THE. RURAL CHURCH AND THE SOCIAL STRUCTURE OF SEBEWA TOWNSHEP, IONIA COUNTY, MECHIGAN Thesis {mike Degree of M. 4.. MECHEGAN “a fA’fE COLLEGE Harvey John Schweiizer, J3: ’1. t. <-,~ . ., 4 V“ , V. ‘*' -- ‘4“. J \7, . , 7‘ V..‘ ,‘ '4 H’ . .‘ ‘.‘ , ‘ tv‘. ‘4 7' r,‘ t *l”DIED”?W‘n'mrmm"7' I 3 01067 6801 Waste This is to certify that the thesis entitled "The Rural Church and the Social Structure of Sebewa Township, Ionia County, Michigan." presented by Harvey John Schweitzer, Jr. has been accepted towards fulfillment of the requirements for ALL 7". , degree in‘Sociology and Anthropology AI \7/)/,, Date—NS’Eflbfieik2 M-795 14; ..‘U :..«..».v,. . . ....v,\ .3. .1.rV...l.V. u.rn.1..¢.....€\..¢ um Harm. . .. .’ .3 .. . .1... , ... . . 11.. . h ... I «...... ... ...» K‘IW... .rtt_fi¢;u..‘|v\4 ...1MW zygivvrh hurt; b ....Sydrlfi .... .. . .. . .. J.w.,m1....§...{y1.3mm“... « THE RUPAL CHUPCH AND THE SOCIAL STRUCTURE OF SEBEWA TOWFSHIP, IONIA COUNTY, MTCHIGAN RY Harvey John Schweitzer, Jr. A TFESIS Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies of Michigan State College of Agriculture and Applied Science in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS Department of Sociologv and Anthropology 1947 lll.'tllrl‘l|llllulll .‘lllllllll‘l. IIII‘ lllll'l‘lI-t [[ulll‘ I'll! .llll" llll. (Ill: .ll TABLE OF CONTENTS PART I INTRODUCTION TO THE STVDY' CHAPTER PAGE I. PURPOSE, SCOPE AND INPORTANCE --------------- 1 II. THE RURAL CHURCH IN A CHANGING SOCIETY ----- 9 PART II ‘II. III. II. III. IV. III. IV. TFE TOWNSHIP HISTORICAL SETTING ------------------------- SS PHYSICAL SETTING --------------------------- 38 POPULATION --------------------------------- 47 PAPT III SOCIAL ORGAVIZATION METHODOLOGY -------------------------------- 55 TRADE CENTEPS .............................. so NEIGHBORHOODS ------------------------------ 63 SCHOOL DISTRICTS --------------------------- v4 CHUPCPES ................................... 78 PART IV SOCIAL INTERPELATIONSFIPS METFODOLOGY -------------------------------- 91 LEADEPSHIP corFIOURATION AND VISITATION IN WEST SEBEWA ------------------------- lOO LEADERSHIP CONFIGURATION IN SEBEWA CENTER -- 119 CFUPCP LEADERSVIP AND CO-WORKER CROICES IN SEPEWA CENTER 1 193308 I'll" {[lllllilll‘ l ..... CONCLUSIONS ------------------------------------ APPEVDIX ....................................... BIRLIOGRAPHY ................................... 11 152 Number Page I. LOCATION OF SERENA TONNSRIP ............. 4O 11. ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHIC LIVISIONS OF NICRIGAN- 41 III. TYPE OF EARNING AREA IN MICHIGAN -------- 43 Iv. SOIL TYPES IN SEPEWA TOWNSHIP ........... 46 V. POPULATION DISTRIBUTION, IONIA COUNTY --- 48 VI. AGE-SEX PYRANILS, IONIA COUNTY ---------- 51 VII. NUNPER OR FOREIGN RORN PERSONS, IONIA COUNTY ------------------------------ 52 VIII. FERTILITY RATIOS, IONIA COUNTY ---------- 55 IX. SEBEWA TCWNSFIP NEIGRRORROODS ........... 67 x. GRADE SCPOOL IISTRICTS, SEBEWA TOWNSRIP - 75 XI. SCROOL DISTRICTS OF IONIA COUNTY -------- 77 XII. CRURCR NENPEPSEIP, SEEEE TOTNSRIP ------ 82 XIII. LEADERSHIP CONFIGURATION, WEST SEPEWA --- 101 XIV. VISITATION CONFIGURATION, WEST SERENA --- 113 XV. VISITATION AMONG PRESTIGE CLASSES, WEST SEBEWA ------------------------- 116 XVI. LEADERSHIP CONFIGURATION, SEREWA CENTER - 120 XVII. CO-EORYER CPOICES, SERENA CENTER CONGREGATION ........................ 127 XVIII. CO-wORKER CROICES, LEVALLEY CPUPCH ----- - 157 FIGURES iii III. IV. VI. VII. TABLES ”fly-..- ‘I .0 Page AGE-SEX COMPOSITION, SEBEWA TOWNSHIP ----- 50 TRADE CENTEDS PATPONIZED BY SEBEW TOWNSHIP FAMILIES -------------------- - 61 WEST SESEWA LEALERSHIP ------------------- 108 LEAEEPSFIP, SEBEWA CEYTER ------- - ---------- 125 SEPEWA CEVTER CONCPECATION CO-WOPKER CFOICES ------------------------------ 130 CO-WOFKER CHOICES, LEVALLEY CHURCH (OFFICER CLIQUES) -------------------- 4- 155 CO-WORKER CPOICES, LEVALLEY CFWPCH (ECONOMIC CLASS CLIQUES) ------------ - 135 iv PART I INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY CHAPTER I PURPOSE, SCOPE AND IVPORTANCE The Problem: The rural church is one of America's oldest institu- tions. It was not by accident that the pioneering, west- ward moving farmers erected places of worship in the new lands they settled or that they put religion foremost, even before education in many instances. It was the search for religious freedom which led many early settlers from Europe to risk the hazardous voyage to America. The early colonists lived and worked under religious convic- tions and it was from this stock that the sons and grand- sons came who pushed westward to settle the vast farm lands of our central west. Today the rural community faces many problems. For one thing it finds itself with many institutions woefully inadequate to meet the deep social changes that are taking place within its borders. In many areas the rural church constitutes a serious problem. It not only finds itself inadequate but the larger community begins to wonder what the role of the church really is. In terms of the larger community created by technology and education many find that the church is too often a divisive factor rather than a unifying force. From the VleWpOlnt of the church many wonder how the church can be organized to become an integ- rating force in a changing rural society. The purpose of this paper is to examine in as critical and objective a way as possible the social inter-relation- ships of the people in Sebewa township in order (1) to test the hypothesis that the seven rural churches of six dif- ferent denominations in the area may be divisive factors in neighborhood and township integration, and (2) to determine what, if any, networks of informal social relationships exist in selected neighborhoods and churches within the area. In order to accomplish this objective a survey of the physical setting and the population of the township, an examination of the social institutions and the social groupings of the area and a detailed analysis of some pat- terns of informal associational behaviour in selected groups within the area which involve relationships of church mem- bers are essential elements of the study. seam: The physical setting of this study is confined to Sebewa township, Ionia County, Michigan. This area was chosen for a number of reasons: ‘ 1. Extension workers in Ionia County consider Sebewa township a problem area in obtaining c00peration in their programs. Some workers feel that the large number of churches in the area might be the cause of disunity and conflict. 2. Sebewa township has an abundance of Open-country churches which offer a rich field for investi- gating the relationships between rural churches and other social groupings. There are seven churches of six different denominations in the area. Sebewa township is typically rural. There are no towns or cities within its boundaries. Sebewa township is typical also of many other rural mid-western townships in that it is being acted upon by urbanizing influences of nearby towns and large cities and finds itself being pulled between several trade centers. Sebewa township is easily accessible from Michigan State College. Perhaps the scepe of this paper can be somewhat better defined by the stating of specific things which it attempts to do. 1. It attempts to discover the patterns of associa- tional behavior which may or may not support the hypothesis that rural churches in Sebewa township are divisive factors in community integration. It attempts to delineate neighborhoodsand infor- mal associational groups within some of the neighborhoods. It attempts to present an over-all picture of Sebewa township in terms of its resources, its people, its institutions and its background in order to acquaint the reader with the area. It attempts to give a brief sketch of the background and present position of the rural church to help the reader understand the rural church better. This paper does not aspire to be primarily a statis- tical study or a sociometric study of cleavage. Some statistics are employed and likewise some sociometrics are used for two selected neighborhoods however. The measurement of exact cleavage between members of different church congregations and between church members and non- church members in all areas of the township would be most worth-while and revealing, yet in this study it was neces- sary to concentrate on a few small areas. From the socio- metric studies of these areas it is hoped that others can carry the work on to secure a more complete picture of the township. The study does not attempt to present all the associa- tional behavior patterns within the township. The writer was faced with the choice (1) of making a very detailed study of each formal and informal group found 23 (2) of testing out the known techniques of investigating associa- tional behavior in selected groups with the dual purpose of 1) securing enough information to make the study valid, and 2) demonstrating how these techniques can be used in an educational, church or extension program. The latter choice was made since, for the purpose of the study, it seemed adequate and it also laid a good foundation for a more detailed study should interested persons wish to make one later on. Importance: ——.._—-..—.— The problem of the rural church's interrelationships with the neighborhood or community of which it is a part is important to those both inside and outside the church. In both groups there are conscientious and sincere men who have recognized the problem and are working for a clearer and more truthful picture of how the church can be a unifying and contributing agency to the community. Minis- ters in increasing numbers are beginning to recognize the unchristianness of bitter church competition on the one hand and complete ignorance of community needs on the other. School teachers, extension workers, county nurses and a whole score of other so-called secular workers are dismayed by the un-cooperative spirit and complacency of some church members who in many instances are actively reenforced by the minister himself. It is hOped that this study might have some importance to both church and secular groups. The writer is in sym- pathy with the problems of both groups yet is not a profes- sional member of either. This study should indicate to some extent the complex interrelationships that exist be- tween church and community. Likewise it offers some definite techniques of analy— zing social structure which have been tried by others and which are now being employed in this study. The techniques of investigation and methodology used are not beyond the \ 1|. all" 1'llll([ [([[:[’l[[ If’lll.l‘ll’l\[[nl|\fi l‘.lll‘l[.lll“i I II‘Ill‘v.. .i reach of the minister and the extension worker and can he used in whole or in part by them in their work. The writer is convinced that while the social researcher should con- tinually be devising new and better means of studying society he must also make his findings available to the workers in the field in a form in which they can use them. The most important phases of this study in this respect, perhaps, will be: 1) delineation of social groupings in Sebewa township, and 2) analysis of human relationships within selected groups. All students of rural sociology know that research in the field of delineation of trade areas, communities, and neighborhoods is not new. Investigation in this realm dates back to the time when G. J. Calpin toured the roads of Wal- worth County, Wisconsin, in 1911 and evolved his theory of determining trade areas by observing which way the ruts in the farmers' lanes turned. As agricultural extension work progressed, more and more interest became shown in deline- ating the neighborhood and adapting programs to meet the local needs through this smaller natural group. Some of the most recent investigations, however, have been concern- ed with a still smaller group, often within the neighbor- hood itself. This group is the informal associational group of people who visit together, exchange machinery or labor, or who are bound together by other ties of congeniality. In view of the fact that in many areas investigators have failed to find any clearly defined neighborhoods and in many such cases the trade area is the only locality group- ing people feel themselves identified with, these small informal groups and their patterns of associational behav- ior take on added significance. It is inconceivable in the writer's mind to believe that as neighborhood bonds disappear and as the trade area becomes most important in terms of identification that people will feel their great- est loyalty to this large trade area. Human nature by its very essence limits one's loyalty and feeling of intimacy and close congeniality to a relatively small number of other individuals. As long as this remains true it seems far more important to study these relationships than only to delineate the larger, more formal areas in terms of con- structing actual organizational programs. It is in this light that this study is approached, and it is here that a great deal of its importance should lie. No study has been made previously of the rural social groupings in Sebewa township and no work has been done to study the patterns of associational behavior within the groupings. In the field of the rural church itself work has been done in some areas of the country to build church programs and church cooperation on a neighborhood or com- munity basis but nothing has been done to study the patterns of associational behavior within the congregations or to show the inter-relationships of the patterns between church and non—church members. While this study attempts to analyze the social structure of Sebewa township in a way which will he_useful to rural organizational workers in all fields, it is writ- ten rather strongly from the standpoint of the rural church. If the rural church constitutes a problem in community unity, it is because of its own policies, prejudices, trad- ition and leadership. Studies of rural churches and the nature of rural people seem to indicate that the church is destined to play a continuing important role in the rural community -- either positively_or negatively. Therefore, it is the churches themselves, their members and their min- isters who must be responsible for their own activities, teaching and preaching. If it is found that an extension, health or some other kind of program fails because of the disinterest or even antagonism of various divergent church groups in the area then the responsibility rests upon the churches and their leaders. CHAPTER II THE RURAL CHURCH IN A CHANGING SOCIETY Whether one is studying social groups in Sebewa township, Ionia County, Michigan or social groupings in rural areas in general, one is constantly reminded that rural society is not static. Changes in any one realm such as agricultural technology, communication, educa- tion or government brings resultant changes in other realms of human society. There is a constant movement of balancing, compensation and adjustment that makes rural society a flowing and changing stream rather than a peaceful, quiet pool. Sebewa township is not isolated from the impact of urbanizing and changing influences. Its neighborhoods, its social groups and its institutions have in general been subjected to the same transitional forces that have Operated to the more or less same degree in all mid-' western rural farming areas. As has already been men- tioned, Sebewa township has seven rural churches. The main problem of this study is to determine the relation- ship of these churches and their members to the rest of the social structure of the township. The writer feels that at this point an inquiry into some transitional aspects of rural churches in general and an analysis of the fundamental concepts behind religion and the church will be of great value to the reader in helping him to 10 better understand the nale of the rural church in societm Despite the many and varied explanations of religion and its original, it can be stated in very broad and gen- eral terms that religion is man's relation to the super- natural or to what he believes is supernatural. Religion without a doubt has arisen from man's inability to meet the crises of his life alone. In its simplest sense the function of religion is to restore equilibrium and to initiate new interaction rates to replace the old among emotionally disturbed people. Advanced religions have taken on more complex functions. Religion is universal and is found in one form or another in every society. As T. Lynn Smith says, "Wrote Plutarch nearly two thousand years ago: 'You may find communities without walls: without letters; without kings; without money; with no need of coinage; without acquaintance with theatres or gymnasia: but a community without holy rites, without a God, that uses not prayer, 1. Spencer claims that the fundamental datum of religion is respect for the older generations of one's family and that all the manifestations of religion stem from ances- tor worship. Tylor, the champion of animism, believed that dreams and visions furnished the experiences from which man organized the concept of his own soul as sepa- rate from his body and thus arrived at the beliefs in spirits. Ndllers theory is that religion must begin with sensuous experience and that man, overwhelmed by natural phenomena around him, personified these forces and created a religion of living and thinking beings. To Durkheim, religion is the outcome of crowd excitement and is therefore ultimately nothing more than society itself personified. Joachim.wach offers the simple definition that religion is the experience of the Holy. 11 without sacrifice to win good or to avert evil -- no man ever saw or ever will see.‘ The work of modern anthro- pologists fully supports Plutarch's generalizations."2 Around his belief in something beyond himself man has built up a relationship, a system of beliefs (faith) and practices (ritual) which governs his relation with the supernatural. As religions evolve from their simple beginnings there appears a careful formation of forms of collective worship and finally the establishment of a constitution to sustain the growing organization. As one sociologist of religion has stated, "The oral tradi- tion is written down, the written tradition is collected and standardized, the doctrine is redefined and hereafter .all deviation and opinions at variance with the officially accepted teachings are classed as heresy."3 At this point, however, we are not interested pri- marily in primitive religions or in religions in general but rather in the institution of the Christian church. As in all religions, the Christian value system is based on the concepts of sacred and profane.4 The Christian religion distinguishes usually quite sharply between what is sacred and what is profane, what is religious 2. Smith, T. Lynn. The Sociology of Rural Life. New York: Harper and Brothers?”“19477""p. 418. "'"” 5. Wach, Joachim. §gciology of Peligion. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1944. p.'I43. 4. For a clearer definition of these two concepts read page 14 in particular in Emile Durkheim's The Elementary Forms of the Peligious Life. New York: TE§"VacmiIIan"" 'COmpany. 1926. - 12 and what is worldly. Inevitably certain elements of the worldly order come into conflict with religious values. In reviewing Max Weber's work on Protestantism, Parsons says in connection with this point, "In this conflict there are in principle two generally possible attitudes compatible with a consistent rational view. It is ob- vious that the world cannot be simply 'accepted'. Then worldly things can, so far as possible be controlled, mastered in the interests of the religious idea. Or, on the other hand, they may be radically devalued and become ’ndifferent. In Weber's terminology the former course is the ascetic, the latter the mystical. Each may in turn be subdivided into worldly and otherworldly types."5 At this point we can now leave theoretical abstractions behind. when we observe the rural church of today in the light of the sociology of religion, however, we can. better understand the church's role in the community. It must be recognized that the early settlers and pioneers of this country carried strong religious con- victions with them into their new homes. Religion in our country before 1900 was traditional and conservative. Doctrines were rigid and moral conduct was well defined. The lines between sacred and profane, otherworldly and wordly were carefully drawn. Primary emphasis among the evangelical denominations was upon "salvation" and the 5. Parsons, Talcott. The Structure of Social Action. New York: McGraw-Fill Book Company.’*l§37. p. 570. 15 "saving of souls". Economic, political and most social issues were usually considered to be "worldly" and quite outside the realm of the church. From the middle 1800's until the early 1900's count- less small religious societies were organized in the open country and in the villages throughout the middle west. The burning ambition of most of these societies was to erect a church edifice. Many of these churches became the centers of strong neighborhoods and around them and the grade schools revolved most of the social activity of the area. Church suppers and socials were highlights in the neighborhood. Prayer meetings and revivals brought out the faithful and the curious for miles around. Despite his occasional lack of formal training, which was often made up for by his enthusiasm and con- viction, the minister was highly respected. If he had a number of churches to serve on a circuit, as was often the case, his visits were eagerly awaited by his con- gregation. To many families the minister was often their only contact with the larger social world beyond their own neighborhood or village. But by the beginning of the twentieth century, forces which were making inroads on rural neighborhood solidarity were also undermining the foundations of the rural church in many parts of the country. The tran- sitions that have been taking place in rural society from that time to the present are well known to the 14 students of rural sociology.6 Improved agricultural technology, increased mobility due to improved trans- portation and communication, the diffusion of urban standards of living into rural areas, the irpact of the larger society on every individual farmer through govern- mental farm programs and the disrupting influences of two world Wars within this period are only some of the factors that have shaken rural societies loose from their old moorings. While most farmers have been rather quick to adopt new developments in technology dealing with crop and livestock improvement and farm machinery and power, they and their social institutions have not been able to ad- just to the changing social situation quite as easily. Religion and the institution of the rural church have been struggling the last several decades to adjust to social changes and advancements and discoveries in education and science. There has always been a funda- mental difference between the nature of rural religion and urban religion and this gap has broadened consider- ably during this period of transition. Pural religious belief and practice tend to be traditional while those of the city are more international and cosmopolitan. 