they are similar in their high value of faith

I have no idea how one could perceive cowboys as having a “high value of faith.” Those involved in ranch culture in the American West were diverse and difficult to fit into a generalized mold. Besides the stereotypical young white male, many ranch hands were speakers of Spanish, African Americans, or Native Americans. Each of the groups that participated in ranch culture brought diverse cultural traditions to the table, but I have never encountered the idea that a “high value of faith” represented a common component of that cultural stew.

To go back to the seventeenth century and the arrival of Puritans in what would become a small part of the British Atlantic seaboard, we must understand that Puritans were outnumbered in that century by others who arrived from Europe, and over time, their statistical place was diminished by a demographic tidal wave of newcomers. Even if we were to look exclusively, however, at New England’s communities with a strong Puritan background, we must understand that changes over time had an effect on that society. Just as Puritan culture in England reached a highwater mark in the mid-seventeenth century, it had barely left a recognizable imprint on England two centuries later.

The same difference in time separates the first few generations after the arrival of the Mayflower and ranch culture in the American West. Even more dramatic of a difference is represented by the expansive nature of the North American continent and the influx of millions of people over those two centuries. While one might have Puritan ancestors in nineteenth-century England, the possibility of the same two centuries later in North America was greatly diminished.

In short, there was a lot that happened between the arrival of the Puritans and the emergence of ranch culture in the American West 3,000 or more kilometers away.

What may be most astonishing is how threads of Puritan culture continue to have a presence, despite everything that has washed over the continent for what is now four centuries.