The Church on the Changing Frontier

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the changing frontier. Tremendous developments have been in process. The country is in a transition stage between the stock-raising past and the agricultural future. Population has increased rapidly; population has been shifting

st mining towns on the Range, is that church services were held there. The Church migrated with its congregations. Missionaries from the East came through with the fur trappers and preached the word of God. When the land began to be taken up by settlers, im

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s move on as soon as they have "proved up" on their claims. All are poor; there is always an economic struggle going on. The old frontier spirit of "let have and let be" survives from the cowboy days. This free and easy spirit says: "Boys drinking?-well,

e for Christian enterprise. Because of the great distances and scattered population, adequate church ministry has been difficult if not impossible. People had for so long lived without a church that indifference developed. The longer they stayed the less they to

IN THE W

at Mosquero, Un

nt and Di

among those feminine luxuries with which a real, red-blooded man has little to do. On the other hand, Union, the most recently developed county of the four, still has a marked "church consciousness." The majority of the people have not yet broken with the habits and customs of the more closely settled and church

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rose, Montana, and its next-do

s comparatively short time, some churches have gone under. Beaverhead has had nine Protestant churches, of which six are now active. One church, located just outside the border of the county in Melrose, a small hamlet, is included in this report. Dillon, the county seat, has four churches, or one Protestant church for about every

OF SHERIDAN

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UNITY MAP OF BE

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OF UNION COU

a Protestant church for about every 535 people. Outside Pierre and the section occupied by the Crow Creek Indian Reservation, the rural area of the county has

t churches, one church for about every 1,020 persons; outside Sheridan, the habitable area of the county has one Protestant church for about every 220

ch are now active. Clayton, the county seat, has four churches, one for about every 625 persons; outside Clayton, the rural area of the cou

ierre and Clayton will be referred to as "town" churches; those located in villages, a classification applying to all centers with a population of 250 to 2,500, will be referred to as "village" churches; and those located in hamlets of less than 250 population or the open country will be known as "country" churc

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me of these churches, located in strategic places, acutely need buildings and equipment if they are to hold their own in the future. For others, however, the possession of buildings would be a tragedy, since they would thus become assured of a permanency which

HURCH AND P

d County,

any sign of trees. Little or no effort has been made to make them attractive. Thirty buildings are lighted by electricity. Twenty-two churches are of the usual one-room type, eleven have two-room buildings, four have three rooms, three have five rooms, six have six rooms or more. A few possess special facilities for social purposes. One to

g is used for kitchen, dining room, rest room and general headquarters. Each family brings its own tent when using the camp. The purpose is to make it a place for tired people, and especially for those who have no ca

ustrated by the two splendid buildings erected since this survey was made, and the preparations for a third which will cover an entire block. The highest value of any city church is $70,000, of any

our town churches, $2,905 by five village churches and $4,590 by eight country churches. The money was spent for new buildings, new parsonages, repairs and, in one case, for a garage to hold the prea

h Mem

esident members-16.9 per cent. and 16.6 per cent., respectively; the town figure is next at 11.7 per cent., and the village percentage is 9.83. These people have moved, or else live too far away to come to church services. In addition to the enrolled membership, there are members of distant churches who have never transferred to local churches. They are scattered through all these counties, and their number is, of course, not known and cannot be estimated. Some may

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interest. Of course, the fault is not only with the churches on the Range; it is a shortcoming of the churches everywhere. Since, however, a transient population is characteristic of this country, it would seem to be a

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country churches. As the center decreases in size, the more it draws from the surrounding country. Thus, 93 per cent. of the total resident families of city churches live in the city and 7 per cent. live outside; 87 per

is the prevailing attitude: the men are not antagonistic, but they are indifferent. All the counties have a higher proportion of men than of women in the population; each has a higher proportion of women than men in the church membership. Beaverhead, preponderant by 58.3 per cent. in males, has the lowest proportion of adult men in

14.36 per cent. girls. Villages have 6.75 per cent. boys, and 12.26 per cent. girls. Open country churches have 8.19 per cent. boys, and 9.26 per cent. girls. One reason for the small nu

ctive membership being only about fifty-seven. For th

ACTIVE M

lage Town C

head 8

8 39

n 33 62

16 3

hes have fifty active members or less, and thirty-six, or 51.4 per cent., of these have less than twenty-five each. Twenty-one churches have each more than fifty active members. Forty-

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tion. It is only the larger centers that have been able to support good-sized churches. Even with the coming of irrigation, this Western country will never be as thickly populated as the East or Middle West. Nor can a fair comparison be made between the churches in the

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, sixteen churches broke even on the year and seventeen showed a net loss. Thus, 3 per cent. of all the churches remained stationary, 24 per cent. lost in me

re taken in by letter, the rest on confession of faith. This gain by confession was about 13 per ce

male

female

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