6. For a good review of the changes affecting rural life in southern Michigan see Paul A. Miller's chapter, "Some Transitional Aspects of Rural Life" in his M.A. thesis The Structure of Rural Social nroupings in Livin stop County, Michigan. East Lansing: Michigan S a e College. 1946. 15 "Through what is known as cultural lag, many religious traits and practices persist in rural areas long after they have been abandoned or transformed in urban centers. As compared with other cultural elements, traits pertain- ing to religion usually change more slowly; and in the rural areas these changes are slowest of all:7 Peligious belief in general has had to meet some very challenging problems during the last half century. The traditional religion around the turn of the century ran headlong into the swift changes taking place in society in the period of transition just mentioned. New discoveries in science, especially in the fields of bio- logy and evolution, encroached upon territory once held exclusively by the church. After a period of intense conflict adjustments were gradually made in face of scientific discovery. Psychology and psychiatry have in more recent years constituted areas of conflict for some. Fore leisure time, more opportunities for enter- tainment and better means of transportation have also tempered the preachments of fine church. These are but a few of the problems which have necessitated an adap- tation in religious doctrine and belief. Churches, both rural and urban, have been confron- ted with the choice of either accepting or rejecting new advancements. As has already been mentioned, Max Weber 7. Smith, T. Lynn. op. cit. p. 422. 16 described two courses of action if the world were not accepted -- the ascetic life and the mystical. Rural churches have fallen roughly into two general classes. 1) Some churches have tried to isolate themselves from the world and have emphasized only spiritual and mystical things. They have demanded absolute obedience of young and old and any deviations have been met with strict reprisal or even expulsion. New fashions, new customs and new discoveries have been branded as sinful though gradually over a period of years some of them have been accepted. This type of very conservative church can be found much in evidence in some areas today. Among cer- tain ethnic groups or other groups of a homogeneous character these churches have often succeeded in main- taining a strong and prosperous organization. Other churches of a very conservative nature have gradually lost the support of the young peOple and the more liberalg3 elements in their congregations and are rapidly dying. - 2) Other churches have over a period of years changed their views and have interpreted their beliefs in such a way as to accept change as a natural course of events. They have taken change and discovery and have incorporated them into their doctrines and their beliefs. Instead of withdrawing from the world they have become sensitive to 8. The terms "liberal" and "conservative" used in des- cribing religious belief are relative concepts. They are used here to represent polar types. 17 the needs of society and have set about to make them- selves agencies for community betterment. Between these two polar types there range all variations of adaptation. Fowever, the only problems confronting the rural church have not been those of doctrine or belief. Not long after the turn of the century some wide-awake chunhp men realized that all was not well with the rural churdns which heretofore had been unshakable bulwarks of reli- gious faith. Rural churches were dying, their member- ship was decreasing, their programs were no longer centers of neighborhood activity, their ministers were no longer neighborhood leaders. Gradually the rural church became the topic of concern among all denominations. Today nearly all denominations have commissions devoting their time to the study of their town and country churches. Interdenominational and secular agencies have also been organized to help the rural churches with their problems? What is the rural church situation which has aroused so much attention in the past few decades? Wilson Gee10 9. Among the agencies working on the rural church and its problems are the National Catholic Rural Life Con- ference, National Lutheran Council, National Conference on Cooperation between Theological Seminaries and Col- leges of Agriculture, The Committee on Town and Country of the Home Missions Council of the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America, the Inter-Seminary Com- mission for the Training of the Ministry, The Rural Chrhr tian Fellowship, The Farm Foundation, various Colleges of Agriculture, many Theological Seminaries and a large number of denominational groups. 10. Gee, Wilson. The Social Economics of Agriculture. New York: The Macmillan Company. 1940. pp. 648-649. 18 in surveying the position of the rural church claims that only one-fifth of the rural pOpulation of the United States goes to church. Two-fifths of all rural churches are either marking time or are showing signs of loss. One out of every four rural churches has no Sunday SchodL Home missions aid must be extended to one-fifth of all rural churches in order that they may be kept alive. Seven out of ten rural churches in the United States have only a part-time pastor and one-third of all rural pas- tors have to find outside employment at some other oc- cupation to make a living. Of the 15,000,000 farm chil- dren who are under 21 years of age nearly 1,600,000 live in communities where there is no church or Sunday School of any denomination. Probably around 2,750,000 rural children do not go to any Sunday School at all. Brunner and Lorge present a picture of what has happened to rural churches between the years of 1924 and 1936 in the 140 village-centered communities they studied. 1) First of all the number of rural churches declined.11 This decrease was more pronounced in the Open country than in the villages. 2) While there were fewer rural churches in 1936 than in 1924 or laso'the number of mem- bers per church was larger. The most marked increase came in the Far West while the Middle Atlantic and South- ern States were most stable. Village membership iroreaafl ll. Brunner and Lorge. Rural Trends in Depression Years. New YOrk: Columbia University Press. 1937. p. 300. 19 from 148 in 1924 to 171 in 1936 while membership per Open-country church increased from 80 in 1924 to 93 in 1936.12 3) Church attendance declined rather steadily -- about 20 per cent for the last six years of the period studied. Tn 1924 the average monthly attendance per per- son was 1.2 and by 1936 it was .96. On the basis of resident membership in 1924 the monthly church atten— dance per member was 3.9 while in 1936 it was only 2.8.. Some of the reasons advanced for this decrease are the inability of the church to compete with other social attractions (which is supported by the findings that church attendance was better on bad days than goodls), competition of small churches staffed by poorly trained ministers and the increased proportion of people coming into villages from open-country churches. Tn connection with this latter point it was found that in 1924 31.6 per cent of the village church membership came from the open country but by 1936 38.2 per cent came from the 14 4) Between 1924 and 1950 financial sup- open country. port for rural churches declined very slightly but be- tween 1930 and 1936 support decreased sharply. Likewise, while the qualifications and training of rural ministers increased, their salaries declined nearly one-third an..- r-—- 12. Ibid. pp. 301-302. 13. In the writer's opinion this may not be entirely due to other social attractions as many farmers work on Sun- days during seasons of field work. However, work on Sun- day is itself a shift to secular values. 14. Rrunner and Lorge. op. cit. pp. 302—305. 20 between 1924 and 19356.15 A great deal has been said and written about the causes of the so-called "decline" in rural churches. Davis of the Department of Rural Sociology at Texas A. and M. attributes the decline of the rural church in the South to the following eigit factors: 1) rapid increase in the number of radios in rural homes; 2) population shift to the cities and resultant loss in rural areas of wealth and rural leaders; 5) overchurching (there being one church to every three-hundred people in the South); 4) increase in farm tenancy; 5) growth of unstable emotional sects; 6) poor physical equipment and buildings; 7) declining economic support of the rural church; and 8) competition from automobiles, highways and picture shows}5 Most of these factors are likewise responsible for the decline in other parts of the country too. In southern Michigan and other areas where industry is highly developed and where large industrial areas are found in close proximity to good farm land not only do we find a shift of farm people to the city but we find 15. This study is valuable only in indicating trends up to 1956. Salaries and financial support have undoubtedly risen much between 1956 and 1947. The exact position of the rural church cannot be known for the United States until the 1940 U.S. Census of Peligious Bodies is com- pleted and released. The student of the rural church win. find much data compiled during the 20's and the 30's but this information must be supplemented with more recent figures. 16. Davis, Dan R. "A Pural Challenge to the Protestant Church". Christian Rural Fellowship Bulletin No. 51. April 1940. 21 also a rapid increase in the number of city-reared peo- ple who move out into the country for residence. This fringe area often constitutes a religious desert or wilderness where the rural church community is divided and broken up by families whose religious loyalties are elsewhere and who feel no loyalty to the area in which they live. In these areas especially, and in all rural areas in general, there is a growing dissatisfaction among rural peeple with the hitherto accepted differences in the standard of living between city and country and a growing awareness on the part of young peeple particular» ly, of the differences between their rural religion and urban religion. Rural religion is characterized by agricultural symbolism and imagery while urban religion tends to leave behind this agricultural coloration. In rural life there is a close association between secular and spiritual planes of life while in the mechanistic atmosphere of city life this is not true. There is a more literal acceptance and interpretation of the Bible as the word of God and as a handbook for guidance in everyday affairs in rural areas. This is rapidly disap- pearing in the cities. Rural religion carries with it a traditional belief in an anthropomorphic God while as T. Lynn Smith says, "Sophisticated urban classes have abandoned it in favor of a more impersonal, all per- vasive, non-interfering force in the universe". And finally, ".... the uncompromising doctrine of the 22 salvation by one means only, a philosophic absolutism, prevails in rural areas long after more compromising 'tolerant' doctrines are widespread in the city."17 Pural youth, sepecially of high school age, pass through a critical time in their religious life when their beliefia and early religious training are brought in contact with urban philosophy. It is at this point that the rural churchloses many of its youth. The rural church has had to fit its program in with the increasing number of activities that now take place in rural communities. There was once a time when the rural pastor could preach out against any activity that interfered with the church program. Now, however, the competition is indirect and the competing agencies that draw upon the time, interest and energy of the people are not evil but are rather in most cases desirable in themselves, such as school and farm organizations. This competition has often caused cleavages between the more active church members and men and women active in other community agencies. The steadily decreasing farm population has placed additional strains upon the rural church. With the com- ing of automobiles and better roads many communities have found themselves overchurched. As farm pepulation 17. Smith, T. Lynn. op. cit. p. 425. 23 slowly shrinks, these churches find themselves hard- pressed to support themselves financially. Greater and greater financial burdens fall upon fewer and fewer shoulders.18 According to present trends in agriculture, farm population will continue to drop, in fact, must continue to decrease if agriculture is to maintain a 19 This decrease high standard of efficiency and living. plus the possible increase of rural non-farm residents will present new problems to the rural church. The question should be asked by serious students of sociology whether or not the rural church should be maintained if the present social trend seems to be city- ward. The answer depends upon the answers to these ques- tions: 13 the rural church important? -Does it or can it make a significant contribution to society? Does rural society need the church and the spiritual services it offers? In spite of the changing rural picture can 18. David E. Lindstrom presents the following picture of what happens when a church's membership decreases: "Fural churches seek more members - they need them to operate properly. With snall congregations which are diminishing, the cost of upkeep is uao high. So buildings become run down, resident ministers are let go, visiting pastors come in, the church competes with other churches in the community and finally the church ceases to operate. Many reasons are given for this trend: the atmosphere of the church is cold, increasing tenancy causes instability of membership, and people have lost interest or have been 'weaned' away by the school or other community activitiesJ’ Lindstrom, David E. The Church in Rural Life. Cham- paign: The Garrard Press. 1939. p. 53. 19. See Schultz, Theodore W. Agriculture in an Unstable Economy. New York: McGraw-Fill’Bcok Company, Inc. 1945? pp. -112. 24 rural churches be successful? And can the church and other social and educational agencies c00perate in rural community programs? The theologian and the religious person can probably testify as to the power and the force of religious faith. Unfortunately, religious faith is like love or hate; it defies definition and lies outside the realm of empirical science -- a disturbing fact for many people. The sociol- ogist in his observance of society recognizes the impor- tant role religion plays in social structure and in human interrelationships. Probably in rural areas religion directly affects more behavior than it does in cities. In T. Lynn Smith's estimation, "Religion ranks with edu- cation as a social force in rural America; in importance as a farmer's institution the rural church is rivaled only by the country school. More than any other pheno- mena, the study of religion reveals the inadequacy of present-day unilateral economic interpretation of history and society. Marx's famous statement, 'Religion is the Opiate of the people', is itself an admission that econ- omic forces are not all important. In explaining why economic forces do not work as anticipated, it admits the potency of the religious factor as a social deter- minan‘t‘.."20 20. Smith, T. Lynn. op. cit. p. 418. 25 Brunner and Kolb have this to say: "Churches rank with schools as important rural social institutions. ... Today churches are the most numerous of all social ins- titutions and organizations found in rural communities. Their investments in buildings and equipment, as well as their incomes, are larger than all others except the schools, which in some localities they equal or exceed. In the number of peeple employed, and in contributions received, they exceed all other social agencies and or- ganizations combined, except again the schools."21 Sanderson rates the importance of the rural church as follows: "Next to the family the church probably affects more rural people than any other voluntary or- ganization. It is commonly the first organization to appear in a new settlement and the closing of the church marks the death of many a rural hamlet."22 C.J. Calpin has gone so far as to say that the future of the American farmer depends upon the health of the American church. "If the American farmerslowly sinks into peasantry through national unconcern; if the rural church sinks and goes down with him; it will be due, in my estimation, to the sickness of the American church; it will be a case 21. Brunner, Edmund deS and Kolb, J.H. Puralt§ocial Trends. New York: McCraw-Fill Book Company, Inc. 1933. p. 258. 22. Sanderson, Dwight. Rural Sociology and Rural Social Organization. New York: 3053 waisytana Sons, Inc. 1942. p. 308. 26 of national decline due to the temporary eclipse of religion. It will not be a case of bad economics or bad politics..The aristocratic superiorities of a dozen righteous cults -- all so near alike that God himself is not supposed to tell them apart -- will have brought on the doom."25 What is or should be the role of the church in the rural community? It is generally agreed that the role of the church is to aid in the spiritual growth of its peOple and to develop in them an awareness of the highest values in human personality. It is to give its people hope and inspiration and to answer man's query about his own role in society. The rural church can serve as the moral conscience of the community. It can serve as a champion of cooperation, standing ready to c00perate not only with other churches but with all other agencies wor- king toward community betterment and personality develop- ment. It can train leaders for community service; it can serve as a guardian for the rights of the underprivileged; it can be an ideal and an inspiration for the community. Probably no church has ever lived up to its fullest 24 possibilities. Standing as it does in an area that is producing at least half its youth for the city, the rural 23. Galpin, C.J. "The Rural Church", Christian Pural Fellowship Bulletin F0. 37. December 1938. 24. See chapter 15, "The Pole of the Church in the Com- munity" in Rockwell C. Smith's "The Church in_pur Town. New York: Abingdon-Cokesbury Press. 1945. pp. 1674180. 27 church is an important agency in determining what kind of people the cities will get. It is known that the member- ship of city churches depends largely upon the influx of 25 Youth who have received members from rural churches. no religious training in the country or who have been dis- illusioned by the type of religious training they did receive in the country church cannot be counted upon to affiliate themselves with the city church when they leave the country. But the problem of the rural church is unfortunately becoming two-sided. Not only is the rural church having difficulties of its own in maintaining its membership and building its programs but in many cases in the eyes of individuals and agencies interested in community bet- terment the rural church itself stands as a stumbling block to progress. Can the church and other social and educational agencies cooperate in rural community prob- lems? Bitter competition between closely located churches in many areas have split communities wide Open and have made cooperation among farmers in school and extension service programs utterly impossible. Fortunately, in one 25. "Recent surveys show that the membership of the city church depends upon the rural church. The increment of the city is by transfer 80%; that of the rural church, 17%. The large city church adds to its membership 20% by acces- sion; the rural church produces 83% of its own membershipfl' Green, William Mercer. The Church and Rural Life; Evan- ston: Seabury-Western Theological Seminary. 1936. p. 10. 28 sense, most of the trouble of this kind is local and the leaders of closely related church denominations are well aware of the problem and are trying to solve it by closer cOOperation among themselves.26 In such cases of conflict the churches and their ministers are totally unaware of their responsibility to the entire community. Gradually, of course, the number of competing churches will decrease because of the inevitable death of some. But the death of a rural church is a real tragedy to any community if it results from conflict and hard feelings and leaves nothing behind it except bitterness and despair and a loss of faith in the church and human nature in general.27 26. Many methods of unifying the programs of small and often competing churches have been suggested and in many cases have proven very successful. see Pockwell C. Smith, 0p. cit. pp. 136-142 for a brief but clear description of such plans as exchange of rights, federation, larger parish and group ministry. 