A Beginners Guide To The U.S. Census
U. S.
Census Bureau
An "On-Line Inventory" of Transcribed Census
Files:
The transcriptions can be viewed at USGenWeb
Census Project
Interesting Information From 2000
Federal Census Available At This Site.....
FIRST CENSUS TAKERS HAD THEIR
PROBLEMS
Contributed by Steve Edgerton
February 04, 2004
The article below first appeared in the "Kentucky Farmer"
and was written by Nevyle Shacklford who is with the Department of Public
Information, College of Agriculture, University of Kentucky, Lexington,
KY.
"Sir: I beg to report that I have been dogbit, goose-pecked,
cowkicked, briar-scratched, shot at, and called every 'fowel' that can be tho't
of. I have worked 12 days and made $2. I have had enough and I beg to resign my
position as a census taker for Crittenden Township."
So wrote Roger Waite
to a marshal of census enumerators for the
State of Vermont on August 24,
1790 – the year of the first national census of the United
States.
Research does not reveal whether or not the disheartened and
disgusted Waite's resignation was accepted or denied. What is revealed is that
the pay for enumerators was very low, even for that day. Government records that
the highest rate paid under any condition was $1.00 for the count of 50 persons
and that was for enumerators in outlying districts where the inhabitants were
"widely dispersed." In cities and towns the rate was $1.00 for every 300 persons
counted. Out of these amounts, the census takers were obliged to furnish their
own schedules "properly ruled" and to take care of any other expenses incurred.
In some instances the cost of the schedules was more than the fees
collected.
---
There were various other reasons on the part of the
population for the reluctance to answer questions, but in a 1909 publication
issued by the U.S. Census Bureau, it is written that the most potent factor was
the widespread belief that the census was connected with taxes.
---
At the
end of this first census in 1790, the total population count was a fraction
under 4 million. Some authorities of that ime, however, were a bit dubious of
that figure. Because of the low pay they believed that to make ends meet, some
of the enumerators in the "more remote and sparsely settled sections" of the
country may have included "some persons not in existence."
---
One
reasonable ground for such suspicion stemmed from what was described as the
"absurd and ludicrous combinations of the names and surnames" listed on the
census taker schedules
and turned in to the marshals. Officers of the Bureau
of Census believed that such names as "Joseph Came, Peter Went, John Sat, Joseph
Grackbone, Ruth Shaves, Web Ashbean, Comfort Clock, Sarah Goosehorn, Moses
Rainwater, Mercy Cheese, Unity Tallowback, Lookinbill Barnthistle, Sussannsh
Beersticker, Constance Cathole," and hundreds of other equally absurd, were
spurious and not the names of real citizens.
