ed
the American Presbyterian system of popular rather than hierarchical
church government.[3] A prominent immigration historian has pointed out
that "the theory of Presbyterian republicanism, as a matter of church
policy, could easily be reconciled with demands of the more radical
democrats of 1776."[4] Finally, the social life and customs and, hence,
the values of this frontier society were governed for the most part by
this majority group. Thus, dogmatic faith, political equality, social
and economic independence, respect for education, and a tightly-knit
pattern of family relationships express appropriately the institutional
patterns by which the Scotch-Irish of the West Branch operated.

It is interesting to contrast the national stock groupings of this
Susquehanna frontier with the results of a study of national origins of
the American population made by the American Council of Learned
Societies and published in 1932:[5]

CHART 2

Classification of the White Population into Its National
Stocks in the Continental United States and Pennsylvania:
1790; and in the Fair Play Territory: 1784 (Expressed in Percentages).

Scotch-Irish English German Scots Irish Welsh French Other
=========================================================================
Conti-
nental
United
States 5.9 60.1 8.6 8.1 3.6 0 2.3 10.6

Penn-
sylva-
nia 11.0 35.3 33.3 8.6 3.5 0 1.8 6.5

Fair
Play
Terri-
tory 48.75 20 15 6.25 5 2.5 2.5 0
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

From this comparison it can readily be seen that the national origins of
the Fair Play settlers in no way conform to either the national pattern
or the State pattern of just a few years later. Although this limited
frontier area can be recognized as having its own individual ratio of
component stocks, it is representative rather than unique in its culture
and values. The reaction of those of other national stocks to the
frontier experience buttresses the conclusion that their values were
influenced more by the frontier than by national origin. It is this
common reaction to the problems of the frontier which gives rise to the
conclusion that this West Branch Valley environment was characterized by
and that its inhabitants held values which Turner evaluated as
democratic. The nature