The Church on the changing frontier : a study of the homesteader and his church

This work offers a carefully measured look at how Protestant congregations shaped life on the early twentieth‑century American frontier. Drawing on a network of surveys carried out by a dedicated committee of social and religious scholars, the author follows the everyday realities of homesteaders as they built churches, forged community ties, and negotiated the challenges of isolated county life.

Field teams traveled through Montana, the Dakotas, Wyoming, Utah and neighboring regions, gathering statistics, personal observations and vivid illustrations that bring the frontier churches to life. Detailed maps and charts reveal patterns of attendance, leadership structures, and the ways faith intersected with the practical demands of farming and settlement. Readers will gain a clear picture of how religious institutions both reflected and influenced the evolving social fabric of these rugged counties, all presented in an accessible, data‑rich narrative.