27. In a study of life cycles of rural churches in three Nebraska counties, A.B. Follingshead made some interesting observations. Fe divided all churches established between 1854 and 1935 into two groups. Class A consisted of de- nominations who were primarily concerned with "saving souhf. The ecclesiastical organization was entirel subordinated to this one idea. There was ruthless compe ition between these denominations especially in the earlier years. Clea; B consisted of denominations who admittedly were primarin Interested in the expansion of their ecclesiastical organ- izations. They were essentially authoritarian and main- tained that the church is the center of life. Their chur- ches were established only where their communicants were forming colonies and they became integrators of community life. During the years etween 1854 and 1935 Class A de- nomination organized 188 congregations and built 117 edi- fices. Class B organIEEd 78 congregations and built 72 edifices. Tfie'startling pETnt of the study is this: "Cf the 188 congregations organized by Class A, by 1935 128 of them had died, while of the 78 congregations in Class B only 13 had died. Overchurching, competition and lack of communit consciousness were probably important among the reasons gor the high death ra e in Class A. Hollingshead, A.B. "The Life Cycle of Nebraska Rural Chur- ches". Rural Sociology. Vol. 2, 1937. pp. 180-191. 29 One of the most promising trends seen among rural churches and in seminaries which are training men for the rural ministry is the growing consciousness of community and neighborhood. Nany seminaries have installed chairs of rural sociology to give their men training in rural social organization and to give them an acquaintance also with the other agencies in rural communities that are working to improve social, economic and health conditions. One of the latest developments has been the attempt to utilize the "natural" neighborhood or community in buil- ding up church congregations. The curse of so-called "overchurching" may not be so much that there are too many churches in general but that there are too many chur- ches in one community or neighborhood which outside of religion is undivided on all other points. If the people in one area go to the same town to trade, belong to the same farm organizations, and send their children to the same high school it stands to reason that both the com- munity and the churches themselves will suffer if these same people are divided into segments by two or three £1351 churches. Strange as it may seem, many churches and their rural ministers are just beginning to realize that to carry out their commission they must 33332 the community of which they are a part instead of demanding loyalty from a segment of that community, and that they must cooperate with all other community agencies which are trying to improve the economic and social life of the people. 30 It is at this point, this present stage in the prog- ress of the rural church, that the student of rural society might be able to be of some assistance in 1) developing and presenting techniques of studying neigh- borhoods and social interaction that car he used by the rural church, and in 2) aiding secular agencies to under- stand the role of the rural church and the patterns of interrelationships between church and non-church members in a particular neighborhood or community. The main body of this paper will he an obfiective study f the area and the people under consideration. Any rural worker, whetter a rural minister or an extension worker, would find such a study of his own area and people of tremendous value in organizing his program. At various points sugjestions will be made as to how the findings can be put to prac- tical use. And in conclusion the writer will attempt to draw together some rather general suggestions as to how such a study as this can he made in any area and how it 28 can be useful in all program planning, church or secular. -—.. '—-- --.—..-- — 28. For a more complete picture of the rural church the reader should refer to the chapters on church and religion in all good textbooks on Pural Sociology. Other excellent references are: LindstrOM, David E. Pural Life and the Church. Chamnaign: The Garrard Pres§:_1918}'§?3tE7—§Bck- WEIT'C. The Church in Our Town. New York: Abingdon- octeebury*yreeez'19453'rrnrrer: Edmund des and Irving Lorge. pural Trends in repression Years. New Vork: Colum- bia University’rreest‘issvt”rrx‘299L328; Brunner, Edmund des and J.F. Kolb. Pural Social Trends. New York: Vcflraw- Hill Book Company. I93ej'Efifi”QU8I2KI{_ Leiffer, Murray 9. City and Church in Transition. Chicago: Willet, Clark and_company§”19387-Eandolph, H.S. A Vanual for Town and “H—n- - *- 31 gguntry Churches. Board of National Missions of the Pres- BVterian Church of the U.S.A., 156 Fifth Avenue, New Vork 10, N.Y., 1945; Rrunner Edmund des. The Larger Parish, A Movement or an Enthusiasm? New York: Institute of Social and*ReIigious’Research. 1934; Fry, C. Luther. Diagnosing the Rural Church. New York: Farper and Brothers 1935. and The United States Looks at its Churches. New York: Harper and Rrothers. 1930; Morse, F.N, and—fidmund des Brunner. The Town and Country Church in the United States. New Vork: Ceorge R. Doran cc. 1923; CeeI_WIlson. rue Social Economics of Agriculture. Revised Edition. New Vork: Macmillan Co. 1942. pp. 645-672; Manifesto on Rural Life. National Cath- olic Rural Life Conference. Milwaukee: The Bruce Publish- ing Company. 1939; Van Saun, Authur Carlos. Replanning the Rural Church. Ph.D. thesis. Pennsylvania—State College. IuIy I932; fiooker, Elizabeth R. Hinterlands of the Church. New York: Institute of Social and’Feligious Desearch.'1931; Landis, Renson Y. Rural Church Life in the Middle West. New York: George P. Doran Company. 1922. Many articles and pamphlets have also been written on the rural church. An excellent source of material is the Christian Rural Fellowship, 156 Fifth Avenue, New York, which issues regular bulletins on the rural church. Anothme regular publication is the Town and Country Church which is published nine times a year by the Committee on Town and Country, Home Missions Council of N.A., The Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America, and the Inna» national Council of Deligious Education. Publication office: Tenth and Scull Streets, Lebanon, Pa. A few other specific articles and bulletins which may prove helpful and which may suggest other sources of material are as follows: The Church and Land Tenure (1940), The People, the Land, and the Church in the Rural South (1941), and The Psople, the Land, and the Church in the Rural West (1913), all mimeographed, Farm Foundation,“600 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, Illinois; Felton, Falph A. Cooperative Churches. Department of Rural and Community Life, Adrian College, Adrian, Michigan. 1947; Tripp, Thomas Alfred. "Rural Peo- ple and the Church". Social Action. Vol. 5, No. 5, May 15, 1939; What Emphasis For the Churdfi in Town and Country? Committee on Town and Country, Rome Missions Council and the Federal Council of the Churches. 297 Fourth Ave., New York; Mbomaw, I.W. Rumal Life Objectives. General Mission Roard of the Church of the ththern, Elgin, Illinois,1945. PART II THE TOWNSHIP CPAPTER I HISTORICAL SETTING EE§EP:X: A brief history of Sebewa Township will give the reader a better understanding of the area and the peeple under consideration. Ionia County, of which Seb- ewa Township is a part, was organized in 1857 and the first election was held in April of that year. At that time the county was composed of but two townships: Ionia and Maple. The latter is now divided into several town- ships and the name is no longer retained. Sebewa Township itself was organized March 19, 1945. Previous to that time it was a part of Rerlin Township. An extract from the flistory_and Directorymof Ionig_gounty, Michigan published in 1872 has this descriptive picture of the township about thirty years after it was organized. "Sebewa is in the southern tier of townships in Ionia County and is bounded on the north by Orange, on the east by Danby, on the south by Surfield, in Eaton County, and on the west by Odessa. The soil of Sebewa is mostly a clay loam, though in some parts slightly sandy. It is well adapted to wheat—growing and is quite largely under cultivation. Near the center of the town is a large swamp extending nearly the whole length of the town. This swamp is mostly covered with timber, though in the northern part is an Open huckleberry marsh. It lies 53 54 high enough to be capable of being converted into good grass land by thorough drainage. The timber is mostly beech and maple, and sugar-making is quite extensively carried on every spring, some farmers making as high as a thousand pounds in one season. Fruit of nearly all kinds suitable to this latitude is successfully raised. In the eastern part of the township are many fine farms // under good cultivation."1 The first white resident in Sebewa Township was a Mr. Jones who, with his wife, came in 1836 by foot. They were extremely poor and after living in a tent in the woods for awhile, anon tired of existing on herbs and roots and so moved on. That same year Jacob Showerman came to the area and selected one-hundred and sixty acres in section twenty-two but he did not move in with his family until the fall of 1839. In 1838 three sett- lers moved in from the state of Vermont. John Terrill became a permanent resident on section twenty-five and Charles Ingalls and John Brown settled on section thirty- six. In 1839 Wm. Hodge, John Maxim, Joseph Munn, Jacob Showerman and Eleazor Brown moved into the township and by 1845 there were sixteen taxpayers in the township. The assessment flar 1872 showed two-hundred and fifty-one names 0 1. History_and Directory of Ionia County, Michigan. Com- piled and published by J. D. Dillenback, County History, Directory and Map Publisher. Grand Papids, Michigan. March 15, 1872. p. 86. 55 In 1843, Terrill developed water power on Sebewa creek with Anson Ralhert, his son-in-law, and built a saw mill west of Sebewa Corners. Ry 1872 this mill had rotted down. Halbert also built a log house at the Cor- ners and opened a store in part of it. In 1850, Vessrs. Lot and Green built the Sebewa Flouring-mill on Sebewa Creek which for a long time did an excellent business. A grist-mill owned by Rogers and Ingalls was located a mile below the Sebewa mill on the same stream and also using the same stream for power was a small saw mill owned by Jacob Collingham. In section six Carter and Davis owned a steam saw mill with a five-foot circular saw cap- able of cutting about eight thousand feet of lumber per day. A large steam saw-mill and spoke-factory was located on section one on the north line of the township. In 1872 it had one large circular saw, a planing mill and other machinery and was doing an extensive business having a capacity of ten thousand feet of lumber per day. In honor of Charles Ingalls, one of the first set- tlers, it was proposed to call the township "Charleston", but the Indian name "Sebewa" meaning "little river" for the creek winding through the eastern side of the town- ship was finallv chosen. Sebewa Township had one village within its limits known as Cornell which according to his- torical records was platted April 11, 1867 and contained 96 lots. It was platted in Ranbv Township in 1880 and was renamed Sebewa - the name which marks the tiny hamlet today. 56 The first post office was established January 1847. And like the early settlers in all parts of the middle west, the settlers in Sebewa Township were not long in organizing both schools and churches. The First Raptist Church Society was organized in 1858 and had a membership of around fifty persons. They erected a church building, thirty by forty-six feet in size, in 1871 on section thir- ty. This society still remains and figures in our present study of Sebewa Township. In 1866 the First Presbyterian Society was organized and the society had a church buil- ding on section seven. This congregation is no longer in existence. The Methodists for some time held their meet- ings over a blacksmith shop in what is now the hamlet of Sebewa and in 1879 a Mr. Friend gave the Methodist people an acre of land and $500 to help build the present Method- ist church. The first school house in the township was built on the bank of Sebewa Creek in 1843 on section twenty-five according to one account. By 1872 all the present school districts were organized and functioning. The old his- torical account of these schools gives us an idea of the early schools: "District No. l, fractional with Danbv, has its schoolhouse on section twenty-four. It is an old wooden structure. District No. 2 has a cheap wooden building, erected in 1855, on section thirty-two. 57 District No. 5 has a very good white framaibuilding, costing $800. It was built in 1867, and stands on secthi five. District No. 4 has a framed building on section twenty-two; cost $400. District No. 5, fractional with Portland, Orange and Danby, has a fine building, standing just into the corner of Portland. Its cost was over $1,000. District No. 6, fractional with Danby, has a good framed building on section twenty-four, erected in 1858. Cost $500. District No. 7 has a white framed building on sec- tion twenty called the Baldwin school-house. District No. 8 has a white framed building, situated on section ten. It was built.in 1869. District No. 9 is fractional with Orange, the school building being located in the latter township."2 2. Ibid. p. 88. CHAPTER II THE PHYSICAL SETTING Location: Sebewa township is located in the southern tier of townships in Ionia County. Ionia County itself is in the south central portion of the state of Michigan. It is located in the third tier of counties from the western boundary of the state which is bordered by Lake Michigan, and it is in the fourth tier north of the southern boun- dary. Sebewa township is bordered on the east by Danby Township, on the north by Orange, on the west by Odessa, and on the south by Sunfield Township in Eaton County. Transportation and Communication: Sebewa township though containing no towns1 itself lies within easy driving distance of many trade centers. The center of the township is approximately 15 miles from Ionia, the county seat of 6,592 population, 7 miles from Lake Odessa with 1,417 people, 8 miles from Portland with 2,247 pe0ple, and only about 4 miles from Sunfield, a village of approximately 550 inhabitants located just over the line to the south in Eaton County. Sebewa township is likewise within easy driving distance from Lansing, 25 miles to the southeast, from Grand Rapids, 55 miles to the west and from Battle Creek about the same distance to 1. The little hamlet of Sebewa lies on the eastern border of the township and is divided between Sebewa and Danby townships. The hamlet contains about fifteen families and has one general store. 58 59 the south-west. The township is not bisected by any main trunk lines though its north-east corner lies just one mile south of U.S. 16 which runs from Grand Rapids through Lansing to Detroit. It is bounded on the west by M66 which leads north into Ionia. To the south it is one mile from N45 leading into Lansing. Sebewa township is crossed by a number of improved gravel county routes. Ionia 456 and 452 run east and west through the township and Ionia 569 and 567 run north and south. The latter route consti- tutes the eastern boundary of the township. The remain- ing roads in the township are gravel and are usually passable in all weather. Transportation is sometimes blocked in the winter by drifting snow. Residents living on the side roads often complain about being "snowed-in" during winters of heavy snowfall. No railroads cross the township. However, rail ser- vice is not far away. The main line of the Pere Marquette Railroad from Chicago runs through Sunfield to the south. On the north, branches of the Pere Marquette and the Grand Trunk railroads run through Ionia. Bus service can be secured at Ionia and Portland. Rural mail routes from the three towns of Ionia, Portland and Lake Odessa serve Sebewa township. News- papers from many cities are subscribed to by the people and the major portion of the residents either are sub- scribers or have access to newspapers. Most widely Figure I LOCATIOI OP élBEIA TOIIBHIP 4-----d- - *1 \ 7 A ‘U L .. O O A C - 4 P '0 V A‘ \ \ "'l P”- 4 I fl \ 5 \\ ‘ '. ‘ I. I I -.c," 40 Figure II Economic Geographic Divisions of Michigan MICHIGAN 1. South Lake'Shore Fruit Division 2. North Lake Shore Fruit Division 3. South Farming. Industria Division 4. Detroit Industrial, Farming Division 5. Saginaw Farming. Industrial Divisio 6. Central Farming Division 7. North Farming, Resort, ’ Forestry Division 8. Eastern Division, Upper Peninsula 9. Western Division, Upper Peninsula Division #3 - Farming highly deve10ped. Large manufactu. ing industry. Good local markets. Pepulation den- sity per square mile: Total 110. Rural 56. Hm-fir:“1rfiacfi" ”PS-1L“ 41 42 circulated papers are the Crand Papids Press and the Lansing State Jgurngl. Other papers indicated in inter- views were the Ionia Sentinel, Eh: Grand Papids Ferald, _——¢——-_ua h--—~a—‘.-m.—. the Detroit Free Press, the Chicago Sun and the Chicagg Tribune, and the Kalamazoo Cazette. Visits in farm homes showed that most families subscribed to a number of farm journals and magazines. While no accurate count was made of the homes having telephones, general observation seemed to indicate that the percentage would run rather high. Type of Agriculture: As is shown in Figure II Sebewa township, which is in the southern tier of Ionia County, lies in what is termed as the South Farming, Industrial division,2 of the state. In this general area, which covers a large portion of some twenty counties, farming as a whole is rather highly developed and markets are nearby and good. The area contains many industrial concerns in the towns and cities. The rural pOpulation for the entire region is fifty-five persons per square mile. It will be seen later under the discussion of population, however, that this figure is too high for Sebewa township itself. 2. Veatch, J. 0. "Agricultural Land Classification and Land Types of Michigan." Special Bulletin 251. East Lansing: Agricultural Experiment Station, Michigan State College. October 1941. p. 56. Area z 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. _ ._‘—. -..—A...— ..-1-.- .. .‘v.-. 6. 7. i e. . 9. —--..—.- 3 1o. 11. 12. 1e. 14. 15. 16. 17. Figure 111 MICHIGAN Name Corn and Livestock Small Grains, Livestock . Southwestern Fruit and Truck Crops Poultry, Dairy and TYPE OF PARIINO AREAS IN IICHIOAN Truck Crepe Dairy, General Farming Dairy and Cash Crepe Dairy, Hay, Special ‘ Crepe Beans, Sugar Beets. Dairy Cattle. Sheep and Forage Central Potato and Dairy. Northern Fruit and Dairy Northern Potato and Dairy General. Self-Sufficin~ and Part-Time Cattle, Potatoes and . Self-Sufficing t Cattle. Bay. Sprio: Grains I , Dairy and Potatoes Potatoes. Dairy and Part-Tine . ' pa.-.- 44 Figure ITI3 shows that Sebewa township is located in Section 5 of the farming tyne areas in Vichigan which is devoted largely to dairy and to general farming. From farm records kept in cooperation with the Farm Management Department of Michigan State College, it is shown that Ionia County has about 22 per cent of its tillable land in hay, 52 per cent in intertilled crops, 26 per cent in small grains and 20 per cent in pasture and idle land. Because of its location and the demands of such cities as Crand Papids, Chicago and Detroit, dairy and other types of livestock enterprises early became of major importance to the agriculture of the county. At the present time dairying is the largest single income farming enterprise in the county. This is followed in order of ivportance by such muck crOps as onions, carrots, etc., beef cattle, hogs and sheep, fruit products and other cash farm crops. Sebewa township itself has scattered muck areas on which the usual muck crops are grown commercially. Weather conditions in this section are about as favorable for agriculture as can be found in Michigan. Rainfall of about 50 inches is usually well distributed, though, as in many other parts of the state, dry periods are sometires experienced during the latter part of the growing season. Fall weather is usually suitable for har- w —--~-.—.-—-.— 3. "Types of Farming in Michigan." Special nrlletin 206 (revised). East Lansing: Agricultural fixperiment Station, Michigan State College. June 1939. p. 2. 45 vesting of such crops as corn and sugar beets. Soil Type: Figure IV shows the predominating soil types in Sebewa township as revealed by a preliminary survey made by the Soil Conservation repartment at Michigan State College. Most of the land is relatively flat and there is little serious erosion except for scattered areas. Along the eastern edge of the township is a strip of rather rough, broken land which is mainly wooded and is unsuitable for crop land. There are numerous areas of Amuck, the largest area being in the north-central part of the township. Most of these muck areas have been drained and are now under cultivation. Fowever, portions of fi1em are still swamps and woods. From the early his- tory of the township it will be recalled that Sebewa township was once heavily wooded and had a large swamp running through its interior. Drainage constitutes one of the township's major agricultural problems. In seasons of extremely wet weather (as was experienced this past spring of 1947) planting is delayed and serious crOp losses may result. As far as the county is concerned,drainage is a rather serious problem on at least 46 per cent of the farm land and is of medium importance on another 7 per cent. lilillllll‘ll‘ I'lllll'lI-lll II. tllll’lf llf ‘I‘AIIIIII 'l ".n n ll —- -. -. -a -A Figure IV SOIL TYPES IN SEBEWA TOWNSHIP O {.16 :0... £0. :.e:': I . . e e e e 0 . '.e‘.e :43? o e ’.0. . . .h‘ée. \ . e .....‘E ... '21:. ‘ ' ' ' ' ~;.. 0 a. . . a: ' . ..... a Clay soil, flat land. Conover-Brookston group of soils pre- ~ omxnate over an . o eer oue eros on. re naae pro em. d Mi 1 N i 1 D 1 bl luck and pest. Drainage problem. Dome land in muck crops. Clay soil. Gently undulating to rolling. Miami soil dom- inant. Conover and other wet and semi-wet swale and basin soils. Spotty erosion. ;<;, Steep broken land. Clay in slepes, but local sandy spots. Mainly wooded. Erosion problem where land has been cleared. 