252 Percy Wells Bidwell 



them off more or less distinctly from the small number of larger 

 towns and so justify the classification. 



The Villages. 



A part of the inhabitants of the inland towns lived in villages, 

 small groups of houses often surrounding the meeting house on the 

 top of a hill in the center of the town, or lying stretched out along a 

 single broad street, or enclosing an open square at the intersection 

 of two highways; the remainder lived in farm-houses scattered over 

 the area of the town outside the village. It was these village settle- 

 ments which, as President Dwight so clearly pointed out,^ distin- 

 guished southern New England from the Southern states as well 

 as from the frontier regions of the northern parts of New England 

 and from the new communities in the Western states. Resulting 

 originally from a need of protection from the hostile natives and 

 also from the desire to have dwellings convenient to the place of 

 religious worship, these villages became a traditional part of New 

 England life and served to foster the growth of a communal spirit. 

 They made possible compulsory education of children and in gen- 

 eral prevented the degeneration in manners and morals which in- 

 evitably follows as a consequence of dispersion of people in a new 

 country.^ 



From the point of view of the economic life of the inhabitants, 

 however, these villages were not significant. In the first place, they 

 were not large enough to include any very great proportion of the 

 entire population, and, besides, the occupations of the village dwellers 

 were essentially the same as those of their fellow-townsmen. As 

 regards the size of these villages, contemporary writers have given 

 us an abundance of information. In 1781 Chastellux referred to 

 Lebanon, Conn., as one of the most considerable towns, i.e., villages, 

 in the country (in the rural inland region.) It had 100 houses which 

 were somewhat scattered.^ The same writer found 50 houses around 



' Dwight, Timothy. Travels in New England and New York. 4 vols. London. 

 1823. I. 300-303. 



^ The importance of the services rendered by the country churches in fur- 

 nishing a social center can hardly be over-emphasized. A clear statement of 

 the nature of these services is found in Adams, Charles Francis. Three Episodes 

 in Massachusetts History. A Study in Church and Town Government. 2 vols. 

 Boston. 1892. II. 750-751. 



3 Chastellux, Francois Jean, Marquis de. Travels in North America. 2 vols. 

 London. 1788. I. 455. Another French traveler who passed through this town 

 a few years later found 150-160 houses in the village. See La Rochefoucauld- 

 Liancourt, Due de. Travels through the United States of North America. 2 vols. 

 London. 1799. L 515. 



