As the railroad expanded westward in the late 19th Century morals, moderation and stability of frontier communities were often left to whims of citizens, or they were at best an afterthought of their founders. Frontier and mining towns of the south and east were similarly affected. In scores of communities there was little evidence of any organized religion and in 19th Century America this was widely viewed as a moral failing. So where there was no church and no pastor, in the eyes of many gentlefolk of the day, there was little hope of salvation. That would soon change in hundreds of settlements and communities across the country. Organized religion had discovered how to use the railroad as a tool of modern evangelism. So the same railroad that brought vice to the frontier was about to bring - at least in the eyes of the church and its supporters, and as a general society value of the day - civility, morality, stability and faith.