46 CHAPTER III POPULATION The population of Sebewa township in 1940 was 929 persons. (See Figure V). Since the township is six miles square or thirty-six square miles in area it thus has a rural pepulation less than twenty-six persons per square mile. There are approximately 250 families living in the township. The age-sex composition of Sebewa township compared to the composition of both Ionia County and the entire state is shown in Table I. Males constitute 55.6 per cent of-the township's pOpulation and females 46.6 per cent. This gives a sex ratio of 113 males to 100 females for the population above fifteen years of age. Figure VI shows the age-sex pyramids of all the townships, includ- ing Sebewa, in Ionia County based on 1940 data. The pepulation of the township is composed largely of old American stock with a heavy sprinkling of German and Hollander people especially in the northern part. The Hollander people have established a church (the Chris- tian Reform) in the township but the majority of its mem- bers come from outside the township. In 1940 there were thirty-three foreian born persons listed in the census of the township. Some of these included persons of Mexican or Spanish origin who came to the township to work in the muck areas. Figure VII shows the comparison 47 Figure V POPULATION DISTRIBUTION IONIA COUNTY. I940 O . LAKE omssa . . e . ‘ C O C One dot represents 75 people. 48 49 of the number of foreign born in Sebewa township with the number in the other townships of the county. The fertility ratio (number of children five years of age and under for every 1,000 women between the ages of fifteen and forty-four) in Sebewa township is 436. In 1940 there were seventy-five children five years of age and under and 172 females of child-bearing age. Figure VIII shows the fertility ratios for all the town- ships in Ionia County. H vanes #.mowmucooaom o.H 0. r.H 0.H 90>0 one no 0. 0. ¢.H 0.H we 1 or w.e 0.0 no>o new 00 0.H 0.H m.H H.m 00 1 00 0A 0; Him 0.0 em .. cm 0.0 0.0 e0 1 00 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 00 1 00 0.0 H.0 0.0 H.0 00 I 00 0.6 ¢.r 00 1 0e H.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0v 1 mm 0.0 v.0 v.0 0.0 we 1 00 0.0 v.0 we 1 00 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 00 I 00 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 v0 1 00 0.0 0.0 v0 .. 00 0.0 0.0 H.0 0.0 00 a 00 «.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 mm 1 00 0.0 0.0 em 1 0H 0.0 0.0 H.¢ 0.0 0a 1 0H v.0 0.0 0.0 m.v 0H 1 0H 0.0 0.0 0H 1 0 0.0 H.m 0.0 v.0 0 1 0 o.¢ 0.0 o.¢ H.v 0 900:5 0.0 $>.¢ 0 good: monEoi moan; monEom mead; goose omd aoamEok noamz anoac 00¢ cemhfloaz .oo sHGOH .mks atopom . coauamoQEOU New 1 om< 5O Figure VI AGE - SEX PYRAMIDS - IS 40 EASTON ' Sebewa Township Sex Ratio: 113 males per 100 females (fifteen years ad older) 51 Figure VII NUMBER OF FOREIGN BORN PERSONS.I94O llllllllllIlllul’lllllll’lllll NORTH PLAINS d MLEANS RONALD oweoo ¢I I LYONS i mu. -cz> Each figure represents 50 persons. PORTLAND e (“MY it ‘ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\“\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ Iltlll l.[sl'l|lll|ll‘ll I! J Figure VIII FERTILITY RATIOS, IONIA COUNTY, I940 mm 'IA ' . i ' 3’; ' e,e.e.e 3:. so e,e.e,e norm tinder 350 350-39? 400-447 450-419 500-549 550-0" 53 PART II I SOCIAL ORGANIZATI ON CHAPTER I METVODOLOGY Fuman society can be studied from two entirely different viewpoints. The results of the findings of each will be different yet each will be accurate consider- ing the point of reference taken. The student of sociol- ogy may view society in terms of its structural organi— zation much like the biologist studies the morphology of the plant or animal. Fe ray isolate and name its in- stitutions; he may delineate its trade centers and neigh- borhoods and he may graphically portray his findings even as the biologist disects the organs of an animal and sketches them on paper. Or the student of sociology may look beneath the structure of his society and inquire into its functionings. Fere he is like the biologist who is interested in the physiology of an organism. Fe may look for human interaction and human interrelationships between the members of the institution, the trade area or the neighborhood and may observe their associational behaviour patterns. There should be no agrument as to which approach should be taken if.§32_522}_IPIPPLDEGGPStRDG thg‘areg so that an educational program of one type or another can be successfully fitted into the social system. Both approaches must be made. Logically, an examination of 55 56 of the "morphology" of the area must precede an examina- tion of the "physiology" of the area. In this section a general picture of the social structure or organization of Sebewa township will be presented. When this study was started the writer was placed in the position of a person going into a completely strange area in a strange state. At the first opportunity a trip was made through the area to note the schools and the churches, to observe the types of farming and to get a general picture of the township. The next step was to contact various men and women who could tell something about the township. Two men who perhaps supplied more information than anyone else were the County Agricultural Agent and the County Farm Labor representative (who resided in Sebewa township and was the pastor of one of the churches there). Other persons contacted were the County School Commissioner, the supervisor of Sebewa township, all the rural school teachers in the township, the ministers, the high school principals of Lake Odessa, Sunfield and Portland and a number of the older residents of the township. These people all gave information about the trading habits of the people, the leading farmers in the area, neighborhood boundaries, schools and churches. Once this general picture of the township was ob- tained the next step was to get more detailed information from the residents themselves. This was done in three ways: 1) through a simple questionnaire placed in the 57 hands of all the grade school children by their school teachers, 2) through a questionnaire mailed out to ap4 proximately 200 family heads in the township and 3) through personal interviews. like- 9119.533}??? 9339?; a) The questionnaire1 sent out through the schools was designed to give a general picture of the township and to uncover possible leads to social organization. Some of the questions were put in at the request of the County School Commissioner's office for its own use. Approximately 150 questionnaires were taken to the schools and distributed. Of this number 77 valid schedules were returned. In all cases the children were asked to take the questionnaire home and to have their parents assist them in filling it out. The teacher then collected them and they were later picked up at the school. This ques- tionnaire proved valuable in locating neighborhoods, learning names of families, discovering church attendance, etc. This questionnaire is not used in the study except as it supplied some of'the general information mentioned above. b) A second questionnaire2 was sent out by mail to the list of family heads secured from the township super- visor. Approximately 200 questionnaires were mailed out ~,—_—.. - -n..- ...-.- -—- ---.—-——o - -— -. -- “...—...... -- .p. -. u a h - u. o—.‘. .—.~- . ..- -« dun—«n.- 1. See Questionnaire No. I in Appendix. 2. See Questionnaire No. II in Appendix. 58 and about 25 per cent, or 52 questionnaires to be exact, were returned through the mail. The first part was a check list of items of neighborhood importance. While not entering direCtly into the study as presented in this paper this information suggested the importance of such things as church, school, recreation, health, extension service, etc., in the minds of the people. The second part of the questionnaire was designed to give specific information about the neighborhoods and trade areas. The interviewfig In the two neighborhoods of West Sebewa and Sebewa Center 49 families were interviewed. The chief objective of these interviews was to obtain information which is presented in Part IV of this study. However, much infor- mation about the social structure in terms of formal organizations was also obtained at the same time. Twenty; three other regular interviews were made in other parts of the township while approximately an equal number of other stops were made to ask for specific items of in- formation. The 72 regular interviews were on an informal level. No regular schedule was used.. During some, notes were taken if the information were factual or lengthy and during others none were taken, the information being written down after leaving the place. Interviews varied in length from fifteen minutes in some cases to nearly an hour in others. In some cases the male head of the family 59 was interviewed and in others his wife supplied the in- formation. In some instances several members of the family were present and contributed information. More details about the techniques used in interviewing will be discussed under Nethodology in Part IV. CHAPTER II TRADE CENTERS Like many other areas Sebewa Township is so located that its residents patronize stores in many towns. When asked where they go to buy their groceries, hardware, etc., many informants shrugged their shoulders and replied that it all depended on what they wanted and where they could get it. Table II shows the trading centers of fifty-two families in the township for seven services. There is one general grocery store each at West Sebewa and at Sebewa Corners which are patronized by local families. It was found that these two stores, while doing a fairly good business, are not patronized regularly by a very large number of families. Pather they supply a relativehr small portion of the neighborhood needs. Many informants did not report trading there though upon closer question- ing they did admit some business with them. Portland perhaps is patronized more than any other town. As far as clothing is concerned most of the purchases are per- haps made in Ionia. There is a tendency for the families to travel longer distances to larger towns to purchase their dress clothes. Most of the grain and livestock of the area are mar- keted in nearby towns. Some livestock men, however, ship their stock directly to Detroit by truck. 60 Table II TPADE CENTERS PATRONIZED BY SEPEWA TOWNSHIP FAMILIES* g 0 I . 8' 0 e 4, 9 ’ .fi , o“ «a? 1 { 0‘96““ 04,800 1 $9“ 1 .33“ 0‘9 0C) '0 6:17 Q‘CNO «fl 0 ‘0, 0"» V 9Q, Town 65 «29 Q? 9 <7 «9” Q Sunfield 7 13 O l O 6 O i i. - __ Lake Odessa ' 16 14 14 2 s 18 o i __ .. ‘ __ - J Portland 21 22 31 13 17 22 0 Ionia 1 3 5 2O 22 1 6 Lansing O 0 O 9 I 5 O 4 Grand Papids O O 1 5 O O 32 Grand Ledge 0 O 1 0 O O O Kalamazoo O O O 2 O O 1 West Sebewa 4 O I O O O O O Sebewa Centerl l 0 O O 1 O O 0 Detroit 0 O O O O O 2 Chicago 0 O O O O O 2 *As reported by fifty-two families in Sebewa Township. 61 62 It is clearly evident that Sebewa Township does not lie within the influence of only one trade center. It lies rather in an area overlapped by the trade areas of Iake Odessa, Portland and, to a lesser extent, Ionia. Thus there is no great loyalty to any one town and no feeling of unity among the residents of the township when it comes to trading. Automobiles and good roads make even distant towns easily accessible and for certain items the township lies within the larger trade areas of Lansing and Grand Rapids. CFAPTER III NEIGHBORHOODS The rural neighborhood has become a topic of major interest to the sociologist, the agricultural extension worker, the rural church minister and to nearly every other person dealing with rural people. J. F. Kolb's definition of neighborhood is, "Neighborhoods are groups of localized and primary or personal inter-family associa- tions and are usually, but not always, identified by a local name."1 Using Cooley's terminology primary groups are those characterized by intimate face-to-face associa- tion and cooperation. If neighborhoods are measured by Tdnnies' ideal concepts of Cemeinschaft and Cesellschaft, the ideal type neighborhood is definitely the former. Or, in other words, neighborhoods are based on "natural will" and their rules of conduct are "an outgrowth of liking, habit and beliefs, formulated in customs, tradi- tional law and traditional morality (sanctified by reli- gion)."2 l. Kolb, J. H. and Douglas C. Marshall. Neighborhood- Community Relationships in Rural Society. “fiéeearafi Bul- letin 154TIIhhdlson3’”AgridultfiraI"Experiment Station of the University of Wisconsin. November 1944. p. l. 2. Heberle, Rudolph. "The Application of Fundamental Concepts in Rural Community Studies." Rural Sogiglpgy. Vol. VI, No. 3, September 1941. p. 2057—"I" ‘ 63 64 Because rural neighborhoods are based on ”personal inter-family associations" they are logically the key to rural educational and organizational work which aims at reaching the entire group. A great deal of investi- gation has been done to show that rural programs can be most effective if they are fitted to the neighborhood and community structure of the society}5 Though neighborhoods in many areas are decreasing 4 in number and activity and trade centers are increasing in importance, this still does not minimize the impor- tance of the small, informal groupings in rural areas. It seems doubtful that the time will soon arrive in rural areas when the personal face-to-face associations of far- more living in close proximity to each other will be entirely obliterated by the more impersonal, contractual type of association offered by the larger trade-center area. Further discussion of the importance of these in- formal personal relationships even after a neighborhood has ceased to be active will be presented in Part IV. __ — 5. No attempt is made here to list the literature devoted to the importance of the neighborhood in educational and organizational work. The following citations are rep- resentative of the literature and will suggest other refer- ences: Loomis, C.P. Studies of Rural Social Organization in the United State, Latin America, and Germany. Efist Ian- sing: State College Book Stere. 1945} pp. 1513172; Loonus, C.P., Douglas Ensminger and June Woolley. "Neighborhoods and Communities in County Planning." Rural Sociology. Vol. VI, No. 4, December 1941. pp. 539-541; Lindstrom, David E. "Extension Service Jumps Back to the Neighborhoaft Rural Sociology. Vol. VIII, No.4, December 1943. pp. 412- 4. See J.H. Kolb, op. cit., for an analysis of neighbor- hood changes in Dane County, Wisconsin, for the period fran 1921 to 1941. 65 The problems of what constitutes a neighborhood and how one determines whether a neighborhood exists may be open to differences of opinion. Kaufman in one Of his studies employed five criteria in defining a neighborhood: 1) identification with a locality, 2) service area, 3) extensive visiting within the locality, 4) possession of the same family name or members of the same ethnic group, 5) topography and proximity.5 Location of neighborhoods by name alone does not appear to be a valid measure. Names given by farm families are often names of school districts, townships or even trade centers which may or may not be neighborhoods in terms of personal inter-family relationships. "Several investigators have tried to find the location of the community on the basis of the name with which the farmers who were questioned styled the locality in which they lived. But it is rather evident that the mere fact that there is a name given to the, locality in which several farmers live does not neces- sarily mean that there is any real integration or group- ing of these farmers into one community."6 Using name-eonsciousness as one criterion it is 5. Kaufman, Harold A. "The Limitations of the Neighbor- hood as a Unit for Organization". Rural Sociology. Vol. IX, No. 1, March 1944. 6. Sorokin, Pitirim, Carle C. Zimmerman and Charles J Galpin. A Systematic Sourcebook_in Rural Sociology. Vol. II. Minneapolis: The University of Minnesota Press. 1930. p. 520. Community as used here seems to be synony- mous with neighborhood. 66 obvious that all neighborhoods do not possess the same degree of solidarity or activity. In fact, an inactive neighborhood may possess a name but beyond that may have no personal inter-family relationships. The question then arises whether or not the area should truthfully be called a neighborhood. In his studies of Dane County, Wisconsin, J. H. Kolb considered a neighborhood £22133 if associations or functions were carried on in two or more of the five broad fields which were encountered most frequently; namely, educational, religious, social (in the sense of sociability), and economic or communica- tion.7 For the purpose of this study two general criteria were used to determine the presence of neighborhood groups in Sebewa township. 1) Does the locality group have a name of which it is conscious and by which it is known to others outside the group? 2) Are there activi- ties or functions within the group which are integrating forces holding the group together? This last criterion determined whether the neighborhood or name-conscious locality grouping was active or inactive. On this basis one extremely active neighborhood, two moderately active neighborhoods and one relatively inactive neighborhood were found to exist in Sebewa township. Figure IX shows these neighborhoods superimposed on the school districts. .— .~--H ”--_ -..- - .I—wfiooh."~mw .- v M-n.-- .. --—~' '0‘- WM M- V.“ IN-..“ 7. Kolb. op. cit. p. 2. Figure IX “RNA M1531? NEIGHBORHOOIB — Grade school districts 6'7 68 in the township. West Sebewa:q West Sebewa is the name of the very active neigh- borhood in the north-west corner of the township. Its boundariesg roughly follow the lines of the school dis- trict. The name is the name of the school also but other agencies and activities within the area seemed to justify its classification as a neighborhood. The school has a large enrollment, has a P.T.A. and in the winter sponsors a 4-R handicraft and sewing club. There is a church one- half mile north of the school which is the center of religious and some social activities in the neighborhood. On the Opposite corner across from the school is a small general store Operated by an elderly couple who also make their home in the same building. (At one time in the history of the neighborhood this cement block building was the meeting place of a large and very active Odd Fel- lows lodge with a membership of about one-hundred and thirty.) The women of the area have an active community a--m——-—---.———~----~ ...-- “-ucb- -. ..- ----‘v— ~0- 8. See also Part IV, Chapter II. 9. 'The writer feels that an attempt to draw very definite neighborhood boundary lines in the township is unwise if not impossible. If the boundaries of each farm whose oner- ator or owner belonged to a specific neighborhood were outlined it would be discovered that there would be much interlacing along the boundaries and there would be little islands within the neighborhoods. Some newly established families were conscious of no name and were only slightly aware of neighborhood activities. In other cases isolated families living two or three miles outside the borders of some neighborhoods claimed identity with the neighborhood because of former connections with the area or because of present membership in some activity there. 69 Club of forty members most of whom reside in the West Sebewa neighborhood. There is also an active Farm Pureau Discussion Club which meets monthly at the homes of the various members. During this past summer (1947) about for- ty boys and girls belonged to the livestock, clothing or canning divisions of a 4—U Club led by three adults in the neighborhood. A dozen men in the neighborhood com- pose a fox-hunting club which attracts a great deal of local interest. One lady in the area termed the West Sebewa locality as a "nice" neighborhood and said she wasn't afraid to "ask anything of anybody" around her. Sebewa Center:10 This neighborhood is built around both the district grade school and the church. Rere again the neighborhood roughly corresponds with the school district. The school has an enrollment of over twenty pupils though at the present time there is some division in the neighborhood over whether or not the school should be closed. A large number of the residents in this neighborhood are affili- ated with the local church and probably most of the neigh- borhood activity in the area is in connection with the church and involves most of the church members. There are local 4-R clubs for both boys and girls which are led by the local Sunday School superintendent and his wife. ”-fi— ——~w..--_.—‘..--._——o.—---—-u—--.-- . ...- ..-—..—~.-.—.—‘v-.-w 1‘-- 10. See Part IV, Chapters III and IV also. 70 In addition to the school and the church there is a town hall on the same four corners. This latter build- ing was at one time the meeting place of a large and very active Crange. however, the Grange no longer exists and the building is now used only for voting and township meetings. The neighborhood of Sebewa Center is quite name conscious though the name alone is probably not especial- ly meaningful since the school and the church also bear the same name. Sebewa Center probably can be classed as being moderately active. 322.213.: ‘: This neighborhood is built around the local Paptist church and is referred to by many similar names such as the "Baptist vicinity", "Baptist neighborhood", "Baptist community", etc. Church members and most non-church mem- bers are conscious of the neighborhood name though this area does not possess the degree of name-consciousness that the two previously mentioned neighborhoods do. This neighborhood is a rather old settlement, the.church being one of the very first to be built in the township. Near the church is a cemetery where many of the old established family names in the township can be found on the markers. All the neighborhood activities seem to revolve around this church and, to some degree, around a tiny church of another denomination about a quarter of a mile north. The neighborhood roughly covers two rural school districts. 