The Fair Play Settlers of the West Branch Valley, 1769-1784 | Page 3

western land ordinances, and the whole controversy which accompanied the ratification of the Articles of Confederation, had no real significance in Pennsylvania. However, in subsequent years, the expansion of internal improvement legislation and nationalism sustains Turner's thesis, as does the democratic and non-sectional nature of the middle colonial region generally.[2]
The intellectual character which the frontier spawned has been described as rationalistic. However, this was a rationalism which was not at odds with empiricism, but which was more in line with what has been called the American philosophy, pragmatism. Or, to put it in the vernacular, "if it works, it's good." The frontiersman was a trial-and-error empiricist, who believed in his own ability to fathom the depths of the problems which plagued him. If the apparent solution contradicted past patterns and interpretations, he justified his actions in terms of the realities of the moment. It is this pragmatic ratio-empiricism which we imply when we use the term "rationalistic."
An examination of the role of leadership, suggested by the Curti study, presents the first summary of this type for the West Branch Valley. Here, too, the limited numbers of this frontier population, combined with its peculiar tendency to rely upon peripheral residents for top leadership, prevents any broad generalizations. The nature of its leadership can only be interpreted in terms of this particular group in this specific location.
The last two chapters of this study are summary chapters. The first of these is an analysis of democracy on one segment of the Pennsylvania frontier. Arbitrarily defining democracy, certain objective criteria were set up to evaluate it in the Fair Play territory. Political democracy was investigated in terms of popular sovereignty, political equality, popular consultation, and majority rule, and the political system was judged on the basis of these principles. Social democracy was ascertained through inquiries concerning religious freedom, the social class system, and economic opportunity. The conclusion is that, for this frontier at least, democratic tendencies were displayed in various contexts.
The final chapter, although relying to a large extent upon Turner's great work, is in no way intended to be a critical evaluation of that thesis. Its primary objective is to test one interpretation of it through a particular analytic technique, ethnographic in nature. Frontier ethnography has proved to be a reliable research tool, mainly because of its wide scope. It permits conclusions which a strictly confined study, given the data limitations of this and other frontier areas, would not allow.
Democracy, it is no doubt agreed, is a difficult thing to assess, particularly when there are so many conflicting interpretations of it. But an examination of it, even in its most primitive stages in this country, can give the researcher a glimpse of its fundamentals and its effectiveness. In a time when idealists envision a world community based upon the self-determination which was basic in this nation's early development, it is essential to re-evaluate that principle in terms of its earliest American development. If we would enjoy the blessings of freedom, we must undergo the fatigue of attempting to understand it.
Some seventy years ago, a great American historian suggested an interpretation of the American ethos. Turner's thesis is still being debated today, something which I am certain would please its author immensely. But what is needed today is not the prolongation of the debate as to its validity so much as the investigation of it with newer techniques which, it might be added, Turner himself suggested. This is the merit of frontier ethnography, and, perhaps, the particular value of this study.
To me, Robert Frost implied as much in his wonderful "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening." Yes, the "woods" of contemporary history are "lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep."
It is hoped that this investigation is the beginning of the answer to that promise, but it is well-recognized that there are miles to go.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Merle Curti et al., The Making of an American Community: A Case Study of Democracy in a Frontier County (Stanford, 1959), p. 3.
[2] Frontier and Section: Selected Essays of Frederick Jackson Turner, intro. by Ray Allen Billington (Englewood Cliffs, N. J., 1961), pp. 52-55.

Table of Contents
PREFACE iii
INTRODUCTION v
I. FAIR PLAY TERRITORY: GEOGRAPHY AND TOPOGRAPHY 1
II. THE FAIR PLAY SETTLERS: DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS 16
III. THE POLITICS OF FAIR PLAY 30
IV. THE FARMERS' FRONTIER 47
V. FAIR PLAY SOCIETY 58
VI. LEADERSHIP AND THE PROBLEMS OF THE FRONTIER 76
VII. DEMOCRACY ON THE PENNSYLVANIA FRONTIER 89
VIII. FRONTIER ETHNOGRAPHY AND THE TURNER THESIS 100
BIBLIOGRAPHY 113
INDEX 119

[Map]
CHAPTER ONE
Fair Play Territory: Geography and Topography
The Colonial period of American history has been of primary concern to the historian because of its fundamental importance in the development of American civilization. What the American pioneers encountered, particularly in the interior settlements, was, basically, a frontier