Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XVI.djvu/169

York, Illinois, Ohio, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Michigan. The greatest numerical strength of the Friends is in Pennsylvania, though the denomination is well represented in Ohio, New York, Iowa, Indiana, New Jersey, Massachusetts, North Carolina, and Maryland. The Jews are found in most of the states, chiefly in the largest cities, the greatest numbers being in New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and California. More than a third of all the Lutherans were reported in Pennsylvania and Ohio. Of the 72 Moravian organizations, 15 were in Pennsylvania, 13 in Wisconsin, 10 in North Carolina, 6 each in New York and Minnesota, and 5 in Iowa. The Mormons are almost exclusively in Utah. Of the 471 organizations of the Reformed church in America (late Dutch Reformed), 304 were in New York, 97 in New Jersey, and 22 in Michigan; and of the 1,256 of the Reformed church in the United States (late German Reformed), 712 were in Pennsylvania and 288 in Ohio. Of the 18 Shaker organizations, 15 were in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, and Ohio. More than half of the Spiritualists are in Massachusetts and Michigan. Of the 331 Unitarian societies, 180 were in Massachusetts, 23 in New Hampshire, and 22 in New York. Seven Chinese religious organizations were reported in California. The total number of religious organizations, as reported by the census of 1870, was 72,459, having 63,082 edifices with 21,665,062 sittings, and property valued at $354,483,581. The denominations were represented as follows:

DENOMINATIONS.	Organizations.	Edifices.	Sittings.	Property.
Baptist, regular	14,474	12,857	3,997,116	$39,229,221
Baptist, other	1,355	1,105	363,019	2,378,977
Christian	3,578	2,822	865,602	6,425,137
Congregational	2,887	2,715	1,117,212	25,069,698
Episcopal, Protestant	2,835	2,601	991,051	36,514,549
Evangelical Association	815	641	198,796	2,301,650
Friends	602	662	224,664	3,939,560
Jewish	189	152	73,265	5,155,234
Lutheran	3,032	2,776	977,332	14,917,747
Methodist	25,278	21,337	6,528,209	69,854,121
Miscellaneous	27	17	6,935	135,650
Moravian (Unitas Fratrum)	72	67	25,700	709,100
Mormon	189	171	87,838	656,750
New Jerusalem (Swedenborgian)	90	61	18,755	869,700
Presbyterian, regular	6,262	5,683	2,198,900	47,828,732
Presbyterian, other	1,562	1,388	499,344	5,436,524
Reformed Church in America
(late Dutch Reformed)	471	468	227,228	10,359,255
Reformed Church in the United States
(late German Reformed)	1,256	1,145	431,700	5,775,215
Roman Catholic	4,127	3,806	1,990,514	60,985,566
Second Advent	225	140	34,555	306,240
Shaker	18	18	8,850	86,900
Spiritualist	95	22	6,970	100,150
Unitarian	331	310	155,471	6,282,675
United Brethren in Christ	1,445	937	265,025	1,819,810
Universalist	719	602	210,884	5,692,325
Unknown (local missions)	26	27	11,925	687,800
Unknown (union)	409	552	153,202	965,295

Among the miscellaneous denominations were 7 Chinese and 2 Greek organizations in California; 1 Bible Communist in Connecticut and 2 in New York; 1 Catholic Apostolic each in Connecticut, Illinois, and Massachusetts, and 2 in New York; 1 Sandemanian in Connecticut; 1 Plymouth church in Massachusetts; 1 Bible Christian and 1 Schwenkfelder in Pennsylvania; and 1 Huguenot in South Carolina.—History. When first visited by the Europeans, the country now comprised within the United States was exclusively inhabited by the red or copper-colored race commonly called American Indians. Of the origin of these people nothing is positively known, though their own vague traditions and their general resemblance to the tribes of N. E. Asia give a certain degree of plausibility to the theory that their ancestors came to America by way of Behring strait or the Aleutian islands. There is reason to believe that these savages were not the first occupants of the land, in almost every part of which, and especially in the valley of the Mississippi, are found monuments consisting of mounds and other earthworks of great extent, which must have been erected by an unknown and long extinct race. In physical appearance, manners, customs, religion, and social and political institutions, the Indians were so strikingly alike as to form but one people; yet they were divided into a multitude of tribes almost perpetually at war with each other, and speaking a great variety of dialects. While in possession of its savage aborigines, the country from the Mississippi to the Atlantic, and from the lakes to the gulf of Mexico, with comparatively slight exceptions, was one vast forest, inhabited by wild beasts, whose pursuit formed the principal occupation of the Indians, and gave them their chief means of subsistence and clothing. (See American Antiquities, American Indians, and American Indians, Languages of the.) According to the Scandinavian sagas, Leif, a Norwegian, sailed about 1001 from Iceland for Greenland, but was driven southward by storms till he reached a country called Vinland, from the wild grapes he found growing there. Other Scandinavian adventurers followed him, and made settlements, none of which were permanent. By many writers Vinland is supposed to have been Rhode Island or some other part of the coast of New England, but of its real position nothing is certainly known. If these northern legends be rejected as too vague to afford a basis for history, we must conclude that the territory now comprised within the United States was first visited by Europeans about five years after Columbus discovered the West Indies. In 1497 John Cabot, a Venetian, commanding an English ship under a commission from Henry VII., sailed from Bristol westward, and on June 24 discovered land (coast of Labrador), along which he coasted to the southward nearly 1,000 m., landing at various points, and planting on the soil the banners of England and of Venice. In 1498 his son Sebastian Cabot sailed with two ships from Bristol in search of a northwest passage to China;