71 Poth of these districts are closed and the children.from the area go by bus to Lake Odessa. There is a Farm Qureau discussion club composed of members in both Sebewa and Odessa townships but it is not neighborhood centered. Continued existence of this neighborhood seems to depend upon the activity and success of the church after which it takes its name. Sebewa Corners: While Sebewa Corners, or Fast Sebewa as it is also called, exists as a name-conscious locality it is relative- lv inactive as a neighborhood. The hamlet of Sebewa it- self consists of only about fifteen families, one general store and a hall. It is divided between Sebewa and Danby townships. At one time Sebewa was a flourishing town with a bank, postoffice, and according to one source, had eight- een places of business of one type or another. Host of the people residing in the hamlet itself are employed in nearby towns. Only one or two families are retired far- mers. Two schools are nearby, one lying on each side of the Corners. Two churches are also located a short dis- tance from each other to the south. A sizeable tract of wooded land to the west of the Corners is used by one of the church denominations as a district assembly grounds. There are no activities centered in the hamlet itself though a short while ago attempts were made to hold dances in the hall. This attempt met with local opposition from some so was not carried on. There are no integrating 72 activities uniting all the people of the churches and the schools into one group and outside of a consciousness of the name there is no neighborhood loyalty. From Figure IX it will be noted that there are two areas which are not designated as neighborhoods. One area 1163 in the north-east corner of the township. Un- der the section on schools it can be seen that this area is roughly the Travis school district. The enrollment in the school is rather small and a number of pupils are Mexican children. Nearby is a church and a parsonage. At first glance one would predict that the church and school constituted the center of an active neighborhood. Fowever, membership in this church is made up of people of Hollander descent and relatively few of its members come from the immediate locality. This area is only one mile from Route 16 leading into Portland. Many families go to both Protestant and Catholic churches in Portland and even more go there for their social activities. When asked for the name of their locality most people respon- ded that it had no name at all while a few gave the name of the local school. About the only social activity em- bracing the entire area is a women's extension club which meets monthly at the various member's homes. Lack of neighborhood solidarity can probably be explained by l) the presence of an ethnic group within the larger group, and 2) close proximity to a main highway and to a trade center. 73 The other area not designated as a neighborhood lies in the southern part of the township between the Baptist vicinity and Sebewa Corners. Lack of any neigh- borhood solidarity in this region can best be explained by its very close proximity to Sunfield which is only a few miles to the south. The local school in the area is closed and the children go to Sunfield to school. There is no name for the region and no apparent activities on either formal or informal levels to integrate the people of the locality. CHAPTER IV SCHOOL DISTRICTS Grade Schools: There are eight grade schools in Sebewa Township and of this number three were closed at the time of the study. Figure I shows the locations of the school dis- tricts and indicates which districts are closed. Teach- ers in all five grade schools are women and all but one are married. One teacher holds a Life Certificate, three hold Special Teacher's Certificates and one holds a County Limited Certificate. During 1946-47 the lowest salary paid in the township was $1,440 and the highest was $1,710. The average rural salary for the county as a whole was $1,579. District No. 1 Fr. High School - fractional with Danby Township. There were twenty-eight pupils enrolled during 1946-47 making this the largest school in the township. Students come here from both Sebewa and Danby townships. There is no P.T.A. at present though in former years there was one. District No. 2 Goddard School - closed. Students go by bus to Lake Odessa. District No. 3 Fr. West Sebewa School - fractional. Twenty-six pupils were enrolled in 1946-47. There is an active P.T.A. and during the winter months the teacher leads a 4-H handicraft club. The school 74 Figure X GRADE SCHOOL DISTRICTS - SERENA TOWNSHIP s: m - Districts closed in 1946-47 '75 76 building is used often for 4-H and social events. District No. 4. Sebewa Center School. Enrollment in 1946-47 was twenty-three. At present there is some agitation to close the school and send the children to Sunfield. A P.T.A. is organized in the district. District No. 5. Bishop School - closed. Students go by bus to Sunfield. District No. 6 Fr. Falladay School. Fractional with Danby Township. Enrollment in 1946-47 was twenty- six. District No. 7. Johnson School - closed. Students go by bus to Lake Odessa. District No. 8. Travis School. Total enrollment in 1946- 47 was eleven pupils. A number of these were from Mexican homes. A P.T.A. is functioning in the dis- trict. High School; The township is divided into two high school dis- tricts. Figure XI shows that the students from most of the township go to Lake Odessa. Students from the east- ern side of the township go to Portland. Bus service is provided by both schools. IONIA Figure XI SCHOOL DISTRICTS OF |943 COUNTY MICHIGAN PUBLIC EDUCATION STUDY COMMISSION 27 fl, uIcIIIcAu PLAuuma conmulon I t I T s A t I I e 9 II I v v I I0 I0 I 7 9F 5; I 9° - I ' a! I 1 a 3 WI“ In A d g 3 9 s t 2 I“ a I I l I ‘° 1 7 I I0 > ‘ I I l ’ _ II _ ,, ’ a ‘ 5 C C IF I : ‘ I u. CF .. 5 : 3 ~ /, u o z "A u s I! o A L o n a 1 N v I. A I u __ 3 o '2: 4 a F “‘ 2 ‘ 2! I In ~ ‘ ‘ : IO/ / u 3 l. ' I I / I I 5 fit! run-o ' I n lle I. I I I II II I ., 2 5 I / n 1 o I I I t I a I ,IYI 978 or Iw l 4|38 u " ‘ ' IIS§8 .. I , x : t'u a 2,1ch u. I on: . V! II t 4" 1 2 as s“ " IF ‘1 5 A. I . ’ @‘m 1 .. I ° ' ' . fl 7 SF [1n ,, , -. “F 4 2 I . u o ' ' : .. I ' .0 3r . I l 3 .. s "r I " a I I l I I I . I ISF 1 I g I l "' 5r ' I or ' T 0 N I z n L I I u I I. a; p o l o o I 5 s 9 r | I ‘ n- 3 ' Iv ' ‘ |é5 ., , , , ,, 634 .. .. u. 59 8 3 63 a a 1 1 0 IF " ’ n- 7 I I n 3 2 a c " D I ~ '7 I 3 t“ "at; m - " 5 u VI I: I' 25 2 5 ° / I | / Lll IF " ‘ ‘ on A )29 CF .1 ‘ I " ’ 354 ' ' " ' p.¢L o /I‘1Ifl|.08 Izntw ....v I: "I IRV ’0' counvv (Avon QV—Ii; LEGEND + coum —-—-— VILLAGE on em um I! one: scuom. nan neunss; mums ——————— II on»: unmet “”qu "LW'O" """ SCHOOL DISTRICT I! GRADE ATTENDANCE AREA vossms comunm SCHOOL mgr, ICALI ll IIL” PRIMARY DISTRICT ”m8 —_ "UhEI 0F .CNOOL IN TOWNSHIP — FRACTICNAL SCHOOL DISTRICT hI=L-—l "Afluf 77 ‘ AVERAGE ELEMENTARY MEMBERSHIP I9“ I? |_" AVERAGE SECONDARY MEMBERSHIP IOII n EQUALIZED VALUATION FER SCHOOL CENSU'S CHILI F CHAPTER V CHURCHES OF SEBERA TOWNSHIP I . United Brethren ’78 II. Sebewa Corners Methodist III. Sebewe Center Methodist IV. Baptist ‘i‘lil'lllllllllli l ii‘lll III III III! III I'll! V. Church of God VI. Church of Christ VII. Christian Reform 80 81 There are seven churches of six different denomi- nations within Sebewa Township. If the population of the township alone is divided equally among these churches it is found that there is one church for every lSngegplg. However, this cannot be taken as the final figure since most of these churches are located near the boundary lines of the township and a number of families come in to church from areas outside.the township. Balancing this, however, is the fact that many families in sebewa Township go to churches outside the township. A survey of the four towns nearby indicates that there are twenty-four town churches within easy driving distance of the township. Ionia with 6,392 people has twelve churches, Portland with 2,247 and Lake Odessa with 1,417 both have five churches each and Sunfield with 348 people has two churches. Thus it can be seen that in terms of numbers the church is an important social factor in Sebewa Township and in the surrounding areas. Figure XII shows the location of the families within the township who are active members of the seven rural churches which are described in this chapter. The minister of each of these churches was contacted and from him were secured the names on his active membership roll. Those families living in Sebewa township were then plotted on the map.. With the exception of the Christian Peform church membership of each congregation is clustered rela- I tively near each the church. In the case of the Christian / Figure XII CHURCH MEMBERSHIP 1. United Brethren V. ChIIeh or God 11. Sebewa Cornere lethodiet VI. Church of Chriet III. Sebewa Center lethodiet VII. Chrietian Rerou- IV. Beptiet - Neighborhood Boundaries 82 83 Peform church only a very small percentage of its members live in Sebewa township and even these few families are quite widely scattered. Church I. United Drethern (Dadfical) This church building was completed and dedicated in 1992 though for many years prior to that, services were held in various places including the Falladay school. The church was originally on a circuit with as many as five other churches at one time. At present it is on a circuit of two, being served by the minister of the V.R. church in Sunfield. At no time has there been a resident minister serving the church under consideration. Pecause of its location this church draws memhers from both Sebewa and Danby townships. The present active membership of the entire Sunfield circuit is as follows: Sunday School - 106, church - 99, Cradle Poll — 15, and the Women's Missionary Association - 40. Approxirately 50 per cent of these members in each case attend the churdh in Sebewa Township. The Christian Endeavor (youth group) in this latter church claims 14 members. Sunday School and worship services are held each Sunday and Sunday evening preaching services are held on alternate weeks. Vacation Bible School is usually held each summer and is Open to all regardless of church affiliation. Last year (1946) the enrollment reached a peak of 100. Three ministers and one missionary have been sent out from the congregation and church members 84 have a feeling of pride in this record. Also six young people from the church are now in college training for Christian service. While recognizing this as a mark of achievement some members expressed fears for the future of the church and the local area since most of the youth were leaving and there was a lack of capable leadership left in the church. The church building itself is a brick structure and at the time of the study was being repaired and remodelled. . The work was being done largely by the minister and the men of the congregation. The minister is well above mid- dle age but is very active in serving his two churches. He has been minister on this circuit since 1945. The church has had twenty-six ministers in the period from 1891 to 1947. Church II. Methodist at Sebewa Corners The Methodist church at Sebewa Corners is one of a circuit of three. The other two churches are at Sebewa Center and at Sunfield. The church at Sebewa Corners is the oldest of the three and was built about 1887. Since it is on a circuit the preaching service is held early, at nine a.m., and is followed by Sunday School. Church membership is approximately fifty. Because of the location of the church many of its members come from Danby township. During the past summer (1947) this church and the Sunfield U.B. church sent their children to a vacation Bible shcool at the Surfield Methodist church. The church 85 holds joint prayer meetings with the other two Methodist churches on the circuit and the women's groups of the two Open country churches often meet together. The church building is a large white frame building located just to the south of the little hamlet of Sebewa. While many local activities are still carried on at the church, residents in the area recall the tiwe when this church was extremely active and had a large membership. The present minister is a seminary graduate holding a B.D. degree and was transferred to the circuit from another charge the spring of 1947. The parsonage is located in Sunfield. Church 11}. Methodist - Sebewa Center This church has already been mentioned as being on the circuit with the Methodist churches at Sebewa Corners and at Sunfield. The Sebewa Center Methodist church was built about 1884 and has always been on the same cirmlit. The present active membership list contains forty names. Church attendance varies from perhaps thirty to fifty. Preaching services are held at 11:50 and are pre- ceded by Sunday School. The Ladies Missionary Society meets once a month and often holds joint meetings with the women at Sebewa Corners. Prayer services are usually held during the week though no regular Sunday evening meetings are held. The church building is a substantial brick structure and its facilities have recently been expanded by the 86 addition of a kitchen and a dining room to the rear. The grounds are nicely kept and some new plantings were made about the time of the study. Church IV. Peptist The Paptist church society was founded in 1858 and was the first congregation to be organized in Sebewa Town- ship. The present edifice was built in 1871. In 1929 there was a division in the church and the dissenting group formed a congregation of its own which became af- filiated with the denomination of the Church of God. Present membership is claimed to be 74 for church and 65 for Sunday School. A woman's missionary gn>up claims 25 members while the youth group has 20. A number of its members come from Odessa township to the west. Roth youth meetings and preaching services are held Sunday evenings and regular prayer meetings are held Thursday evenings. Vacation Pible school is held during the summer. This year the enrollment reached as high as 70 and children from various other churches and denominations attended. The church is a white frame building in very good condition. Immediately to the west of the church is a small cemetery which is fairly well kept. There is no parsonage but the minister and his family live in a farm house about one mile to the north of the church. Pesides acting as minister of this church the minister holds a full time position in Ionia as the Farm Labor representa- tive. 87 Church V. Church of God The Church of God in Sebewa Township is located about one-fourth of a mile north of the Paptist church. It was built after the group split from the Baptists in 1929. For a time the church was closed and its members attended services in Lake Odessa. It was reopened, how- ever, and services are now held regularly. The membership of the church is small and quite scattered. Only a few of its members come from Sebewa township. Its membership has been estimated at 40 and its attendance at about 20. The church holds regular preaching and Sunday School services and has preaching services Sunday evenings. Prayer meetings are held on Wednesday nights. There is also a women's missionary group which meets regularly. The church building is a small school-like, cement stucco structure. The minister is an elderly man who _resides with his son on a farm a short distance south of the church in Baton County. The division which took place in the Pantist church years ago split some of the old family groups, some members remaining and some leaving to form the new church. Thus the minister of the Church of God and a number of its members are relatives of some of the members of the paptist church. Church VI. Church of Christ The Church of Christ was built in 1899 or 1900. For about nine years prior to this study the church had 88 no resident minister and was served only occasionally by visiting ministers. At the present time, however, the church is supporting a resident minister. The active membership roll of the church contains 32 names representing 18 families most of whom reside in the West Sebewa neighborhood. Now that it has a full-time minister the church has regular preaching services as well as Sunday School classes every Sunday. Upon his arrival this spring the minister held two weeks of revival meetings in order to start his work. The church is a white frame structure. At present it is being repaired and a new belfry is being built. The location of the church is not particularly attractive to the stranger coming into the neighborhood since it is rather isolated. A parsonage has been provided for the minister and his family a mile east of the church. sharps. 2.1;... -.CPI‘isti an 19. 11932629. -...— --- .- -- .....- a- The Portland Christian Peformed church is the newest church in the township. Its members are people of Folland- er descent, and the church and the parsonage were moved to their present location about twenty-five years ago after a number of Hollander people settled in the area. The membership of the church is approximately 200. The percentage of members attending services is extremely high compared to other churches in the township. Many members come from distances of 15 to 20 miles. Only about six families come from Sebewa township itself. About 89 90 per cent of the membership is composed of farmers. The turnover in membership each year is quite high, some- times as many as twenty-five. Two preaching services, one at 10 a.m. and one at 7:50 p.m. are held each Sunday. There is no vacation Bible school but classes in catechism are held for the youth. There is also a women's group which is active in the church program. The church is a large white frame building in very good condition. Nearby is a fine parsonage. The grounds are spacious and the entire physical setting is quite attractive. The present minister is a young married man, a graduate of the Christian Feformed seminary, Calvin College, at Grand Rapids, Michigan. PART IV SOCIAL INTERgELA'PIOWSHIPS CHAPTER I METHODOLOGY The preceding discussion of the structure or "mor— phology" of Sebewa township lays the foundation for the more important inquiry into the "physiology" of the area. Within every community or neighborhood people interact with other peOple forming patterns of associational be- havior. In every community we find people continually arranging themselves into smaller groups on the basis of locality of residence, occupational or special interests, race, religion, kinship, etc. These sub-groupings are normal and natural. They arise soontaneously whenever three or more people are thrown into contact with each other. "These natural sub-groupings are basic in com- munity organization. They underlie, and are strongermthan, any artificial organizational arrangements because they represent the gravitation toward a point or focus of in- dividuals who are drawn together by the feeling that they 1 want to associate." Because of the strength and the influence of these natural groupings all agencies, rural church, agricultural extension service, etc., must take cognizance of them. They must know what networks exist in their community, what relationships exist between these networks, and who the l. Rrown, Muriel W. "Some Applications of Sociometric Techniques to Community Organization". Sociometry. Vol.‘TL No. 1, February 1943. p. 95. 91 92 leaders or key individuals are in each network. The main problem of these agencies then, is deve10ping techniques whereby they can reach down and contact each network. In larger community-wide programs the problem is also one of opening up channels between the various networks in the community so that there will be an increasing flow of ideas and a feeling of understanding and co-operation in solving community problems. In this study an attempt will be made to observe some of the networks of interaction which exist in Sebewa township. Using leadership choices as a criteria two neighborhoods will be studied to see if networks or cliques exist on the basis of church membership. This will reveal not only the existence or absence of such networks but will also determine what people are considered as neighborhood leaders by their fellows. Then the member- ship of the churches in two different areas will be studied to determine the networks of relationships that exist with- in the congregations themselves. The importance of recognizing and appreciating the existence of sub-groupings or networks within the larger community or neighborhood cannot be over-emphasized in organizational work. Organizational work in a democratic society demands that committees or groups of peOple work together on common problems. One very obvious, but often overlooked, fact is that people work best together when they enley working with each other. This brings up the 93 problem in organization of bringing together those who want to work with each other on given assignments. 0b- viously arbitrary selection of committee members may bring together people of opposing or indifferent networks with the result that the committee is weakened if not eventualbv destroyed. If organizational leaders can determine which persons are congenial and are bound together in the same networks, then a vast step will have been taken in insur- ing a successful program. In setting up any kind of an organizational program it is also essential that leadership be entrusted to those who not only have ability and initiative but to those who are recggnized and accepted as leaders by their fellows. The phenomenon of "leadership" is complex and involves a whole category of different kinds of leadership for dif- ferent situations. But the simple fact remains that de- spite the situation and despite the classification of the leader, the leader must be accepted by thegrgup if he is to lead successfully. Therefore, the selection of leaders for a particular program or project must rest as much with the people to be led as with the wishes or preferences of the supervising agency. In determining leaders, in selecting congenial co- workers or committeemen and in determining networks of relationships, the student of society can profitably use 94 various sociometric2 techniques which are increasingly attracting the attention of sociologists. Through inter- views or through questionnaires the investigator can dis- cover the choices or rejections of leaders, co-workers, neighbors, school-mates, etc., made by the people in a certain locality. By using the sociogram these feelings of attraction or rejection which the members of the group have for each other may be mapped and graphically shown. From careful observation or from statistical analysis of the sociogram, cleavages among networks or even within networks can be determined. Leaders in the networks will emerge as individuals having the greatest number of choices in the group. Numbers of individuals choosing each other indicate an informal sub-grouping or network within the larger group. With such a brief mention of sociometric techniques it is necessary to add a word of caution. While a socio- gram correctly constructed will accurately portray what is being measured by the sociometric technique used, it is vitally important that the investigator be aware of the limitations of the technique itself. As the investi- gator asks people to choose other people as leaders or as co-workers, and as he tries to interpret the results, he must constantly be on guard that he does not draw hasty 2. For an excellent discussion by leading sociologists of what sociometry is and what it can contribute to the under- standing of human interrelationships, read Vol. VI, No. 3 of Sociometry (August 1943) which is devoted entirely to this to Ic. See also Moreno, J.L. Who Shall Survive? Washing on, D.C: Nervous and Vents Disease’PUbIIsh*ng Co. 1934. 