US Census History of the Federal US Census
1790 – 1840 Census Records
The birth of federal US census history can be traced to the US Constitution which called for a national federal census of the inhabitants of the United States:
Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several states which may be included within this union, according to their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, including those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all other persons. The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as they shall by law direct.
US Constitution Article 1, Section 2
Initially, the proposed federal US census was designed to spread political representation and tax liability across the federal states. However, by the time the first US census was conducted, there were clearly other factors at play; a separate census question asking for the number of free white males aged over 16 years indicated a clear desire to measure military and industrial capabilities.
Although the US Constitution had called for little more than a head count, all the pre-1850 US federal census records included the names of the heads of each family. Quite an achievement considering the 1841 Census of Great Britain was the first British census to collect any personal details at all.
Measuring a growing nation
The first US Census of 1790 enumerated the original Thirteen Colonies that formed the Union in 1788, plus four districts that would later go on to form part of the United States.
As the geographical area of the United States expanded rapidly, so did the increase in US population. In 1803, the ‘Louisiana Purchase’ involved the US purchasing from France the area west of the Mississippi River up to the Rocky Mountains. This area nearly doubled the size of the US and covered an area that would later comprise 15 States.
US Marshals and their Assistants
For the first nine censuses (i.e. up to, and including, the census of 1870) assistant marshals acted as enumerators within their designated area, supervised by US marshals of the judicial districts.
It was not until the federal census of 1830 that pre-printed schedules were used for the first time. Before then, the assistant marshals drew their own lines, wrote their own headings and used whatever paper they could lay their hands on – in some cases, wallpaper was used for binding the schedules.
The assistant marshals publicly displayed the census returns and then sent a copy to the US marshal who, in turn, lodged a copy with the district court. He also sent a summary to the Secretary of State (apart from 1790 when it was sent to the President of the United States).
Temporary census office established
The 1840 Census Act established a Census Office and the post of ‘Superintending Clerk of the Census’ to handle the more technical aspects of the US census and to amend clerical errors. However, the Census Office was only temporary and disbanded between censuses.
Time limits
Before each census, legal time limits were set for the enumeration period. For the 1790 census, a legal time limit was fixed of nine months although this was extended; South Carolina took 18 months. During the decades that followed, there was always a struggle to reduce the legal timeframe. By the 1820 census, the period was fixed at 6 months, only to be increased to 13 months. By the census of 1840, ten months was initially fixed, later reduced to five months, then progressively extended to a fixed end date of 1 January 1842.
Scope
Generally, each successive census collected more personal data than the census before. The collection of statistical data, in addition to pure population data, was first attempted in the census of 1810 (and repeated in the census of 1820) when manufacturing data was collected. Whilst considered a failure (and not repeated for the censuses of 1830 and 1840) the concept of collecting statistical data on a range of industries and other sectors was to be resurrected.
Surviving records
Given the age of the early decennial US census records, and the disruption and destruction inevitably caused by civil war, a surprising amount of pre-1850 US census records have survived. Nevertheless, only around 70% of the census records for 1790 and 1800 are intact, and around 85% of the 1810 census records.
Post 1850 Census Records
The 1850 census – a watershed
The 1850 Census marked a watershed in terms of scope and method of data collection.
Of most significance to US family historians, the 1850 census was the first federal US census to record the personal details of all inhabitants of the US, both free born and (at that time) slaves.
The Census Board was established, made up of the Secretary of State, the Attorney General and the Postmaster-General. Its role was non-political and involved drafting schedules and forms with the aid of a specialist committee. Prominent statisticians acted as consultants.
At the same time, the (still temporary) Census Office moved from the Department of State to the newly created Department of the Interior. Likewise, overall control of the federal census transferred from the Secretary of State to the Secretary of the Interior, who was now responsible for appointing the Superintending Clerk of the Census.
