Federal Non-Population Census Schedules
This article originally appeared in Exchange,
a newsletter published by the Wisconsin Historical
Society. (Volume 30, Number 4, Autumn 1988) It is the eighth in
a series of articles titled Researching
Community History. The series highlights
the Society's resources available to local
historians. It was written by Jim Hansen, reference
librarian at the Society.
The Gustave Steuding Brewery of Durand with capital of $3,000, hand
and horse power, one employee and the appropriate amounts
of barley, hops and wood produced 200 barrels of beer
(worth $2,000) in the year ending June 1, 1870. William
Richardson, a 39-year-old, English-born carpenter died at Janesville
in October 1849 of "dissipation." Waupaca
County in 1860 had 67 common schools serving 3,369 pupils;
seven churches (three Methodist, and one each of Presbyterian,
Baptist, Catholic and Lutheran); three libraries (all
in the common schools) totaling 89 volumes; 13 paupers
and no convicted criminals during the preceding year. George Newton
of Hustisford had one milk cow in 1850. In 1860 he had six. All the
above-listed minutiae of 19th-century Wisconsin came
from the same source — the non-population
schedules of the federal census.
When historical or genealogical researchers consider the census
they most often think only of the population schedules
(described in Federal Population
Census Schedules),
but the non-population schedules are at least as interesting
— and informative. These schedules, gathered by the census
enumerators at the same time they took the population
census, provide a wealth of otherwise unrecoverable detail
for an important period of Wisconsin's 19th-century history.
The census was originally intended to serve as a basis for legislative
appointment, but as the 19th century progressed, the
statistics-gathering function of the census nearly overwhelmed the
head-count. While abortive attempts were made in earlier censuses
to gather more than population totals, it was the census of 1850
that marked the real beginning for the non-population schedules.
In that census, in addition to providing more details on every individual
listed in the population schedules, the enumerator was directed to
record mortality schedules, agricultural schedules, industrial schedules
and social schedules.
The manuscripts for these schedules survive and are available for
research use for the censuses of 1850, 1860, 1870 and
1880. At least some of these schedules were also taken
for later censuses but the original copies were destroyed
after the statistical compilations were made. The published
statistical reports are available for the 1890 census and its successors,
but unfortunately not the original manuscript returns — the
ones that named individual names.
Census instructions directed enumerators to record on the mortality schedules the name, age, sex, race, occupation, state or country of birth, month of death, cause of death and duration of final illness for every person who died within his area of coverage during the year immediately preceding the taking of the census. For example, in the 1850 census, the mortality schedule would cover deaths occurring between June 1, 1849 and May 31, 1850. The mortality schedules, because of the built-in inefficiencies in collecting the data, never include more than a fraction of the deaths occurring in a particular district even within that limited time span, but the reports do provide useful information on diseases that were prevalent in a particular area (the incidence of consumption, i.e. tuberculosis, in the early records is noteworthy) or at least those that were recognized at the time.
The most extensive of the non-population schedules were the agricultural
returns in which the enumerators were supposed to identify
each individual farm, its acreage both improved (i.e. under cultivation)
and unimproved, the cash value of the farm, the value of farming
implements or machinery (often under $100), the number of livestock
of various types, and the production of the farm crops during the
previous year. These detailed reports, recorded in long horizontal
columns over two pages, provide a wealth of detailed information
for analysis. Comparisons can also be made from census to census
on the intensity of farming, popular crops, horses vs. oxen and many
other factors. When used in conjunction with the population schedules
they can give a good picture of how a particular household was faring
in comparison to its neighbors and again from one census to the next
census 10 years later.
The industrial schedules (called manufacturing schedules in the 1880 census) list the name of the corporation, name of the business, capital invested, kind, quantity and value of the raw materials, kind of motive power ("foot" was popular), the number of employees and wages paid, and the kind, quantity and value of goods produced. Urban areas may list many industries while a rural area might have only a single mill. The enumerators were supposed to include any manufacturing industry that produced more than $500 of goods per year, but interpretation varied. Some enumerators listed only substantial factories, others more usefully listed every blacksmith and shoemaker.
The social schedules (which apparently survive for Wisconsin only
for 1850-1870) provide a miscellany of scattered information.
The schedules requested information on the valuation of real estate
and personal estate; the annual taxes; details on colleges, academies
and schools (kind and number of teachers and pupils,
and funding sources and amounts); libraries (kind and number of volumes);
newspapers and periodicals (name, political affiliation, frequency
and circulation); religious establishments (number of denominations,
individual churches, parishioners and the value of church property);
the number of paupers and criminals; and the average wages of the
district. Much of the detail asked for in the social schedules was
not gathered in any other form in the 19th century, making these
details from the county or even township level quite valuable resources.
They have proven helpful for research ranging from newspaper history
and bibliography to tracing the history of religion in several counties.
The social schedules for the 1850 and 1860 censuses were sometimes
gathered for specific townships or assembly districts, sometimes
for an entire county. For 1870 only county-wide social statistics
were reported.
Any of the information gathered by the enumerators, whether raw data or compiled statistics, must be used with caution. Enumerators frequently misunderstood their instructions, and made recording or copying errors. The non-population schedules were gathered by the same enumerators and at the same time they gathered the information for the population schedules. As a result, the listings in the agricultural schedules for a given district should be in the same order as the population schedules.
The non-population schedules can sometimes be hard to locate. Many
libraries have the population schedules on microfilm
from the National Archives, which does not include the
non-population schedules. However, on the microfilms
of the 1850-1870 U.S. Censuses for Wisconsin produced
and sold by the Wisconsin
Historical Society library, all the schedules for a particular
county will be found together. For the 1850 and 1860
censuses, the various schedules will be scattered through
the reels in what appears to be a random order. Actually
that order retains the order of the schedules gathered
by a particular enumerator. For 1870 the non-population
schedules (with the exception of the social schedules)
follow the population schedules for the entire county.
The social schedules for all the counties in 1870 will
be found on the last reel of the series — the reel containing
the schedules for Wood County. The original schedules
for 1850-1870 will also be found in the manuscript census
volumes in the Library Reading Room at the Historical
Society's headquarters. Copies of all the non-population
schedules also appear in the Society's archives collections.
For 1880, the mortality, agricultural and manufacturing
schedules have been microfilmed and can be used in the
library's Microforms Reading Room.
The mortality, agricultural, industrial and social schedules of the federal census will certainly not answer all the historian's questions about those areas, even for the limited periods they cover, but they are an important contemporary source of information from the period that should not be ignored. They can provide statistical analysis at a more detailed level than published census statistics and, used carefully, they can shed much light on the nineteenth-century history of any community.
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