95 or unwarranted conclusions. Muriel W. Drown, in her dis- cussion of the use of sociometric techniques in community organization, so ably sets down a number of points in regard to the use of such sociometric techniques that the writer is taking the liberty of including them here ver— batim. Fer eight points are as follows: 1. "When sociometric techniques are used it must always be for a purpose, i.e., in a situation where it is important for the people involved to express their perseaai wishes or feelings. 2. Choices must always be made with reference to Specific criteria. These criteria depend upon the situation. One does not ask peOple to indicate choices "for a public office," for example, but for a partigular post, occasion or resoonsibility. The character or requirements of the situation should always be described clearly so that those who are to choose may do so intelligently. Sometimes the criterion for selection is training, sometimes it _ is experience, sometimes it is personality. Some- times there are several criteria for one selection. 5. There are no sociometric tests of universal applicability. Tests and testing procedures must be invented or adapted to meet the needs of the partic- ular situation for which they are required. 4. A sociometric chart (sociogram) of the findings from a sociometric test has meaning for only one situation, the situation it represents. 5. People who are not ready or willing to co- Operate in the sociometric appraisal of a situation, (i.e., to make choices) should never be forced to do so. 6. Choices are probably influenced by many factors including (a) how widely acquainted the in- dividual is who is doing the choosing, (b) the actual number of representatives of a group present when choices are made, (c) physical qualities which in- fluence the situation. 7. It is just as important to know about the rejections as it is to know about the attractions between people in studying a social situation. 96 Gradually we must educate ourselves and those with whom we work to see that there is no disgrace in not being chosen for certain purposes. We cannot solve the big problems unless we learn to be objective about our data. We cannot work without facts, and among the facts of human experience are dislike and jealousy of other persons. 8. In nearly every community there are group rejections 4- cleavages between races, creeds, nation- alities. These cleavages are facts, represent com- plicated psychological problems, and need to be handlmd with insight and care by both sides involved. It is important that leaders of minorities be educated in modesty so that they will not hurt the groups to which they belong by demanding kinds of recognition which the majority group is not able to give."5 Sociometry is not a cure-all for social ills and sociomet- ric techniques are not gods before which sociologists should blindly prostrate themselves. But the techniques of soci- ometry are tools to do a job and will give results in keep— ing with the investigator's skill and knowledge. One of the problems posed in this study is to try to determine whether or not the churches in Sebewa township are divisive factors in the social structure of the area. One measure which can be used is to determine whether. families which are affiliated with the local churches select the same neighborhood leaders as do families who are not affiliated with the local church. In his study of Livingston County, Michigan, Paul Miller found one neighborhood4 which had two quite distinct networks of relationships based upon leadership choices. One consistai L v—-—— A .r-. m“---~.-.—.—v-~.o— 5. Brown, op. cit. pp. 98-99. 4. Heller's Corners. Miller, op. cit. pp. 190-199. 97 of those families closely affiliated with the church in the neighborhood and the other was made up of families loosely or ton-affiliated with the church. In this case the neighborhood was definitely divided between church and non—church members. The methodology used in securing the patterns of leadership choices in two neighborhoods of the township, West Sebewa and Sebewa Center, was essentially this: The residents within the neighborhoods were personally con- tacted and interviewed. No formal schedule was used though the pattern of procedure was usually the same for each interview. Most of the people quickly recalled having received through the mail the questionnaires which had provided them an Opportunity to express their Opinions as to what they felt were vital neighborhood or community needs. This offered an excellent point of departure which easily led into a discussion of the local neighborhood, its people and its needs. At the close of the interview the important question concerning the choice of leaders was asked. The question was always preceded by statements to the effect that in order to make a complete study of neighborhood needs and to work out solutions in the best interest of the neighborhood itself, it was essential that men and women in the neighborhood who were considered and accepted as leaders be known and consulted. The question —— —.-‘ ...—.w 5. Previously discussed in Part III, Chapter I. was posed and patterned as closely as possible after the statement and question used by Miller in his Livingston County study. His question was framed in these terms: "It has been the experience of many local folks and many workers in rural areas, that, over a period of years, two or three families in the neighborhood become leaders in most social functions; are highly respected; are the ones to which people go for help and advice; and who, generally, can be counted on to 'sparkplug' things through. Since a fairly intensive study of the covwmnity situation is to he made in County, it would be of great help if thesé'lEEEEEE-Eould be known -- in order that they could contribute from time to time important necessary facts to the study. Wherefore, in your opinionlwwho are the individuals ard faMilies_in this- ne‘Mhhorhood that have become the ”leaders,” and have been acpepteg as ”"3”?”ch by the Toi’Fs in the neirhborhood’l"5~ The question thus posed accomplished the following objectives: 1) It left the number of choices Open, thus not making the choice an either-or proposition. 2) It was based on a neighborhood situation and did not mention the term "church" which might have influenced the answers of some people. 3) It defined a rather definite type of leader which seems essential because there arise different leaders for different situations calling for leadership. Leadership choices are much more easily made and much more valid if the field of leadership is clearly defined.7 The second technique which was used in West Sebewa u -»----—~--- H‘_uu- -7.— *- 6. Miller, 0p. cit. p. 192. 7. There is little proof that the leader selected by the informant would be followed by him in an active situation. .Using the techni ue mentioned above it is very likely that the leaders named by the informant will be persons who are more or less the formal leaders in the area. These may or may not be completely accepted even though they do bear the label of "leader". 99 alone to discover cliques or cleavages was that of deter- mining the patterns of visitation among the residents of the neighborhood. More will be said in connection with the findings about the success of this technique. As far as methodology is concerned this information was obtained from the same interviews just mentioned in connection with leadership choices. lnvariably in the discussion whiii took place during the course of the interview the infor- mant would mention either the presence or absence of visiting among his neighbors. If the subiect did not come up it was a sirple matter to swing the conversation to the degree of cooperativeness, friendliness, etc., among present-day farm families. The crucial point came with the question, "E39 are_gpme.g£_the families that you -._- -- — . “-gfifi visit most often?" The object of this technique in the .- --...--- study, of course, was to see whether or not church affili- ated families and loosely or non-affiliated families formei two different sets of visitation relationships. CFAPTEP II LEADEPSEIP CONFIGURATION AFD VISITATION IN WEST SEBEWA Leadership: West Sebewa as a neighborhood has already been des- cribed under neighborhood organization. The bounds of the neighborhood as stated before are rather closely al- lied with the school district boundaries though the writer found scattered families a mile and a half or two miles away who felt identified with the West Sebewa neighborhood. In order to study the social inter-relationships in the neighborhood it was necessary to stay within the area which was definitely thought of by the residents as being a neighborhood. Within the neighborhood there are roughly four cate- gories of families as far as church membership is con- cerned: 1) Families closely affiliated with the local church; that is, all mature members of the family are church members. 2) Moderately or loosely affiliated fami- lies where one or two members of the family are affiliated and the rest are not. 3) Families not affiliated with the local church or with any other church. 4) Families who are affiliated with a church other than the local church. Figure XITIl shows graphically the leadership choices of m , - “.-m—~.~_.—.- .~mm»§-"“-»-. 1. In Figure XITI each family is desi nated by a circle the shading of which indicates the kin or degree of church affiliation. Arrows indicate the direction of choice. Broken lines indicate choices of affiliated irdiyidpals ani solid lines indicate choices of ndhiéjiilifif§§:3pfijjlfifiglg. lOO Figure XIII LEADERSHIP CONFIGURATION - WEST SEBEWA i e \ “ ‘/./’ 0 MI» «Ill~ GD; ‘ll'. 0 Non-affiliated families Joderately affiliated with local church Affiliated with other than local church . Affiliated with local church ------) Affiliated choices —.) Non-affiliated choices 101 102 all four groups of families in West Sebewa. Family R ~ Family B received nineteen choices as‘a leader in the neighborhood. Seven of these choices came from individuals who were affiliated with the local church and three came from individuals affiliated with other churches. Nine came from non-affiliated individuals. In making his choices, however, the head of this family named only one leader in his own neighborhood, an in- dividual in a family affiliated with another church, and three individuals outside the immediate neighborhood. One of these latter three choices was the local school teacher who resides in Portland. This family consists of the head, his wife, one son and one daughter. The daughter is a member of the local church but the rest of the members of the family are not. The head of the family is not favorably impressed by the local church, and, while stating that he thought the churdh was a fine thing, added that he would much rather deal with those outside the church than with hypocrites. However, under the categories set up in this study this family would have to be classed as moderately affiliated. The family owns approximately two-hundred acres of land and has lived in the neighborhood about seven years. The men folks do a great deal of custom work for other farmers both within the neighborhood and often far outside the immediate locality. The wife and son are both active 4-H Club leaders in the neighborhood and the head is 103 township AAA chairman. The entire family is quite active in community activities. E§E§3XL§ - This family which is closely affiliated with the local church received three choices from affili- ated members and one from a non-affiliated individual. It consists of an elderly couple who are old established residents in the area. Persons choosing this family re- spected them very highly and remarked how active they had once been when younger in neighborhood activities. Family D is a man and wife retired from business in a large city. The wife was once a resident in the neigh- borhood but now that they have returned with wealth and a background of social importance the family has voluntarily isolated itself from all neighborhood contacts. This family is not affiliated with any church. Family E consists of an elderly couple who have more or less withdrawn from the neighborhood and who feel a degree of friction between themselves and their neighbors. They are likewise not affiliated with any church. Family A consists of the local minister and his wife who had just moved into the neighborhood. They had not yet moved in when the initial interviews were made and had been there only a few months by the time the study was com- pleted. Consequently they were not asked to name leaders though they were later interviewed. This minister is the first resident pastor the church has had for about nine years. From observation alone, these leadership choices seem to indicate two things: 1) respite their very loose affiliation with the local church family P was unanimously chosen as the neighborhood leader by affiliated and non- affiliated families alike. This would seem to indicate that a high degree of church affiliation or of active church participation is not a requisite for leadership in the neighborhood. 2) Leadership in the church is not neces- sary for leadership in the neighborhood. All of the leader- ship activities of family B are outside of the church. glasses-1:. 33.8.69. span. leadership. 9h 91.09% . However, if the affiliated families and the loosely affiliated families are combined into one group and then a measurement of the cleavage between this group and the non-members and the members of other churches is made through a sociometric technique such as the chi square method2 a clearer picture of the neighborhood can be ob; tained. Following this procedure then,5 the families of -_-~ ‘— n— - o- v u .- - - .5 u-‘O— -. s W... ..-—.m-J- 5- 2. For a rather detailed discussion of the use of the chi square method in computing cleavage see Loomis, Charles P. "Political and occupational Cleavages in a Hanoveriar Vil- lage, Germany." Sociometry. Vol. IX. No. 4. November 1946. pp. 522—52q7 3. The procedure used in this study in measuring cleavage by the chi square method is essentially the same as the one used by C.P. Loomis in his study of political and oc— cupational cleavages in a Fanoverian village in Germany. He in turn is indebted to Margaret Jarman Pagood for sug- gesting the procedures he used in his analysis. The writer is conscious of some rather grave short- comings of the use of this particular statistical method of determining cleavage in this study. For one thing, the 105 West Sebewa are divided into three groups: 1) those af- filiated with the local church (both closely and moderaterL 2) those not affiliated with any church, and 3) those af- filiated with a church other than the local church. If it were found that the total number of leadership choices were divided among these three groups in proportion to the number of families in the group it could be said that there was no evidence of cleavage. In this neighborhood the local church families made 14 leadership choices. The local church families constituted 43 per cent of the families in the neighborhood making or receiving choices; the non-church, 43 per cent; and the families affiliated with other churches, 14 per cent. If the choices were made entirely at random the 14 church family choices would be divided so that 6 would go to church families, 6 to non- church families, and 2 to families affiliated with other churches. Actually 13 went to church families, none to non-church families and 1 to "other" families. The chi square test offers an answer to whether these differences are due to chance. The chi square test consists of size of the group studied is too small. To be statistical— 1y sound no cell in the chi square table (see Table III) should contain less than five persons and preferably no less than ten. Second, a_high chi square alone does not determine cleavage. A strong in-group tendency will give a high score but a strong out-group tendency_willualso_give a high score. Thus the chi square tables must be studied carefully before conclusions concerning cleavage can be drawn. Despite its shortcomings the writer is proceeding to employ this particular chi square method of analysis in hopes that it will at least reveal tendencies either towanfl or away from cleavage. 106 subtracting the expected frequencies as determined above from the observed frequencies, squaring the results and dividing by the eXpected frequency. Once the degrees of freedom are known the probability of a chi square of a given size occurring due to chance can be read from a table. Table III shows a means of testing various hvpothesis of cleavage and explains how computations were made. Thus when the neighborhood families are divided into the three groups already mentioned, the following conclusions can be drawn if the statistical procedures employed are correct: 1. The local church group manifests the greatest tendency toward in-group cleavage. 2. The local church group appears to be more affected by its affiliation than do the other two groups. 3. While the above two points might seem to indicate that there is a cleavage between church and non-church families, a careful examination of the choices of the people does not bear this out. Church people did choose more people than expected but_ngn- church people also choseamore churchppeople than ex- pected. In each case a relatively high chi square score was obtained but in the former case it was an evidence of in-groupness and in the latter an evidence of out-groupness. Thus the final conclusion of the writer is that while church families constitute a \ 107 well-integrated group in West Sebewa there does not appear to be a distinct cleavage between them and non—church families simply because non-church families made a high proportion of their choices from church families. TABLE III WEST SEBEWA LEADERSHIP (f-f' )2 ___f_,_,_ Observed Expected f f' Chi Squares ll 1. Church to church 13 6 (+)8.17 :p.1. 2. Church to non-ch. O 6 6.00 <(.1 5. Church to other 1 2 .50 <:.7 a. Church to non-ch. l 8 6.12 <:.1 and other A. Total church: Chi 1 14.67 3’.Ol Squares: 1+2+3 (2df) B. Sum (Chi Squares 14.29 . =>.05 items (l+a)(1df) (9 church fam- ilies: 45%) 4. Non-ch. to non-ch. 2 5 1.80 ‘<:.5 5. Non-ch. to church 10 5 (-)5.00 <.1 6. Von-ch. to other 0 2 2.00 :>.5 b. Non-ch. to church 10 7 1.28 <:.4 and other C. Total non-ch.: Chi 8.80 <:.01 Squares 4+5+6 (2df) D. Sum (Chi Squares 3.08 3’.2 items 4+b)(1df) (9 non-church fam- ilies: 45%) (+) "in-groupness" (-) "out-groupness" 108 ...“ f1... Observed Expected Bireciiss__of_.._chaise - f --....EL ..-. _ £3,131 Squares p. 7. Other to other 0 l 1.00 .5 8. Other to church 5 2 4.50 > .2 9. other to non-ch. O 2 2.00 >.3 c. Other to church 5 4 .25 < .8 and non-church E. Total other: Chi 7.50 > .02 Squares: 7+8+9 (2df) F. Sum (Chi Squares 1.25 <.4 items 7+c)(1df) (3 other families: 14% ) The chi squares to the right of the lines headed by the symbols 8, D, and F test the hypothesis ttat families of the church or religious affiliation indicated to the left make their leadership choices without reference to whether the families chosen are of the same church affil- iation or not, and that their choices are distributed among the groups specified in prOportion to the number of the families in the group specified. Thus the chi square of 14.29, (1 degree of freedom), tests the hypothesis that local church members chose leaders without reference to whether the families chosen are local church members or not and that their choices are distributed between local churdi members and non-church members or non-local church members in prOportion to the number of families in the two groups. The chi square which tests this indicates that less than 5 times out of 100 would the observed results have been ob- tained from a sample of the size used if the hypothesis were true. These chi squares (to the right of lines B, D, and F) may be compared to indicate which group manifests the greatest in-group cleavages. Thus the local church group with a chi square of 14.29 manifests the greatest tendency toward in-group cleavage. It is followed by the non-church group with 3.08. The chi squaresip the right of the lines headed by the symbols A, C, and E test the hypothesis that the mem- bers of the group indicated to the left make their leader- ship choices without reference to the various church 109 affiliations of the families chosen and that their choices are distributed among families of different church affil- iation in the neighborhood in proportion to the number of families in each of the three categories. For the local church group this chi square is 14.67, (2 degrees of free- dom). The value of this chi square is less than .01 which indicates that less than one time out of 100 would the ob- served results be obtained in a sample of the size used if the hypothesis were true. A comparison of these chi squares indicates which groups are most affected by the church or religious affiliation generally. Thus the local church group registers a chi square of 14.67; the non-church group, 8.80; and the "other"group, 7.50. 