206 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 



THE HILL FOLK 1 



FLORENCE H. DANIELSON AND CHARLES B. DAVENPORT 



THE following report is the result of an investigation of two 

 family trees in a small Massachusetts town. It aims to show 

 how much crime, misery and expense may result from the union 

 of two defective individuals how a large number of the present 

 court frequenters, paupers and town nuisances are connected 

 by a significant network of relationship. It includes a discus- 

 sion of the undesirable traits in the light of the Mendelian 

 analysis. It presents some observations concerning the relation 

 of heredity and environment, based on their effects upon the 

 children. While it is not an exhaustive study of all the ramifi- 

 cations of even these two families and their consorts, it may be 

 sufficient to throw some light on the vexed question of the pre- 

 vention of feeble-minded, degenerate individuals, as a humane 

 and economical state policy. 



The town in question lies in a fertile river valley among the 

 New England hills. It is on the direct railway line between 

 two prosperous cities. East and west of it are more hilly, 

 less productive towns. Its present population is about 2,000. 

 Most of the people are industrious, intelligent farmers. A 

 lime kiln and a marble quarry are the only industries of im- 

 portance. In summer the population is nearly doubled by city 

 boarders. 



Into one corner of this attractive town there came, about 

 1800, a shiftless basket maker. He was possibly of French 

 origin, but migrated more directly from the western hill region. 

 About the same time an Englishman, also from the western 

 hills, bought a small farm in the least fertile part of the town. 

 The progeny of these two men, old Neil Rasp, 2 and the Eng- 

 lishman, Nuke, have sifted through the town and beyond it. 



1 Adapted from Excerpts from Report on a Rural Community of Heredi- 

 tary Defectives. Eugenics Record Office Memoir No. 1, Cold Spring Har- 

 bor, X. Y. 



2 The few names which are used in the description of this community are 

 fictitious. The local setting and the families and all the other details 

 actually exist, but for obvious reasons imaginary names are in every case 

 substituted for the real ones. 



