FOLKLORE-L Archives

From: Shirley Hager <>
Subject: [FOLKLORE-L] First Census Takers
Date: Thu, 01 Oct 1998 00:10:19 -0700

Here is the Census thing I said I had.....
Was in a quarterly from West-Central Ky, ...doesn't have a year on it...
This is a reprint from "Kentucky Farmer"

Shirley

FIRST CENSUS TAKERS HAD THEIR PROBLEMS

"Sir; I beg to report that I have been dogbit, goose-pecked, cow-kicked,
brair-scratched, shot at, and called by every "fowel" name 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 of August 24, 1790-- the year of the first national census in the
United States.

Research does not reveal whether or not the disheartened and disgusted
Waite's resignation was accepted or denied: What is revealed for a fact
is that the pay for enumerators was very low, even for that day.
Government records reveal that the highest rate paid under any conditions
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 furnigh 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.

As can be surmised from Waite's letter of resignation, the 1790 census
takers encountered other problems aside from low pay. In certain sections
of the country there was a great unwillingness on the part of the
citizens to give the information required.

Many had never been enumerated before and were naturally suspicious of
strangers coming around asking question.s Others, remembering the Bibical
reference to the head count for purposes of taxation at the time of the
birth of Christ, often displayed a downright unfriendly attitude. Then
still other citizens, recalling the plagues that befell the children of
Israel following the enumeration made by King David, also refused to
cooperate.

So when the enumerators persisted with then questioning, they were often
lucky to get by with just a dog bite. In a sparsely settled area in
Pennsylvania, there is one instance of an enumerator being killed.

There were varioous other reasons on the part of the population for the
reluctance ot answer questions, but in a 1909 publication ussued 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 time, however, were a
bit dubious of that figure. Because of the low pay, they believed that to
make ends meat, 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 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 Crackbone, Ruth Shaves, Web Ashbean, Comfort
Clock, Sarah Goosehorn, Moses Rainwater, Mercy Cheese, Unity Tallowback,
Lookinbill Barnthistle, Sussannah Beersticker, Constance Cathole," and
hundreds of other equally absurd, were spurious and not the names of real
citizens.

The old Bureau of Census publications goes on to say that in 1790, there
were 27,337 surnames in the United States with English and Scotch names,
or derivations of these names, being preponderant.

The total cost of the first census was $44,377.28.

This year, two centuries later, the cost of counting the heads of some
222 million citizens well be much more. And as in the days of old, some
members of the population may resent what they may consider an invasion
of privacy and set their dogs on the enumerator.

But as sociologists in the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture
point out, taking the census is necessary for the continued good welfare
pf tje matopm/

This thread:

• [FOLKLORE-L] First Census Takers by Shirley Hager <>