110 111 Visitation: While the technique of using visitation patterns to determine cliques and to confirm cleavages is an excellent one and has been found extremely valuable in many social groups4. The writer feels that in the neighborhood of West Sebewa the use of visitation patterns is not a reli- able guide because of the lack of information he could obtain. Typical of many mid-western rural neighborhoods, West Sebewa residents seem to do little social visiting among themselves, at least on the level that was inquired about. The truth of the matter is that the people do visit and interact with their neighbors in many ways but it is on an entirely different level than that of the more or less consciously planned social calling that was so much in evidence a few decades ago. Informants who re- ported no visiting admitted that they talked to their neighbors over the telephone, saw them at meetings or at church, or met them in town sometime during the week.5 4. Loomis, Charles P. Studies of Pural Social Organi- zation in the United States, Latin America and Cermany. East Lansing: State College Book Store. 1945. See page 157 for a study of visiting among families in a neighbor- hood in Charles County, Maryland, and pages 306 to 311 for a study of visiting relationships in E1 Cerrito,‘NewMexico. 5. At the conclusion of this phase of the investigation it seemed quite obvious that other techniques to discover cliques should be used in neighborhoods where very little visiting is reported. A study of the patterns of the farm women who regularly call each other up on the 'phone might be most revealing. Informal visits farmers make going to and from town or from one farm to another would also yield much information. Patterns of farmers who exchange machinery and labor have already been used in many studies. 112 Nine informants in the neighborhood of West Sebewa did report visiting, however, and the pattern is shown graphically in Figure XIV. 'It is interesting to note that family 8 which was chosen as the neighborhood leader was visited by four families but it in return did not report any visiting at all. When questioned, this family answered that they met and visited with their neighbors at the various meetings and social activities in the neighborhood. It will be remembered, too, that this family has many con- tacts with its neighbors through 4-F Club activities and through custom work done for other farmers. Upon exam- ination of the sociometric diagram it will be noted that there seems to be a tendency on this level of interaction for the church-affiliated members to visit other church- affiliated members and for the non-affiliated families to associate with other non-affiliated or loosely affiliated families. While the number reporting visiting is not large enough or the existence of two sets of relationships definite enough to be conclusive yet it appears that interb action on the more informal level of visiting is more church-influenced than was interaction on the more formal level of leadership. The investigator in such areas probably could uncover much more information by living in the area and observing social interaction than by asking outright questions in inter- views. Figure XIV VISITATION - wssr saszA 0 ill!» illli C Non-affiliated families Moderately affiliated with local church Affiliated with local church Affiliated with other than local church 0 O 0 ill} ----’ Affiliated choices ——-’ Non-affiliated choices 114 ...-c...- When various families are selected in the neighbor- hood as leaders there immediately arises evidence of the existence of a social class structure. "The idea of social class arises from the observation that, in societies of any complexity, not all persons are treated as equals bv their fellows. The_behayiour pf some individug;§_is more .‘-- .. ‘ ...-u- ..-—..-”...L respected; it has mo:§_£gf§tige tha§_have the act} ne’pf —.—.—.—~-...-—---- 'b-c- - others. Some writers have emphasized that the dominant feature of a class system is the unequal distribution of the social rewards and privileges."6 In his study of a New York rural community Kaufman selected fourteen members of the community to rank all the members of the community into social classes, or pres- tige classes, to use his own terms. While the validity of this method may be Open to question it is one procedure which can be used. A more accurate picture perhaps, can be obtained by having each member of the community rank every other member on the basis of prestige. Essentially this is what was done in West Sebewa when each family was asked to name neighborhood leaders. It is not the intent here to illustrate techniques of prestige rating. Father, an attempt will be made to arrange the leadership choices into a simple hierarchical ~__M 4* u w— 6. Kaufman, Parold F. Prestige_Classes in a flew Vork Rural Community. Memoir 26?K””Tthaca: CbrnEII finiyersity Igriculturalm?Xperiment Station. March 1944. p. 5. 115 structure based upon the number of times various leaders were chosen. Then upon this structure can be superimposed the visitation pattern of the neighborhood to see if lines of communication exist between the classes. The value of such a procedure is obvious. If lines of communication (visitation in this case) exist from top to bottom, cut- ting across the prestige class lines, then it seems logi- cal that an extension, rural church, or neighborhood batten- ment program can be initiated through the most frequently chosen leader. If, however, there is no contact between top and bottom or top and middle, then to be successful the program must be initiated through leaders within the various classes despite the fact that they may have re- ceived fewer leadership choices than the leaders at the top. Figure XV shows the visitation pattern of West Sebewa superimposed on the prestige classes in the same neighborhood. It must be understood that the only cri- terion of prestige used here is leadership choice. A family's place in the class structure is therefore deter- mined bv the number of leadership choices it received from its neighbors. While the conclusiveness of the use of this procedure in West Sebewa where very little visiting was reported is Open to question, nevertheless some important observations can be made. It will be observed that three of the four families who visited leader R were from class ITI while Figure XV VISITATION AMONG PRESTIGE CLASSES‘ IN WEST SEBEWA I. Above 4 choices II. 2 - 4 choices % 1 choice Moo 0 0% 000009 No choices '————-’ inirectio o visitation e Based on leadership choices 117 the fourth family was from the lower part of class II. Even though this visitation was not returned by leader B there is reason to believe that this leader would be in- fluential in reaching the classes below him. There might be some doubt whether this leader would reach class II effectively. In starting an actual program an organi- zational director might very well consider leader G in class II or family F in class III despite the fact that this latter family received no choices as a neighborhood leader. Both of these families maintain contacts with families both inside and outside their own class. On the basis of the information portrayed here there is no evi- dence of a rigid prestige class structure based on leader- ship in which there are no lines of communication between the different classes. Endgames = The extension worker or rural minister could probably take any number of the facts presented in the foregoing section on social inter-relationships in the West Sebewa neighborhood and employ them in organizing their programs. The agricultural extension worker would be wise in recog- nizing that the members of the local church constitute a substantial and fairly well integrated group in the neigh- borhood. Any extension program started in the neighbor- hood should have the backing of the local church if at all possible. Not only should the extension worker make his plans known to the local minister but he should also enlist 118 the support of the local lay leaders. Leader B who is loosely connected with the church and who was widely chosen by church and non-church members alike should be influ- ential in reaching most of the families in the neighbor- hood. Other families prominent in the visiting configu- ration of the neighborhood should likewise be looked upon as potential, if not actual, leaders. The local minister, recognizing that his congregation is an important and integral group that is respected in the neighborhood, stands in a key position of influence. The success or failure of any extension program in this neighborhood might well be dependent upon the attitude of the local church or the minister toward it. Taking into consideration the fact that for the past nine years this church has had no regular minister the writer is wondering what the position of the church will be in the neighbor- hood now that a resident minister has been hired. While sociometric measurements do reveal tendencies of church in-groupness in the neighborhood, observations show that there are many other social forces which hold the neighborhood together. Church and non-church members alike send their children to the same school and 4-F Club, belong to the same P.T.A., Community Club and Farm Bureau Discussion Club and join together in the same foxohunting club. This fact should offer a great deal of encourage- ment to any person or agency trying to get all the resi- dents of West Sebewa to work together. CHAPTER III LEADERSHIP CONFIGURATION IN SEBEWA CENTER Leadership: The neighborhood of Sebewa Center is based around both the school district and the local church. Early in- vestigation disclosed that this neighborhood lacked the number of integrating forces that existed in the neighbor- hood to the north-west of it, namely, West Sebewa. In order to obtain a picture of the leadership choices of all the families affiliated with the local church in this area it was necessary to include three families who by geo- graphic location consider themselves to be in the West Sebewa neighborhood. In Figure XVI these families appear in the upper left hand corner and it will be noticed that the choices of two of these families are peOple also out- side of Sebewa Center. The same methodology for securing leadership choices was used in this area as was used in West Sebewa. Family §_received the highest number of leadership choices in the neighborhood, eleven in all. Seven of these were from members affiliated with the local church and the remaining four were from either non-affiliated persons or persons affiliated with another church. This family was. constantly described as being great church workers. The head of the family is superintendent of the local Sunday School and is also an active boys' 4-H Club leader. The 119 mwazno (ammum I ZOHB.2 2. Church to non-ch. l 9 7.11 3’.1 A. Total church (Chi 10.47 <1.05 square items 1+2) (14 Church families: 66.6%)(21 families making or receiving choices) 3. Non-church to 5 5 O non-church 4. Non-church to 10 10 0 church B. Total non-church 0 (Chi Square items 3+4)(7 non-church families: 33.3%) 123 124 statistical analysis it can be safely concluded that the local church occupies a rather important place in the func- tioning of Sebewa Center as an active neighborhood. The greatest number of its members are rather well-established farmers. Three of its families may be considered to be old traditional families who have spent their lifetimes in the neighborhood. Most of the remaining members are rela- tively young farm families who are seriously engaged in the business of farming. The church members are located in a fairly small and well-defined area which gives soli- darity to the congregation. Nearly all the church families are or have been active in neighborhood activities. Despite the possible tendency toward in-groupness among the church-affiliated families there appears to be no decided cleavage if leader E is considered. This family is without doubt the key to the entire neighborhood since it stands as a leader in the eyes of both church and non- church peOple. Whether or not the church is a divisive factor in the neighborhood could easily depend upon the activities of this family. Any organizational director wishing to institute a program in this neighborhood would be wise to contact this family since it does have contacts with both church and non-church families. CPAPTER IV CHURCH LEAIEPSFIP AND CO-WOFFER CVOICES IN SEREWA CENTER* Peferring back to Figure XVI one can determine who church members selected as leaders among their own con- gregation by looking only at the families represented by the black circles. It will be seen that families E and C both received seven choices each from their own fellow church members. Both are accepted leaders in the church. The Sunday School superintendent is from family E and family C is likewise very active in the church. Damilies G and B are likewise well accepted as leaders by the con- gregation. In making the study of Sebewa Center the writer de- cided that besides finding out who the neighborhood leaders were he would make a further inquiry into the social structure of the local congregation bv finding out which other church families each church family would like to meet with to discuss church and community problems. One of the purposes of this procedure was to discover if the same families that were selected as neighborhood leaders would be selected as co-worker or congeniality choices by the congregation. The methodology used was essentially this: Each «Supplemented by a similar study of the LeValley Methodist Church in Orange Township, Ionia County, Michigan. 125 126 church family was asked during the interview first of all to name neighborhood leaders in the manner described in Chapter I of this section. Then by referring again to the questionnaire which had been sent out the writer suggested the possibility that perhaps the local church might be interested in discussing some of the neighborhood needs as revealed by this survey. The question of co-worker choices was then posed in approximately this way: "If, when the results of this survey are sum- marized, your minister and your church congregation decide they would like to discuss some of these neighborhood problems further to find possible solu- tions, what three or four families would you like to meet with for such discussions?" A membership list containing the names of all the families in the congregation was shown to each informant and he was asked to check his choices on this list. The list was secured from the local minister and the plan was gone over with him before the interviews were started. The co-worker or congeniality choices of the various church families are shown in Figure XVII. It will be seen at first glance that family A was most frequently chosen by other members. It received nine choices. Powever, as a leader in the neighborhood it.received only three choices and it in return made no leadership choices in the Sebewa Center neighborhood. Family B received six co-worker choices from the congregation and as a neighborhood leader it received four choices from church families and two from non-church families. It is quite significant that family D received five co-wcrker choices compared to but one 128 choice as a neighborhood leader. While family E was highly accepted as a neighborhood leader and as a leader in the church, yet it received choices from only four fami- lies who would like to meet with them to discuss church and community problems. Family C was fairly well accepted both as a leader and as a congenial church co-worker. It is seen in a number of cases that there appears to be a difference between the type of family the church members selected as neighborhood leaders and those they selected as being congenial co-workers in a discussion group. In making their co-worker choices many people would remark that family so-and-so were hard workers or that they really got things done. Families picked for leader- ship, however, seemed to carry a degree of prestige and were selected on the basis of having ideas and being able to get other people to work. On the basis of co-worker choices it is possible to carry the analysis of the church congregation one step further. The statement was made earlier that inevitably small sub-groupings of peOple will be found in all social groups. Thus in the neighborhoods examined evidences were found of networks of families bound together by religious ties. The question can be asked, and this question should be of vital inportance to church leaders, does a church congregregation, which is a sub-grouping in a larger sociebn contain cliques or subgroupings within itself? To answer this question in the Sebewa Center con- gregation an attempt was made to determine if cleavage existed on the basis of officership. Again the chi square method was employed to test the significance of the dif- ences between observed and expected choices - this time between officers and non-officers. (See Table V.) Five families of the 15 church families who cooperated by making co-worker choices were officers in either church or Sunday School at the time the study was made. From Table V it can be quickly seen that there was only a slight difference between the expected and the observed number of choices that officers made. In the case of non-officers it will be noticed that the difference was slightly greater though not enough to be statistically significant. On the basis of this statistical analysis it can be concluded that there is no cleavage within the congre- gation along the lines of officership. In a small con- gregation such as this made up of neighboring farm families located in a small geographical area, such a cleavage would not be so likely to occur as in a larger, more heterogeneous and more widely dispersed congregation. While the study of the Sehewa Center congregation revealed no cleavage between officers and non-officers, a similar study made of a larger rural church1 in Orange township, directly north of Sebewa township, revealed definite cliques within the congregation based on both l. LeValley Methodist Church. TABLE V SEBEWA CEVTER CONGPEGATION CO-WOPKER CHOICES Observed Expected (mug ’““fT“‘ f f' Chi gqiiares p 1. Officer to officer 8 '7 .14 (.9 2. Officer to non- 10 ll .90 <<.5 officer A. Total officer (chi 1.04 =>.5 square items 1+2) . (5 families or 58% ‘ of total) 5. Non-officer to 10 14 1.14 :>.5 non-officer 4. Non-officer to 12 a 2.00 =>.3 officer B. Total non-officer 5.14 :>.2 (Chi square items 3+4) (8 families or 62% of total) 130 131 officership and on income or financial standing. This study was carried on by the Pev. O.V. Robinson, former minister of the Burton Feights Daptist Church at Grand Fapids and newly appointed Director of Town and Country work for the Michigan Faptist Convention. The work was done in cooperation with the local minister and was super- vised by Dr. C.P. Loomis, head of the Pepartment of Sociology and Anthropology at Michigan State College. The writer played a small part in the study by making a number of the final interviews. In this study a full active membership roll of the church accompanied by a letter of explanation and in- struction was sent-to each church family in the name of the local minister. Each family was asked to select five persons whom they would prefer to invite to meet with in their home for discussion of matters concerning the church and the community. Then each family was asked to select five persons they would prefer to meet with in a group at the church for the same purposes. (For this particular analysis only the home choices are being need.) After checking, the informant was asked to sign his or her name on the blank and return to the local pastor in an enclosed stamped envelope. Approximately 125 families (254 members) were con- tacted by mail. Sixty-one valid schedules were returned by mail although a number were personally collected toward the close of the study. 152 With the help of the local minister a list of the present officers in the various church and Sunday School departments was compiled. In addition, all the families in the congregation were ranked by the local minister into three economic income groups: high, middle, and low. Then, on the basis of these two criteria, officership and income, the chi square method was employed to measure cliques or cleavages. When the chi square method was used to measure cleav- age between officers and non-officers in the congregations some very significant discoveries were made. On the basis of the percentage of officers and non-officers in the en- tire congregation it was expected that officers would choose officers 46 times and non-officers 72 times. From Table VI, however, it'can be seen that the observed fre- quencies show that officers chose officers 84 times and non-officers only 34 times. The chi square of officer-to- officer choices is 31.39 and of officer-to-non-officer 20.06. Both figures are statistically very highly signif— icant. The chi square of 51.45 for total officer choices (item A) compared to a chi square of 12.77 for total non- officer (item 9) shows a much greater tendency for the officers to form an in-group than the non-officers, though non-officers tended to choose officers also. Thus in this congregation there exists a virtual "officer's club", a clique made up of those holding church offices. Table VII shows the chi square method employed to TABLE VI CO-WORKEP CFOICES - LEVALLEY CHURCH Officer w ‘.—-— .. -..