INFLUENCE OF A SINGLE FARM COMMUNITY. ' 7 



forth the ordinary farm community situation, and especially migra- 

 tory tendencies in the United States, can scarcely be doubted. There 

 seems to be one factor only in which this community differs materially 

 from most other American communities, namely, in the possession of 

 an educational institution of high-school grade for nearly a hundred 

 years, under farmer control. The farmers' centralized high school of 

 the present day is so widespread that it is by no means uncommon for 

 a farm community to have a high-school history of several years, but 

 a century of such annals is certainly exceptional. 



METHOD OF STUDY. 



An outline of the method of study will throw some light upon the 

 results. An investigator visited the community and remained there 

 for five months, making a collection of records, maps, histories, and 

 newspaper accounts, covering the period studied. Every accessible 

 source of information on the history of the farms and on the history 

 of the families which had lived on the farms was used by the 

 investigator. 



A list of the names of all students who had attended the commu- 

 nity academy was compiled. Each person on this list was traced to 

 his home farm, and note was made of his family connections, his final 

 residence, occupation, and achievements. It was found that these 

 students had scattered to all parts of the country. (See fig. 1.) 



This method of inquiry was in effect an historical analysis of the 

 community, family by family, farm by farm, institution by insti- 

 tution. 



DESCRIPTION OF THE COMMUNITY. 



GEOGRAPHY OF THE COMMUNITY. 



Belleville is a small agricultural village of not more than 500 peo- 

 ple, situated in the township of Ellisburgh, 6 miles from a railroad, in 

 Jefferson County, New York. (See fig. 2.) The country surround- 

 ing the village is a section of fine farming land, rolling in character, 

 sandy in the west, clay loam in the center, and a slate loam in the 

 east, all underlain close to the surface by limestone. It has long been 

 a good dairy section. 



SETTLEMENT AND EARLY HISTORY. 



Settlements were made near the present site of the village about 

 1802. The spot afterwards named Belleville was favorably situated 

 for milling purposes, and finally grew into a village. The first school 

 was taught in a blacksmith shop in 1805. In 1807 a log schoolhouse 

 was built, without floors, and with an elm-bark roof. Almost all of 

 the settlers came from eastern New York State and New England. 

 Vermont, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island furnished 

 the greatest number. Few foreign-born persons have settled in the 

 community, those coming being mainly of English or Irish extraction. 



