SIX THOUSAND COUNTRY CHURCHES

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
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SIX THOUSAND COUNTRY
CHURCHES

BY

CHARLES OTIS GILL

AND

GIFFORD PINCHOT

AUTHORS OF “THE COUNTRY CHURCH”

PUBLISHED UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF THE FEDERAL COUNCIL
OF THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST IN AMERICA

New York
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1919
All rights reserved

Copyright, 1919
By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

Set up and electrotyped. Published November, 1919

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF MAPS

INTRODUCTION

In 1913 Mr. Gill and I published, under the authority of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America, the results of an inquiry into the condition of the country church in two typical counties—Windsor County, Vermont, and Tompkins County, New York. The disclosure of the conditions in these two counties and the conclusions to which they pointed led to the creation of the Commission on Church and Country Life of the Federal Council. Under the direction of the Commission, it was resolved to extend the investigation of the country church to an entire State. For the reasons given hereafter, the choice fell upon Ohio.

For the plan whose execution and results are here set forth, Mr. Gill and I are jointly responsible. It was submitted to, and revised and approved by, the Commission on Church and Country Life, in whose name and under whose direct supervision it was carried out. The field work was done entirely by Mr. Gill or under his immediate direction as Secretary of the Commission, and he also worked up in the office the result of his work in the field. As in the case of “The Country Church,” I am responsible for the final revision of the manuscript for the press. It is now published with the approval of the Commission on Church and Country Life, and as a report of its work.

In the introduction to “The Country Church,” I said and I desire to repeat,—“Mr. Gill’s peculiar fitness for the work of this investigation arises in part from his long and intimate personal acquaintance with the problem of country life. For fifteen years he has been a country minister. One of his tasks was to establish a church in a country community in Vermont which had been without one for more than twenty years. When Mr. Gill came to it, the moral and social laxity of the whole community was flagrant. Disbelief in the existence of goodness appeared to be common, public disapproval of indecency was timid or lacking, and religion was in general disrepute. Not only was there no day of worship, but also no day of rest. Life was mean, hard, small, selfish, and covetous. Land belonging to the town was openly pillaged by the public officers who held it in trust; real estate values were low; and among the respectable families there was a general desire to sell their property and move away.

Then a church was organized. The change which followed was swift, striking, thorough, and enduring. The public property of the town, once a source of graft and demoralization, became a public asset. The value of real estate increased beyond all proportion to the general rise of land values elsewhere. In the decade and a half which has elapsed since the church began its work, boys and girls of a new type have been brought up. The reputation of the village has been changed from bad to good, public order has greatly improved, and the growth of the place as a summer resort has begun. It is fair to say that the establishment of the church under Mr. Gill began a new era in the history of the town.”

It was with this record of practical success in the country church, supplemented by the very unusual experience as an investigator which he acquired in collecting and analyzing the material for “The Country Church,” that Mr. Gill approached the task whose results are here set down. The task of ascertaining with accuracy the conditions of the country church in other portions of the United States still remains. The remedies are yet to be applied.

Gifford Pinchot.

Milford, Penna.
Aug. 26, 1918.

SIX THOUSAND COUNTRY CHURCHES

PART I
CONDITIONS AND REMEDIES

County atlases were consulted, and verifications and corrections were obtained from many sources. The topographical maps issued by the United States Geological Survey gave the locations of certain churches. The Year Books of the various denominational bodies were in constant use for verification and reference, as were the United States Census, the Ohio Statistical Reports, and other Government documents.

In the different sections of Ohio Mr. Gill made extensive investigations on the ground, while large numbers of country ministers and church members were consulted personally. Specific information has thus been collected in nearly every township, while at country church institutes and conferences in various parts of the State, many facts were secured from the discussions on rural church conditions. Not only has information, therefore, been received from very many people intimately associated with the churches of rural Ohio, but also, and very widely, from personal observation on the field itself.

In spite of all the care that could be taken, after the work on the township maps was thought to be finished, a few other churches were discovered. If, in the future, still other churches should be found which are not on the maps, the number of them will be insignificant. Their discovery will doubtless in no wise affect the conclusions which have been drawn as to the country church situation in Ohio, nor their omission impair the general usefulness of the maps.

In the constructive work of the Commission and of the Ohio Rural Life Association for rural church betterment, as well as in the survey, the Ohio State University, under Dr. Thompson, has always given free and valuable coöperation.

For all this kind assistance the Commission and the Association are deeply grateful, and here express their hearty thanks.

