no day-by-day account for any extended period has been
uncovered.

This ethnographic analysis demonstrates the merits of the "civilization
approach" to history. Examining every aspect of a society, it provides
more than a mere "battles and leaders" account. The result gives insight
into a "style of life" rather than a chronology of highlights. This
study has investigated the full institutional structure of the Fair Play
frontier, evaluating that structure in terms of a developing democracy,
or, at least, of democratic tendencies.

American civilization was a frontier civilization from the outset, and
that frontier experience was significant in the development of American
democracy. Frederick Jackson Turner's frontier thesis, which has
probably inspired more historical scholarship than any other American
thesis, stated that "the existence of an area of free land, its
continuous recession, and the advance of American settlement westward,
explain American development."[5] That development took place on
successive frontiers stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific Coast
over a period of almost three centuries. Turner's second frontier, the
Allegheny Mountains, marked the farmers' frontier of the Fair Play
settlers of the West Branch Valley.

It was on the frontier, according to Turner, that the "true" traits of
American character emerged; its composite nationality, its self-reliant
spirit, its independence of thought and action, its nationalism, and its
rationalistic approach to the problems of a pioneer existence. The Fair
Play settlers, American frontiersmen, suggested some of these traits in
their character. Recognizing the data limitations of this study, the
evidence indicates some validation of this test of Turner's model.
However, it would be presumptuous indeed to conclude that this analysis
offers a complete demonstration of the impact of the frontier in the
development of traits of character which Turner classified as American.

The composite nationality of the Fair Play settlers is particularly
evident from the demographic analysis offered at the beginning of this
study.[6] Seven different national stock groups appeared on this
frontier: Scotch-Irish, English, German, Scots, Irish, Welsh, and
French. Here, indeed, was "the crucible of the frontier," in which
settlers were "Americanized, liberated, and fused into a mixed race."[7]

The legendary self-reliance of the frontiersman is not without some
basis i