- (Mu)? ’“TT ‘7" Observed EXpected f f' _§hi_§quares p 1. Officer to officer 84 46 (+)51.39 d.05 officer A. Total officer: 51.45 (.01 (Chi Square items 1+2) 5. Non-officer to 83 106 4.99 :>.2 non-officer 4. Non-officer to 91 68 (-J7.78 :’.l officer B. Total Non-officer 12.77 .05 (Chi Square items 5+4) (+) "in-groupness" (-) "out-groupness" 133 154 measure cleavage between the three income groups. Figure XVIII shows graphically the comparison between the eXpected number and the observed number of choices made between the income groups. It is statistically significant that those in the high income class chose more from their own class than would be expected if the choices were left entirely to chance. Middle class chose more middle and more high class than expected and low class chose more middle and more high class than expected. This seems to illustrate rather nicely the tendency of one economic class to try to identify itself with the next highest class. A comparison of the chi squares to the right of lines B, D, and F, indicates that the "high" group with a chi square of 15.65, with one degree of freedom, manifests the greatest tendency toward in-group cleavage. Comparison of the chi squares to the right of lines A, C, and E in- dicates that it is the "high" group also which is most affected by its economic status in making its choices. The chi square of 26.65 to the right of item C, with two degrees of freedom, indicates that in this congregation the co- worker or congeniality choices are relatively more frequent between famdlies with the same economic status than between families of different economic status. Finally, the chi square of 51.81, with four degrees of freedom, to the right of item H rejects the hypothesis that the choices made are independent of the particular economic status of the family chosen. The findings reveal the existence of a class TABLE VII CO-WORKER CHOICES - LEVALLEY CFUPCH Income ram)? ———f7_— Observed Expected f f' Chi Squares p 1. High to high 15 6 15.50 7,.05 2. High to middle 14 1‘7 5.00 (.2 5. High to low 15 21 1.71 ‘=.5 a. High to middle 29 58 2.15 :>.5 and low A. Total High: (Chi 18.21 2’.Ol Squares items 1+2+5)(2df) B. Sum (Chi Squares 15.65 :’.05 items 1+a)(ldf) 4. Middle to middle 56 44 5.27 :>.2 5. Middle to high 20 17 .55 <:.7 6. Middle to low 41 56 4.02 :>.2 b. Middle to high 61 75 1.97 2’.5 and low C. Total Middle: 7.82 :>.O2 (Chi Squares items 4+5+6)(2df) D. sum (Chi Squares 5.24 <=.1 items 4+b)(1df) 155 (f- ———- f') f! 5.02 1.96 5.78 Observed Expected _. -H_m- .11__-_.___wi_£_,i_-iifl.fil 7. Low to low 51 65 8. Low to middle 61 51 9. Low to high 24 20 c. Low to middle 85 71 and high E. Total LOW: (Chi Squares items 7+8+9)(2df) F. Sum (Chi Squares items 7+c)(1df) c. Sum of Chi Square items R+D+F)(2df) E. Total Chi Square items A+C+E (4df) 156 26.65 51.81 (0 _____C.13i_-_Squares P .2 .5 :>.6 <-2 (:02 ,v-_—-¢w-‘ :’.Ol 2>J31 Figure XVIII CO-WORKER CHOICES - LeVALLEY CHURCH (Income Classes) 0 - tion High to high High to middle High to low Middle to middle liddle to high \ \S g Middle to ‘\\ low Low to low Low to middle Low to high u: do so ‘10 {I ‘0 messiah" m Observed number of choices 137 158 structure within the congregation based upon economic in— come, in which the high income group forms a definite clique. Ry their choices it seems evident that there is among the two lower groups a tendency to try to raise their status. This is evidenced by the fact that both middle and low income groups chose more above their own group than normally expected if the choices were due entirely to chance. A partial explanation for the absence of an officer's clique in the Sebewa Center church and the presence of such a clique in the LeValley church has been briefly mentioned. Size of the congregation is probably one factor which cannot be overlooked. Total membership in the LeValley church is roughly 254 persons or 125 families. Families in the Sebewa Center congregation number only 14. On the basis of numbers one would expect to find cliques appearing more often in larger groups than in smaller ones. While the nature of religious organization, especially rural, tends to place all members on the same level of equality (at least in theory) small congregations usually tend to be more informal and more personal than do larger congregations. All members in the small congregation have many contacts with each other in every-day life and there- fore do not place particularly great emphasis upon the holding of offices. A second factor accounting for the difference for existence and non-existence of officer cliques may be 159 £132.22. amateurs}- area. shagaasreae ii 91.992322 . The LeValley congregation comes from an area about eight miles wide and nine miles long or an area encompassing about 72 square miles. The Sebewa Center congregation on the other hand is clustered within an area no larger than two by three miles or six square miles at the most. In a larger area the members are more widely scattered. Thus they may not have the informal, natural or Cemeinschaft type of relations with other members which are found when the con— gregation consists of "next—door" neighbors. lacking these informal everyday relationships with their fellow- members, officer's choices would be made on the basis of the type of interaction they do have with other members -- namely, on the basis of officership, a more formal, nesell— schaft relationship. Roth bec use of widely scattered membership and because of large membership, members are not intimately acquainted. Officers do know who the other officers are, however, and are necessarily forced to meet and interact with each other, thus increasing the probabil- ity of officers choosing officers as co-workers. A third factor, largely contained in the preceding two factors, is the degree of formality or the degree of prestige awarded officers. Large churches, because of their membership numbers and geographical spread, tend to be more formal and give officers more prestige. The com- plexity of their organization and the urgency and serious- ness of their business make officership a dignified 140 responsibility. With greater prestige comes also a greater feeling of congeniality or belonging among the officers themselves and the appearance of a wider gap between officers and non-officers. necause the small size of the Sebewa Center con- gregation would make the breakdown of its membership into economic income groups nearly an impossibility no attempt was made to determine whether cliques based upon economic income existed in this church. The study of the LeValley church, however, reveals that even in a religious organi- zation which by its doctrines and principles denies the importance of wealth or the lack of it as a standard by which to irdge others there does exist the economic factor as one basis for choice or congeniality. In this study of the inter-relationships within church congregations the writer is well aware of the weakness of the study as an attempt to generalize about church structure. If this were the intent of the study it would be essential that a large number of church congregations be studied in order for the research to be valid. As it is, the study of the Sebewa Center church has been included as a part of the over-all social structure of Sebewa township while the LeValley study has been included to further illustrate sociometric techniques that may be valuable in under- standing rural church structure. PART V CONCLUSIONS CONCLUSIONS A few paragraphs in conclusion may help to bring this entire study to a sharper point. The purpose of this paper as stated in the first chapter was "to examine in as critical and obfiective a way as possible the social inter-relationships of the people in Sebewa township in order 1) to test the hypothesis that the seven rural churches of six different denominations in the area may be divisive factors in neighborhood and township integration, and 2) to determine what, if any networks of informal social relationships exist in selected neighborhoods and and churches within the area." Fulfilling the purposes of the paper has meant making explorations into a number of fields. The chapter "The Pural Church in a Changing Society" was written to provide a basis for understarding the rural church and some of its present day problems. The chapters on the history, people, and the social institutions of Sebewa township were written to acquaint the reader with the area and the people. The chapters on social inter-relationships probably contain the meat of the study for more critical minds. The question, "Is the rural church a divisive factor in Sebewa township?" remains unanswered for all but two of the neighborhoods in the area. To answer this question 142 145 in the remaining areas one must make a study of cleavages between church and non-church members in a manner sirilar to that done in the neighborhoods of West Sebewa and Sebewa Center. The membership and the activities of the seven churches in the township seem to indicate, however, that the churches are an important social factor in the township and that they must be recognized as such by any other social or educational agencies which try to work within the area. It is hOped that this study might serve as a pattern for rural ministers, extension agents and others to use in understanding the social structure of their areas better. Especially in meeting and talking with the rural ministers in Sebewa township the writer has felt the tremendous need for pastors of rural churches to study the physical and social structure of their neighborhoods, and to inves- tigate the social relationships and associational networks of patterns of their peOple. Extension workers probably are far ahead of the rural ministers in understanding their farmers from a community or neighborhood vieWpoint although they too can profitably investigate and study the social inter-relationships that exist in their counties. It is also hoped that the foregoing pages have'suf- ficiently stressed two points in particular which the writer feels are essential to all organizational work. The first is that in every society, large or small, there exist still smaller sub-groups or networks of individuals 144 which are bound together by any number of ties -- kinship, religion, vocational or avocational interests, proximity of residence, race or color, political affiliation, etc. The second point is that organizational leaders must not only realize that these informal networks exist but they must devise ways and means of reaching down into these networks and working through them in carrying out their programs. Tools do exist for discovering networks of human rela- tionships and for locating influential leaders in the net- works. These tools perhaps may have to be sharpened more and certainly must be used with a great deal of care. The writer would hesitate, even refuse, to dogmatically declare that a program built upon the leaders selected and the committees or discussion groups chosen would be successful. On the other hand, he is firmly convinced that a program recognizing the complexity of human inter- relationships and utilizing leaders accepted by the group, and work committees composed of those people who are con- genial and like to work together will be much more success- ful than a program not taking these factors into considera- tion. AP PENDDK graham a 1.112.: To the pupil: This questionnaire is being given to every rural school pupil in Sebewa township. It is a part of a study that is being made of rural communities by the Papartment of Sociology and AnthrOpology at Michigan State College. You can help in making this study by answering each of the following questions carefully. Please follow your teacher's instructions and return this form to her when you have finished. Perhaps you will want to take this home and have your parents help you if you do not know all the answers. (Note to parents: All information given in this form will be kept strictly confidential and will be used only for the purposes of the study.) 1. What is the name of the neighborhood where you live? 2. Where do you usually go to town to do your trading? Do you usually go to town on Saturday night? __.“m_lf so, do you usually attend a movie?uw . ”v.0-- 5. What church do you attend? a— o v- o -..- - - -nIu-~ ...— --0_ How many Sundays do you go to church each month?_" How many times each month do you usually go to Sunday School?__mv__, 4. Do you belong to a 4-F Club? . If so, whidi one? Leader__ -~—. b ...—c... H~ 146 147 5. Do you belong to any other clubs?__ Name_wn__ . -....- -O—Q-— 6. Do your parents belong to the Farm Pureau? -..-.. ~--.J- “range? . .5.“ 7. Does your family exchange work or machinery with other neighbors? . .“ ...-v— .....- _-- C.“ If they do, what are the names of these neighbors? Name .. .-_-,._._._-.- ~fl__ ---- ___Pelation _‘___ Name_-_mw_wv - w__1F?elation Name .__ Pelation __ Name .. - _ __ ___Pelat ion _ _’_____ 8. What two or three families does your family visit most often? Name _“.wm._~‘fi_-_~fifl__h_Pelation ___~_" Name ~_ Pelation _-‘ Name Pelation —--— (dive addresses of those outside Sebewa township) 9. Please fill in the names, relationship to you, and the ages of all the members of your family and mark whether they are living at home or not. -.-- .. Ne ma .- - - --...-" Palatiaa _- _. - - .. Asaw .- .V. .A 1:. 39x93... _f Father _~a-fl“ ~_*“~-“wr-_“_m__’_-_myother _-.fl‘ (XOHTSEAQ; —..—.--.~ 0.”... .. A *«-c—-¢-m--- A‘ —. ..--” --- "...—.- .n—O- "'—- W - “~---»” m--—--- -~-—.— -w--.-.—-. .- - ————-.-c——.—-—.. u.“ ---~m~v’--—.~ “....g- -.-.-u_...no_— .. - C Questionnaire II P MICHIGAN STATE COLLEGE Y sasr LANSING DEPARTMENT OF. SOCIOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY Dear Friend: As you may know, I am engaged in making a rather detailed study of Sebewa Township. For the past few months I have been collecting data about your schools and churches. Many of you have already been contacted to supply information about your local community or- ganizations. In order to learn more about your township, I am asking you to fill in the enclosed questionnaire and return it to me at your earliest convenience. This study is being conducted through the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Michigan State College in order to better understand the needs and the structure of rural communities. Part I of this form enables you to suggest what improvements you, as a resident of Sebewa Township, would like to see made in your community. Part II will enable me to learn where Sebewa Township folks obtain their services. In order for this study to be meaningful to both you and me, it is essential that each questionnaire be carefully filled in and returned to me. I will appre- ciate your COOperation in this matter. Sincerely, Farvey Schweitzer HS/mj‘ 148 PART I Please check the items that you feel are needed in your neighborhood. Pank your first five choices in order of importance (1,2,5,4,5) and check the rest of your choices. portant or least desirable. ___Consolidation of our school district Improvement of our present school Consolidation of the churches Cooperation among '”" churches Week-day religious "' instruction _ Full-time resident minister Children's vacation Bible _"' .school netter law observance Retter fire protection Library facilities Setter c00peration between N farmers and A community hall merchants A community council to —_”plan local improvements A community calendar of organization meetings An annual community picnic A discussion group on public problems neautification of our homes Reautification of the church and the church Peautification of the school grounds Pemoval of abandoned buildings grounds Monthly community socials an.A 10081 historical society 149 Cross off those which you feel are least im- Community dramatics Community chorus ...-— Community orchestra or band Detter movies at thea- .- ters Playground equipment at school A baseball diamond A place for basketball “ A 4-F Club for boys and girls Roy Scouts Girl Scouts Lectures on public Information Information health A class in home nursing A health clinic A baby clinic A better agricultural extension service on crops on livestock on soil con- servation on fruit or muck crops Information Information Help in securing farm labor (Write in any others) 4....»- th W» a PART TI Please anewer every question. 1. Your name Occupation Postoffice address __H ”H‘_ If a farmer, are you an owner?__._or renter? Size farm Ry what name is the neighborhood or locality called in which you live? (Not the name of the nearest town or your postoffice but such a name as "Frost Corners", "Sebewa Center", etc. If there is no name for your locality, please write: "No Name") Locality name At what place is the store where you buy most of your groceries? ‘ At what place is the store where you buy most of your farm hardware? --.—rv'ik— -.—.-._-_r ‘ *o—.—-—.a.-—— At what place is your bank located? Where do you buy most of your clothing? Dress clothes Work clothes Where does your family physician reside or to what place do you go for a physician? Where is the church which you or any member of your family attends? What is its name? Do you take a daily newspaper? Vhat is its name? In your opinion, what agency (church, school, farm or- ganizatiOn, etc.) is the most active and is contribut- ing the most to your neighborhood? ~ Are you a member of the Farm Bureau? Grange? *--.--—~~ Do you have electricity? Rathroom? Padio? “-4..- Telephone? _*Automobile? . 150 BI BLIOGFAPHY BIBLIOGRAPHY (Selected) Prunner, Edmund deS. The Larger P_arish, A "ovement of an Enthusiasm? Vew York: Tnstitite of Social and Pe[igiou§"Pesearch. 1954. Srunner, Edmund deS and J. H. Folb. Pural Social Trends. New York: Mcflraw-Rill Book—UdmfiafiyTHIficfuwl933. Brunner, Edmund deS and Irving Lorge. Pural Trends in Espression Years. New York: —§Elfimbia"fifiiv5rsity Press. '195 . "Farmers in a Changing World", 1940 Yearbook of Agricul- ture. United States Dapartment‘df'AgricultuEE, Washington, D.C. Fry, C. Luther. Diagnosing the Pural Church. Kew York: Harper and Drothers. 1955. Fry, C. Luther. The United States Looks at its Churches. New York: Harper anderdthers. 1930. Gee, Wilson. The Social Economics of Agriculture (Re- vised). New York: Macmillan Co. 1942. Hooker, Elizabeth R. Hinterlands of the Church. Vew York: Institute of ociaI—and Pellgious Pesearch.1951. Landis, Penson Y. Pural Church Life in the Middle West. New York:”"Ceorgé P. Doran Company. ‘1922. Leiffer, Murray P. City and Church in Transition. Chicago: Willétrwfilark and Company. 1958. Lindstrom, David E. Rural Life and the Church. Champaign: The Garrard Press. 1946. Loomis, Charles P. Studies of Rural ”Sociall Organization in the United States, Latin America and Germany. East Lansing: State College Book Store. 1945. Manifesto on Rural Life. National Pural Life Conference. 'fiilwaukeE?“*The Bruce Publishing Company. 1959. Moreno, J. L. Who Shall Survive? Washington: Nervous and Nahtal Disease Publishing Co. 1934. 152 155 Pandolph, H. s. A Manual for Town and Country Churches. New York: Pbard or Natfafial NiSéfons of the Presbyterian Church of the V.S.A. 1945. Sanderson, Dwight. PuralmSociology and Rural Social Or- ganization. New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc. WIQIE. Schultz, Theodore W. Agriculture in an Unstable Economy. New York: MESraw3P111*Pook“Cbmpany, Inc. 1945. Smith, Pockwell C. The Church in Our Town. Jew York: Abingdon-CEEEEburyflPrSSST 1945: Smith, T. Lynn. The Soci010gy of Pural Life. New York:. pepper awareness". 1947. Tdnnies, Ferdinand. Fund_amental ancepts of Sociology. (Cemeinschaft und Cesellschaft)fi. Translated and supplemented by Charles P. Loomis. Chicago: American Rook Company. 1940. Bulletins Felton, Ralph A. Cooperative Churches. Adrian, Michigan: Department ofuPfiral‘afidhbdmmunity Life. Adrian Hill, E. B. Types of Farming in Michigan. Special Pul- letIn 206. EEEthansing: Ag?Icu1tura1 Experi- ment Station, Michigan State College. (Revised) June 1959. Foffer, C. R. and D. L. Gibson. The Community Situation as it Affects Agricultural Extension Work? SpeciaeruIIe tin 512. Pasmeansing:“'A"ricul— tural Experiment Station, Michigan State College. October 1941. Jacoby, Harold Stanley. ‘Pemember the Sabbath Day? The Nature and CausEESbffithe Changes inuSundayéfib- Pervance Since‘1SCOT—"AnflEssentialeortfon“6f a Li§sert ation ififiSociology. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania. 1945. Kaufman, Farold F. Prestige Classes in a New York Pural Community. Memoir 260. Ithaca: Cornell Vni varsity Agriciltural Experiment Station. March 1944. 154 Kolb, J. H. Rural Primary Groups. Research Bulletin 51. Madison: Agricultural EXperiment Station of the University of Wisconsin. December 1921. Kolb, J. H. Trends of Country Neighborhoods. Research Bulletin 120. Madison: Agricultural EXperiment Station of the University of Wisconsin. November 1933. Kolb, J. H. and Douglas C. Marshall. Neighborhood- Community Relationships in Rural Society. Research Bulletin 154. Madison: Agricultural EXperiment Station ofthe University of Wis- consin. November 1944. Thaden, J. F. The Lansing Region and_its Tributary Town- Countrngpmmpnitieg. Special Bulletin 302. East Lansing: Agricultural Experiment Station, Michigan State College. March 1940. The Church and Land Tenure. Chicago: The Farm Foundation. 1940. The PeOplelythe Land; and the Chuggh in the Rural South. Chicago: The Farm Foundation. 1941. The PeOpley the Land! and the Church in thg_§ural West. Chicago: The Farm Foundation. 1943. Veatch, J. 0. Agricultural Land Classification and Land Types of Michigan. Special Bulletin 23l (First Revision). East Lansing: Agricultural Experi- ment Station, Michigan State College. October 1941. Articles Anderson, W. A. "Social Participation and Religious Affiliation in Rural Areas". Rural Sociology. V01. IX. NO. 50 SeptembOP 1944. Brown, Muriel W. "Some Applications of Sociometric Tech- niques to Community Organization". Sociometry. Vol. VI. No. 4. February 1943. Bultena, Louis. "Rural Churches and Community Integration". Rural Sociology. Vol. IX. No. 3. September 1944. Davies, vernon. "Neighborhoods, Townships and Communities in Wri ht Count , Minnesota". Rural Sociology. Vol. V II. No. . March 1943. 155 Fosdick, Harry Emerson. "One World for Religion Too". PeadersDiggpt. Vol. XLVTTI. May 1946. Feberle, Rudolph. "The Application of Fundamental Con- cepts in Rural Community Studies". Pural Eppiglogy. Vol. VI. No. 5. Septemberml94l. Pollingshead, A. a, "The Life Cycle of Nebraska Rural Churches". Epral Sociolggy. Vol. II. 195”. Kaufman, Harold A. "The Limitations of the Neighborhood as a Unit for Organization". Rural Sociology. Vol. IX. No. 1. March 1944. Lindstrom, David E. "Extension Service Jumps Back to the Neighborhood". Rural Sociology. Vol. VIII. No. 4. December—l945. Loomis, Charles P. "Political and Occupational Cleavages in a Panoverian Village, Cermany". A Sociometric Study. Sociometry. Vol. IX. No. 4. November 1946. Loomis, Charles P., Douglas Ensminger and Jane Woolley. "Neighborhoods and Communities in County Planning". Bural Sociology. Vol. VI. No. 4. December 1941. Stewart, Frank A. "A Sociometric Study of Influence in Southtown". Sociometry. Vol. X. No. 1. February 1947. Trip, Thomas Alfred. "Rural Peeple and the Church". Social Action. Vol. V. No. 5. May 1959. [g 3 ya " ‘ f \n :30 t.” F 7"? W p t , a, ‘. -" : . a \‘4‘: .70.: I?!" ‘ i "l C‘Iil‘. ll'llla .....Ii I In.‘ gr 4 {I41 4. Isl I .I..llnll|.lur.!.lll ‘.EI‘II'» ill "‘MMMM