The role of the US marshals and their assistants was also reformed. The US marshals were instructed to divide their own districts into ‘known civil divisons’ (e.g. counties, towns etc.) and oversee the work of their assistants.
The 1850 census marked a large increase in the amount of data collected. The marshals’ duties now extended to the completion of six schedules of which two were population schedules; one covering free inhabitants and one covering slave inhabitants. (The other schedules were; mortality, production of agriculture, products of industry and social statistics.) In total, there were now over a hundred questions.
In the decades to come, the challenges posed to census officials by the ever expanding volume of data were to inspire hugely significant inventions in the field of automation.
The Seaton Device
For the 1870 census, there was one general population schedule (the slave schedule no longer applying) but the other schedules on mortality etc. remained and the number of questions continued to expand. Necessity being the mother of invention, Charles W Seaton, a census official, developed a machine that could help process the census results. The ‘Seaton Device’ was used in both the 1870 and 1880 censuses.
Seaton was eventually to become the Superintendent of the Census (a role that effectively replaced that of Superintending Clerk of the Census).
US marshals replaced with supervisors
The 1880 census introduced further major reforms to the administrative structure of the federal census. For some time, US marshals had been viewed as unsuitable census officials. They were political appointees with a heavy work load whose involvement in the federal census owed much to the fact that, at the time of the original 1790 federal census, there were few viable alternatives.
For the census of 1880, the services of the US marshals and their assistants were finally dispensed with. The Superintendent of the Census was now in charge of their replacements; up to 150 supervisors who subdivided their districts and appointed their own enumerators for these areas. Where needed, the Superintendent had the authority to outsource the more technical aspects of the census (particularly regarding social statistics and manufacturing) to non-local technical experts. All appointments were to be non-political.
Confidentiality
Before the census of 1880, census schedules had been made publicly available. This lack of privacy resulted in a great deal of public suspicion of the federal census. To win the public’s trust, the new supervisors and their enumerators were instructed to maintain the strictest confidentiality.
Time becomes an issue
By the 1880 census, the time taken to process data had expanded to 8 years and it was widely recognised that a more automated system of handling the census data was urgently needed.
Hollerith Electric Tabulating System
Herman Hollerith was employed as a statistican during the 1880 census. Witnessing first hand the challenges of handling huge amounts of data, he invented an electric tabulating system for punching cards. Adopted for the 1890 decennal census, this forerunner to the modern computer reduced the processing time from 8 years down to 2.5 years. The company that Hollerith went on to found was ultimately named IBM (‘International Business Machines’).
Hollerith’s electronic tabulators were so successful that they were used in all the decennial US censuses up to and including the US census of 1940. They were eventually replaced by the first modern civilian computer; ‘UNIVAC I’.
Permanent Census Bureau
Although a temporary census office had been used since 1840, a permanent Census Bureau was not established until 1902. Initially based within the Department of the Interior, the Census Bureau was moved to the Department of Commerce and Labor in 1903.
1921 – Fire at the Commerce Department Building
It was in the Department of Commerce and Labor that the majority of the 1890 census records were destroyed by a catastrophic fire. Fortunately, a special enumeration of Union Veterans and Widows was also conducted in 1890 and the majority of these records are still available, acting as an invaluable ‘census substitute’.
20th Century – period of expansion
The 20th Century witnessed a further expansion in the enumeration of the US population. Alaska, purchased in 1867, was included in the US census of 1900 as was Hawaii, which had been annexed in 1898.
The Island areas, referred to as ‘Puerto Rico and the Outlying Areas’, were also included in the US census in the 20th Century. In the first half of the 20th century these included; Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam and the US Virgin Islands. The Panama Canal Zone, an ‘outlying area’ for most of the 20th Century, was included in the decennial census between 1920 and 1970.
Sources
Measuring America: The Decennial Censuses from 1790 to 2000. Jason G Gauthier. US Department of Commerce, Economics and Statistics Administration, US Census Bureau. 2002.