't.

Provision for leadership 3

Efforts to increase attendance 15

Organized departments 18

Cradle rolls 24

Home departments IS

Teacher training classes 8

Sunday School papers 34

Libraries 25

Home Mission study 21

Annual picnics 26

Socials 17

Other social times as a whole 14

Other organizations o

Classes to prepare for church

membership 2

Number pupils beyond High School 75
Number pupils entering Christian

work during last 10 years 8

Number pupils joining church last

year 84

From how many churches 15

JVarren,

Tompkins,

Tota.

N. Y.

.SI

106

180

134

276

23,

105

THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN COLONIAL COUNTIES

28. PUBLIC SCHOOL VERSUS SUNDAY SCHOOL
ENROLLMENT

Addison, Vt. . . .
Warren, N. Y. .
Tompkins, N. Y

Total

Total Number

VoiDu/ People

Total

Under 31 in

Number in

Percentage of

Rural I'opiila-

Rural Churches

Public School

tion .Itteiidinq

.Ittendiui;

Pupils in

Public Sehools

Sunday Schools

Sunday School

3400

2140

63%

2443

1880

77%

3063

3781

123%

8906

7S0I

29. AVERAGE PER CAPITA CONTRIBUTION IN RESORT AND
NON-RESORT COMMUNITIES OF WARREN COUNTY, N. Y.

Expenses: 22 Resort Churches Average Per Capita

Salaries 56% $14-97

Benevolences 15% 4.17

Other , 29% 7.85

$26.99
Receipts:

Subscription 56% $15.16

Collection 35% 9.66

Other 9% 2.29

$27.11

Expenses: 23 Non-Resort Churches Average Per Capita

Salaries 42% $ 9.12

Benevolences 24% 5 ^y

Other 34% 7.45

$21.94
Receipts:

Subscription 87% $19.03

Collection 8% 1.87

Other 5% 1.05

$21.95

106

UNIQUE STUDIES OF RURAL AMERICA
TOWN AND COUNTRY SERIES TWELVE VOLUMES

MADE UNDER THE DIRECTION OF

Edmund deS. Brunner, Ph.D.

What the Protestant Churches Are Doing and Can Do
for Rural America — The Results of Twenty-
Six Intensive County Surveys

Description Publication Date

(i) Church and Community Survey of

Salem County, N. J Ready

(2) Church and Community Survey of

Pend Oreille County, Washington.. Ready

i';?) Church and Community Survey of

Sedgwick County, Kansas Ready

(4) Religion in the Old and New South.. About Sept. 10

(5) The Old and New Immigrant on the

Land, as seen in two Wisconsin

counties Ready

(6) Rural Church Life in the Middle

West Ready

(7) The Country Church in Colonial

Counties Ready

(8) Irrigation and Religion, a study of

two prosperous California counties Ready

(9) The Church on the Changing Fron-

tier Ready

(10) The Rural Church Before and After

the War, Comparative Studies of

Two Surveys About Sept. i

(ii) The Country Church in Industrial

Zones About July 10

(12) The Town and Country Church in

the United States About Nov. 30

"They are fine pieces of u'ork and examples of luhat ice need to have

done on a large scale." — Dr. Charles A. Ellwood, Dept. of Sociology,

University of Missouri.

"I am heartily appreciative of these splendid results." — Rev. Charles S.

JVIacfarhand, Genl. Secy., Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in

America.

Published by GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY, New York

FOR

COMMITTEE ON SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS SURVEYS

III FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK

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