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Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables and maps
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 The revolutionary frontier, 1763–1800
- 2 The failure of the covenanted community and the standing order, 1791–1815
- 3 Religion and reform in the shaping of a new order, 1815–1828
- 4 From an era of promise to pressing times, 1815–1843
- 5 A clamor for reform, 1828–1835
- 6 The great revival, 1827–1843
- 7 A modified order in town life and politics, 1835–1850
- 8 Boosterism, sentiment, free soil, and the preservation of a Christian, reformed republic
- Conclusion: Religion, reform, and the problem of order in the Age of Democratic Revolution
- Appendix A Church records
- Appendix B Types of towns
- Appendix C Occupational groups
- Appendix D Statistical methods
- Notes
- Index
Appendix B - Types of towns
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 August 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables and maps
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 The revolutionary frontier, 1763–1800
- 2 The failure of the covenanted community and the standing order, 1791–1815
- 3 Religion and reform in the shaping of a new order, 1815–1828
- 4 From an era of promise to pressing times, 1815–1843
- 5 A clamor for reform, 1828–1835
- 6 The great revival, 1827–1843
- 7 A modified order in town life and politics, 1835–1850
- 8 Boosterism, sentiment, free soil, and the preservation of a Christian, reformed republic
- Conclusion: Religion, reform, and the problem of order in the Age of Democratic Revolution
- Appendix A Church records
- Appendix B Types of towns
- Appendix C Occupational groups
- Appendix D Statistical methods
- Notes
- Index
Summary
Types of towns
The towns in the valley that are suitable for statistical study do not represent a cross section of all towns in the valley. Two of the nine are major marketing and manufacturing towns, and the remainder are fully developed agricultural towns on good or fair land located near the Connecticut River (Map I). That makes it necessary to examine the valley more broadly, to determine whether the towns studied intensively were representative of towns with similar settlement patterns and social structures and to learn how they differed in their behavior from dissimilar towns, especially those less developed and farther from the navigable parts of the Connecticut River.
For the purpose of such comparisons, the valley's towns were classified into four groups, two of which are composed of several subgroups. Towns were classified primarily according to the date of their settlement, the density of their population in 1830 and 1840, the quality of their farmland, and the level of their mercantile, manufacturing, and professional activity in 1830 and 1840. However, towns that had banks, regular newspapers, or county seats were often raised to the status of secondary marketing, manufacturing, and professional centers, despite poor land, remote location, and limited nonagricultural economic activity (Map 2).
This system of classification was modeled after the systems used by Edward Cook in his study of political leadership in eighteenth-century New England, and by William Gilmore in his study of literacy and reading habits in the upper Connecticut River Valley from 1760 to 1830.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Democratic DilemmaReligion, Reform, and the Social Order in the Connecticut River Valley of Vermont, 1791–1850, pp. 316 - 318Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1987