CHAPTER II

While the making of the church maps appeared to be the least amount of preliminary work that would open the way for effective action, it was evident that nothing adequate could be done for rural church betterment without interdenominational, or undenominational, organization. Therefore, when the branch office of the Commission on Church and Country Life was opened in Columbus, Ohio, in August, 1914, at the same time the Ohio Rural Life Association was formed to coöperate with the Commission in its work in the State. Soon afterward a Committee on Interchurch Coöperation, consisting of executives in charge of the country churches of eleven denominations, was organized. The principles which it adopted to govern its action mark a forward step of real importance. (See page 235.)

The chief burden of making the church maps has rested upon the Commission on Church and Country Life. Its paid executive and office force have done the main part of the work, but valuable assistance has been rendered by the Ohio Rural Life Association. Much of the work was done in its name.

Incidentally, the coöperative work of these bodies has by no means been confined to the making of surveys. Country Life Institutes have been held, and an educational propaganda in the interest of the rural church has been continuously carried on, with the result that in Ohio more than in any other State has the country church gained ground in its command of public interest. As a subject for addresses and discussion the country church has a place in a large number of farmers’ institutes, and in nearly all Sunday school conventions, while during Farmers’ Week at the State Agricultural College, conferences on no other subject have attracted more people or provoked more animated discussion.

Inasmuch as the collecting of the data extended over a period of more than three years, the maps do not all represent the exact situation at the same moment. While they were being made some of the churches were being redistributed in different circuits, and membership rolls were increasing or decreasing. Since the map for their county was completed some churches have federated, or their members have all united in a denominational union church. But while the maps do not constitute a snap shot of the entire State, the changes which have taken place are too few in any way to invalidate the conclusions drawn. The total situation is indicated with sufficient correctness.

These maps should supply the indispensable basis for the readjustment that is obviously required. We hope that the publishing of them will not only register a stage of progress in the State of Ohio, but that in other States also similar work will be undertaken, and that the forward movement in rural church life will be strengthened and accelerated throughout the nation.

CHAPTER III

In one township it is reported that the average attendance in each of its eight churches is less than 25.

One of the most striking facts is the shortage of resident ministers. While a reasonable degree of interchurch coöperation should result in the maintenance of a resident pastor in nearly every township, yet in 317, or 27 per cent, of the strictly rural townships, no church has a resident pastor. (See Map 11, page 49.) More than 4,400, or about two-thirds, of the churches in rural Ohio, and 39 per cent of the villages are without resident ministers, while in the open country only 360, or 13 per cent, of the 2,807 churches have resident pastors.

The efforts of the ministers are so scattered over fields more or less widely separated that much of their effectiveness is lost. (Consult the county maps, pages 147-234.) More than 5,500 of the 6,642 country churches are without the full time service of a minister; 3,755 have only one-third or less of a minister’s services; 2,500 have one-fourth or less; while more than 750 have no regular service of a minister at all. A large number of ministers have other occupations than the ministry.

Moreover it is a rule of nearly universal application that ministers of country churches in Ohio do not remain long enough in their parishes to make effective service possible. According to the official records of the conferences of the largest and doubtless one of the most efficient of the denominations, in the fall of 1917, 48 per cent of its rural ministers were about to begin their first year, and 74 per cent either their first or second year of service in the fields to which they were appointed. Only 26 per cent had had a two years’ acquaintance with their parishes, while only 8 ministers, or scarcely more than 1 per cent, had served as long as five years. This condition is no better in nearly all the other denominations.

Because of this, and also because the effort of the ministry is divided among various and widely separated churches, the people who live in the rural districts in Ohio receive too little pastoral service. The short term also discourages the ministers from attempting to discover and meet the needs of their communities and from formulating and carrying out any adequate plans of community service. The churches, as a rule, are not trained to expect such service, nor the ministers to render it.

In certain extensive areas in Ohio the country church seems to have broken down. (See Chapters IV and V.) In regions where it has been active for a century it has failed and is now failing to dispel ignorance and superstition, to prevent the spread of vice and disease, and to check the increasing production of undeveloped and abnormal individuals. Because of the lack of an organization to coördinate the work of the denominations, and to study the field as a whole, no one has been conscious of responsibility for such failure. The conditions have not even been known by many of the church officials who were responsible, and a situation has been permitted to develop which threatens the welfare of the whole State and demands the immediate redirection of the Church’s missionary activities.

The pay of the country ministers in Ohio is small, the support of the church meager. According to the records of the Conferences held in the fall of 1917 the majority of the ministers (58 per cent) of the largest denomination received less than $1,100 each, three-fourths (74.6 per cent) less than $1,200, while the average amount was $857 and free use of parsonage. In the denomination with the second largest number of country churches the average salary was only $787, or $680 and free use of parsonage.

