On the maps the location of each rural church is indicated by a square and the residence of each minister by a cross. Lines connect each church with the residence of its pastor. Therefore the maps show for each church whether it receives the whole or a part of a minister’s service, and for each minister how many churches he serves and the distances he must go to reach them and the various parts of his parish.

The capital letters adjacent to each square indicate the denomination of the church. The figures in parentheses and next to the square indicate the enrolled membership. The figures not so enclosed indicate the resident membership. The abbreviations, Inc., Sta., and Dec. indicate whether the membership is increasing, stationary, or declining. Increase or decline in membership, however, is only indicated where it was possible to find the membership of ten or five years ago. When the figures for ten years ago are available, these are taken as a basis for comparison with the membership at the present time. Often the records of the churches are so kept as to make it impossible or very difficult to find the membership of either five or ten years ago.

Shaded squares indicate closed churches. These have no minister and hold no regular services.

Abandoned churches are indicated by black squares. It is believed that large numbers of them were not reported.

Churches marked “Not Organized” do not appear in the tabulations.

In the northwest corner of each township is given its name, while underneath are figures indicating its population. The large circles in the township indicate cities or towns of more than 2,500 inhabitants. Figures in parentheses indicate the number of their population, which number is included in the figures for the township. But in each case where they are not in parentheses the town or city is itself a township. Figures in an oval indicate the number of persons living in the adjacent village or small town.

A key to the maps is here given.

KEY