ng the political system, an effort has been made to
validate the story of the locally-famed Pine Creek Declaration of
Independence. Although some evidence for such a declaration was found,
it seems inconclusive.

The West Branch Valley was part of what Turner called the second
frontier, the Allegheny, and so this agrarian frontier community has
been examined for evidence of the democratic traits which Turner
characterized as particularly American. This analysis is not meant to
portray a typical situation, but it does provide support for Turner's
evaluation. As this was a farmer's frontier, and as transportation and
communication facilities were extremely limited, a generally
self-sufficient and naturally self-reliant community developed as a
matter of survival. The characteristics which this frontier nurtured,
and the non-English--even anti-English--composition of its population
make understandable the sentiment in this region for independence from
Great Britain. This, of course, is supremely demonstrated in the
separate declaration of independence drawn, according to the report, by
the settlers of the Fair Play frontier.

Fair Play _society_ is, perhaps, the second-most-important facet of this
ethnographic analysis. An understanding of it necessitated an inquiry
into the social relationships, the religious institutions, the
educational and cultural opportunities, and the values of this frontier
community. The results, again, lend credence to Turner's hypothesis.
Admittedly, Turner's bold assertion that "the growth of nationalism and
the evolution of American political institutions were dependent on the
advance of the frontier" is somewhat contradicted by the nature of this
Pennsylvania frontier. Western lands in Pennsylvania were either
Provincial, Commonwealth, or Indian lands, but never national lands. As
a result, 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 phi