Over considerable areas a large proportion of the ministers are uneducated. Often they are illiterate and entirely unfitted to render service acceptable to the more intelligent part of their people. In most of the State, the standard of education for ministers is low. It is in part due to the failure of an insufficiently educated ministry to stimulate the intellectual life of the people, that from 1,500,000 to 2,000,000 people in the State have no public libraries.

Unless a larger and stronger social and religious institution is created in the country districts than is now found in the country church, the more vigorous young people will for the most part leave the country, and an inferior class will take their places on the farm. A process of reverse selection will therefore set in which must result in the general debasement of our rural population and ultimately of our nation as a whole. As is well known, this process of decadence is already taking place over very large areas in rural America.

CHAPTER IV

A most striking illustration of the churches’ inefficiency may be found in southern and southeastern Ohio. Here, in a region covering at least eighteen counties, the failure of the churches may fairly be called pathetic. These counties are Adams, Athens, Brown, Clermont, Gallia, Highland, Hocking, Jackson, Lawrence, Meigs, Monroe, Morgan, 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 only kind which, during the past fifteen years, has been gaining ground, the cult of the Holy Rollers, is scarcely better than that of a Dervish. The churches have failed and are failing to dispel ignorance and superstition, to prevent the increase of vice, the spread of disease, and the general moral and spiritual decadence of the people.

Most of the information concerning the Eighteen Counties, as for convenience, this region is hereafter called, was derived from personal investigation on the ground by Mr. Gill, from the testimony of two trained investigators, and from interviews 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 statistical reports of the national and state governments. Some of the results of a study of the reports of the Ohio Bureau of Vital Statistics and the United States Census are given in Table A and in Maps A, and Maps 1 to 10, on pages 26 to 36.

In Map A the heavily shaded area indicates the Eighteen Counties included in this region. Ten other counties bordering upon them are shaded more lightly. Many communities in these ten bordering counties are influenced by the migration of population from the Eighteen Counties.

In no less than twelve out of the Eighteen Counties, the death rate from tuberculosis is excessive. (See Map 1 and Table A, column 1.) Reports of the Ohio Bureau of Vital Statistics for the years 1909, 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 rate exceeds not 125 only, but 145. Of the seventeen counties in the State whose death rate from tuberculosis is 145 or over, all but five are in this region, and of the five one is a bordering county.

Outside this area and the bordering counties, the highest rate is in Franklin, of which the city of Columbus is the county seat; but of the Eighteen Counties, seven have a higher rate 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 county in the State. In Hamilton County, in which is the city of Cincinnati, and which is adjacent to Clermont County, the rate of 217 is probably due to the large colored population.

It will be observed, therefore, that in no less than two-thirds of the Eighteen Counties the rate of death from this preventable disease is excessively and indefensibly high.

The number of illegitimate births in the Eighteen Counties is likewise excessive. (See Map 2 and Table A, column 2, pages 28 and 37.) The rate per 100,000 population for the State is 43.9. Of the 28 counties whose rate is above the average, 19, or 68 per cent, are either in the Eighteen 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 Counties it is greater than this. Whereas the rate for the State is less than 44, in Athens County it is 65, in Noble 67, in Scioto 73, in Gallia 76, in Hocking and Monroe 78, in Ross 87, in Pike 89, in Lawrence no less than 113, while in Jackson it is 123, or the highest rate in the State.

It will be noted that these figures cover the counties in which are the large cities as well as the rural counties. But in Hamilton, containing the city of Cincinnati, the rate is only 66, in Franklin, containing the city of Columbus, it is 56, and in Cuyahoga, containing the city of Cleveland, it is only 50.

Illiteracy also, in the Eighteen Counties, is excessive. (See Map 3 and column 3 of Table A.) The per cent of illiterate males of voting age for the State in 1910 was 4.2. There are 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 Washington and Noble 4.5, in Monroe 5.4, in Adams 6.9, in Athens and Ross 7.4, in Scioto 7.7, in Gallia 8.1, in Vinton 8.4, in Hocking 8.6, while in Pike it is 10.7, and in Lawrence 11.6.

Among the remaining ten counties whose percentage of illiteracy is above the average it appears (see Map 4, page 30) that in all but three, the percentage of foreign-born persons is large, and that among counties where the foreign born are few, there are, outside the Eighteen Counties, only six for which the percentage of illiteracy is greater than 4.2, and three of these are included in the counties which border upon them.

It will be noted that in this region the number of foreign-born persons is very small. The percentage for the State is 12.5, whereas in the Eighteen Counties it is only 2.3. No less than 53 counties out of the 70 outside of the Eighteen Counties, have a foreign population of more than 2.3 per cent.

