Six Thousand Country Churches

ot adequately performing its great and difficult task. It is equally evident that no institutio

ves more seriously to the task in hand, and make really effective use of improved organization and available human and material resources, the country church will continue t

n, Noble, Pike, Ross, Scioto, Vinton, and Washington. In this area, after more than a hundred years of the work of the churches, the religious, social, and economic welfare of the people are going down. Although the churches have been here for more than a century, no normal type of organized religion is really flourishing, while the onl

rviews and correspondence with local merchants, physicians, clergymen, school teachers, superintendents of schools and churches, farmers, and Sunday school workers. Information confirming what had already been received was found in the stat

n other counties bordering upon them are shaded more lightly. Many communities in these ten

, 1910, and 1911 (the latest we could secure on this subject), give the average annual deaths from this disease for 100,000 persons, as 125 for the whole State. On Map 1, all counties are shaded whose

e than Franklin. In Clermont County it is 164, in Scioto 169, in Lawrence 172, in Ross 175, in Gallia 184, while in Pike it is no less than 216,-far larger than for any other rural c

hirds of the Eighteen Counties the rate of death from this

n Counties or the counties bordering upon them. No less than thirteen, or more than two-thirds, of the Eighteen Counties have an excessive number of illegitimate births. Outside this area and the bordering counties the highest rate for any county is 61, but in ten of the Eighteen Count

al counties. But in Hamilton, containing the city of Cincinnati, the rate is only 66, in Franklin, cont

re 29 counties in which that number was exceeded. Of these, fourteen are among the Eighteen Counties, and five border upon them. In Brown County, the percentage is 4.3, in Washing

e percentage of foreign-born persons is large, and that among counties where the foreign born are few, there are, outside the Eighteen Countie

ge for the State is 12.5, whereas in the Eighteen Counties it is only 2.3. No less than 53 counties

st of the State. They compare unfavorably with the people of counties where a large proportion are foreigners. It is true that the cause does not lie in the origin of the population. But the

re than 33 per cent of the population in 1910 were foreign born, yet in these counties, containing the large cities of Youngstown and Cl

d increasing over whole counties, while in some communities nearly every family is afflicted with inherited or infectious disease. Many cases of incest are known, inbreeding is rife. Imbeciles, feeble-minded, and delinquents are numerous, politics is corrupt, the selling of votes is common, petty crimes abound, the schools have been badly managed and poorly attended. Cases o

are many communities in this region where conditions are better, such as the area immediately affected by the admirable and effective work of Rio Grande College. But there is just as little question that t

often contended that economic conditions affect religion and morals, and there is much truth in that contention. But it cannot be held that steep hillsides and sterile soil of themselves produce conditions such as ar

Eighteen Counties. (See Map 8, and Table A, column 8.) In Adams, Athens, and Monroe Counties, the value of farm property is only 10 milli

00 to 1910. There were only ten counties in the State in which farm property had not increased more than 25 p

e in the Eighteen Counties. (See Map 10.) In the remaining five the land is valued at not more than $50.00 per acre. It becomes impossible,

ilable. In some of the poorest regions in the Eighteen Counties an occasional farmer is making a good living from the soil, although his land by nature is no better than that of his poor neighbors.

al, intellectual, social, and moral conditions of the people who live upon it. Undoubtedly this is as true in southeastern Ohio as it is elsewhere. Poor soil, as a rule, does not hold upon itself the most enterprising families so tenaciously as good soil

ounties than in many other areas where fairly good moral conditions are found. They are no worse than they were in the parish of John Frederick Oberlin, nor in many fairly prosperous New England communities o

ities of southeastern Ohio, were bad. But the response to the work of a church which gave good service was all that could have been anticipated. Even the economic conditions were notably

ally of the churches of the prosperous districts, to assist the weaker churches not only with supervision and advice, but also by helping to pro

rs, at least, they have not had. (See the next chapter.) Their ecclesiastical and religious conditions are such as afford no ground for expecting better social, moral, and physical conditions than those actually foun