ty-nine
petitioners (p. 520) sought pre-emption, a claim repeated over two years
later by some fifty-three settlers. The petition to the Supreme Council
(p. 217) for protection from the Indians in 1778 prior to the Great
Runaway bore forty-seven names.

[14] _See_ Chapter Two for a demographic analysis of the Fair Play
settlers.

[15] Clark, "Pioneer Life in the New Purchase," p. 28.

[16] "Eleanor Coldren's Deposition," p. 222.

[17] _Ibid._

[18] _See_ Chapter One for the geographic bounds of the Fair Play
territory. The Fair Play territory did not come under State jurisdiction
until the second Stanwix Treaty in 1784. Regardless, it must be
remembered that settlers on the south bank of the Susquehanna actually
participated in the political, economic, and social life of the
community. The fact that these participants were often community leaders
was pointed out in Chapter Six.

[19] _See_ the footnotes in Chapter Five referring to _The Journal of
William Colbert_.

[20] Smith, _Laws_, II, 195.

[21] Leyburn, _The Scotch-Irish_, pp. 311-314.

[22] _The Journal of William Colbert._ Colbert had been received at
Annanias McFaddon's (Aug. 20, 1792, Sept. 4, 1793) and John Hamilton's
(July 23, 1792, Aug. 20, 1793), where he both preached and lodged. Both
were Presbyterians, and, as noted earlier, Colbert expressed grave
doubts concerning his efforts there.

[23] "Diary of the Unknown Traveler," p. 307.

[24] Turner, _Frontier and Section_, p. 5.

CHAPTER EIGHT

_Frontier Ethnography and the Turner Thesis_

In the first chapter of his recent study, _The Making of an American
Community_, Merle Curti suggests that "less is to be gained by further
analysis of Turner's brilliant and far-ranging but often ambiguous
presentations than by patient and careful study of particular frontier
areas in the light of the investigator's interpretation of Turner's
theory."[1] This study was undertaken with just such a purpose in mind.
In addition, it is hoped that this investigation will give some insight
into the value of ethnography and its usefulness as an analytic
technique in studying the frontier.

By definition, ethnography is "the scientific description of nations or
races of men, their customs, habits, and differences."[2] Frontier
ethnography is the scientific description of the full institutional
pattern of a particular group of people, located specifically on a
certain frontier, within a certain period