In this region, therefore, where there is so high a percentage of illiteracy, of illegitimacy, and of deaths from preventable disease, the people are more nearly pure Americans than in the rest 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 fact that these things are true in the most American parts of Ohio, where we should naturally expect to find the best situation, greatly emphasizes the significance of the conditions disclosed.

It is an additional indictment against those who are responsible that in Mahoning County more than 28 per cent and in Cuyahoga County more than 33 per cent of the population in 1910 were foreign born, yet in these counties, containing the large cities of Youngstown and Cleveland, the moral and social conditions are better than in the Eighteen Counties—a rural section inhabited by our purest American stock.

Such statistical data as are here presented are but as smoke indicating fire. They do not overstate the urgency of the appeal from the unfortunate over-churched and under-ministered communities of this section. Here gross superstition exercises strong control over the thought and action of a large proportion of the people. Syphilitic and other venereal diseases are common and 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 of rape, assault, and robbery are of almost weekly occurrence within five minutes’ walk of the corporation limits of one of the county seats, while in another county political control is held by a self-confessed criminal. Alcoholic intemperence is excessive. Gross immorality and its evil results are by no means confined to the hill districts, but are extreme also in the towns.

Adams County was made notorious because in the 1910 election nearly 2,000 persons were disenfranchised for selling their votes, and there is convincing evidence that it does not stand alone. Of course there 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 the general deplorable condition of the Eighteen Counties, ascertained through the personal investigations of Mr. Gill, and confirmed by wide correspondence and the statistical data here summarized, is true.

The bad economic, as distinguished from the moral, conditions in the Eighteen Counties are largely due to sterility of soil, and to the fact that many of its hillsides are too steep for profitable cultivation. It is 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 are here described. Merely to state such a proposition is to refute it. Moral and religious poverty must bear at least as much of the blame as poverty of the soil. (See Maps 8, 9, and 10, and Table A, columns 8 and 9.)

The total value of farm property falls below 15 million dollars in but 21 of the 88 counties of Ohio. Of the 21, all but 6 are among the Eighteen Counties. (See Map 8, and Table A, column 8.) In Adams, Athens, and Monroe Counties, the value of farm property is only 10 million dollars each; in Morgan 9, in Meigs and Scioto 8, in Gallia 7, in Hocking and Pike 6, in Jackson and Lawrence 5, and in Vinton only 4.

According to the United States Census the value of farm property in Ohio increased nearly 60 per cent from 1900 to 1910. There were only ten counties in the State in which farm property had not increased more than 25 per cent during that period. Eight of these are among the Eighteen Counties. (See Map 9, and Table A, column 9.)

According to the Census of 1910, there were only 13 counties in Ohio whose land was valued at not more than $25.00 per acre. All of them are 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, therefore, to avoid the question whether the character of the soil determines the character and destiny of the people who are born upon it.

Attention should be directed in passing to the fact that the low value of the land is due in part to the failure of the people who live upon it to develop and use the natural resources which are available. 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. As a rule the agricultural opportunities of the region are neglected. For example, little fruit is grown, although both climate and soil in much of the region are very favorable to fruit production.

But it remains true that the natural conditions as a whole are not as favorable for agriculture, as they are to the north and northwest; and it is an unquestionable fact that the character and condition of the earth’s surface has a relation to the physical, 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, and for that reason we might fairly expect the people of these districts to have less vigor and less initiative. On such soil it is therefore more difficult to sustain thriving churches, and so the moral and religious life may be more prone to decline.

But soil conditions by themselves cannot demoralize a people. They can do so only where the church is failing to do its work. The natural conditions of soil and climate are by no means worse in the Eighteen Counties 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 of to-day. Even where moral, economic, and other conditions are bad, communities usually respond quickly to the work of a well-equipped resident pastor, as the experience of home missionaries abundantly proves.

In the first parish served as pastor by Mr. Gill, the soil and the people were very poor. The moral conditions, because of a church situation very similar to that of the neglected communities 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 improved as a result of the church’s work, while the moral change in the community was striking, rapid, and enduring. Men familiar with home missionary work regard such results as normal.

Where the conditions are as unfavorable as they are in the Eighteen Counties, it is unquestionably the duty of the church as a whole, and especially of the churches of the prosperous districts, to assist the weaker churches not only with supervision and advice, but also by helping to provide well-trained and well-equipped ministers, thus guarding against the ravages of an ignorant and untrained or unworthy and insincere ministry.

The people of southeastern Ohio will undoubtedly be as responsive to good church work and as ready to follow good religious leadership as the people of similar regions elsewhere. Such work and leadership for many years, 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 found to exist. Surely we cannot accept these conditions as inevitable until the church shall at least have made a serious effort to test the possibilities and learn the results of carrying out a live and modern program.