Search -
New England in the Life of the World (1920)
New England in the Life of the World - 1920 Author:Howard A. Bridgman Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II TRANSPLANTING THE PILGRIM SEED No observant person visiting Rochester, Cleveland, Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis, San Francisco, Seattle or Portland... more », or other prosperous and beautiful cities between the Hudson and the Pacific Coast, could fail to be impressed with the handsome homes, churches, hotels, banks, office buildings, boulevards and parks. On inquiry he would learn that from the beginning New England has been influential in the outward development of these municipalities. Not only has capital come in large amounts from New England, but many a New Englander working on the ground has helped to bring about gratifying results in brick and mortar, in architectural adornments and in great industrial enterprises. Such a visitor would make similar discoveries in a multitude of smaller cities and towns. There, too, New England enterprise has expressed itself in substantial forms. Scores of towns in the Middle and Western States are replicas of their New England prototypes. Along river banks, on the broad prairies, in the midst of fertile farm lands, the New England village type has been reproduced—the Green,Common or public Square fringed with trees, and grouped around it the old white church, the town hall, schoolhouse, the library and attractive homes. The molding influence of New England upon public opinion, upon the spirit of the community and upon the institutions which minister to its higher life is even more evident. As the emigrating New Eng- lander 'of the higher type moved westward he carried, in many cases, not only his household goods, but his religion, his valuation of education, his high conception of citizenship. As his forebears crossed the Atlantic, impelled by nobler motives than the instinct for trade, so within many a "prairie- schooner" or in...« less