U.S. Census Schedules

Hadley Township, Pike County, Illinois
1850 -1860
Overview

New Philadelphia and Hadley Township

In 2004 and 2005, the students enrolled in the New Philadelphia Project field school devoted part of their laboratory experience to transcribing census schedules from Hadley Township, Pike County, Illinois.  New Philadelphia was located in the northeast quarter of Section 27 of Hadley Township.  It was the only town in Hadley Township, with the dubious exception of Hadley Station, the nearest stop on the Naples and Hannibal Railroad.

New Philadelphia was a small rural town, and like any small rural town, its community extended beyond the town lots laid out by Free Frank McWorter.  In fact, Frank and Lucy McWorter did not live in the town, but across the road on their farm.  The New Philadelphia community encompassed many surrounding farmsteads.  It included the farm children who attended school, and those who didn’t.  The farmers who came to town to consult a physician, buy shoes, or have a wagon mended were part of New Philadelphia, as were the congregants of the would-be Baptist church and seminary.

In her honor’s thesis, Charlotte King looked to the U.S. and Illinois state censuses to learn who was living in the town of New Philadelphia in the last half of the nineteenth century. ¹  The databases presented here, along with the Hadley Township Tax Assessors Records, build on and refine King’s definition of the population who lived within the town limits.  In addition, they expand our view of New Philadelphia to include the surrounding farm community.

About the U. S. Census

The U.S. Census is mandated by Article 1 of the Constitution.  The census has been taken every ten years since 1790.  Until recently census takers, or enumerators, attempted to visit every dwelling in their district and count each person.  From 1790 through 1840, they recorded the name of the head of household and the number of males and females, white and black, free and slave, who lived in the household.  Beginning in 1850, the census forms, or schedules, called for every free person in the household to be listed by name, with additional information such as age and place of birth.  From 1850 on, each census has asked more questions.  In 1850 and 1860, slaves were tallied by age, sex and owner’s name on a separate slave schedule, but the slaves’ names were not given.²

When the census was completed, the federal government published massive reports of data and statistics about the population, agricultural production, and manufacturing.  Fortunately, the original enumerators’ schedules were kept.  Genealogists and historians use these old forms to gather information on who was here before us.  The Bureau of the Census releases the schedules on microfilm 72 years after a census is taken.  Therefore, researchers now have access to all the population schedules through 1930, with the exception of 1890, which was destroyed in a fire.  Agriculture, manufacturing, mortality and slave schedules are also available from some censuses.  All the enumerators’ schedules are available on microfilm, and most are online at www.ancestry.com.  Because these digitized images are easier to read than microfilm, we have been able to improve on previous compilations.

The Illinois State Census

In 1855 and 1865, the state of Illinois took its own census.  The originals of these are kept at the Illinois State Archives in Springfield.  They are also being transcribed by the New Philadelphia Project.

The New Philadelphia Project Databases

The U.S. Census population schedules for Hadley Township have been transcribed and indexed elsewhere, in print and online ³  These indices exclude some information and contain many errors.  Using images of the original enumerators’ schedules, we started over.  We transcribed the U. S. population, agriculture and mortality schedules from 1850, 1860, 1870 and 1880 into Access databases and then spent several months proofreading, and editing. Wherever possible, we used digitized images that allowed us to see what the enumerators had written more clearly than on microfilm.    

The population and agriculture schedules are cross-referenced to allow the researcher to match up farm families with information about their farms.  A “Comments” field has been added to clarify problems that arose in deciphering the census.  This field also includes alternate spellings of surnames in the population schedule.  While we transcribed, to the best of our abilities, exactly what the enumerator wrote, we sometimes could identify the same family, with multiple spellings, across several censuses.  By using the “Find” function, the user should be able to locate a family under any of the surname spellings used in these four censuses.

The 1850, 1860, 1870 and 1880 population, agriculture and mortality schedules are presented here.  In future, watch for the 1900, 1910, 1920 and 1930 population schedules, as well as the 1855 and 1865 Illinois state census.

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¹Charlotte King, Passed by Time: America’s All-Black Towns. Department of Anthropology, University of Maryland College Park, 2003.

²Jason G. Gauthier, Measuring America:  The Decennial Census from 1790 to 2000.  U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Department of Commerce, Washington, D.C., 2002  (http://www.census.gov/prod/www/abs/ma.html).

³Robert E. Selby and Phyllis J. Selby, comp., 1850 Census of Pike County, Illinois, Selby, Kokomo, Indiana, ca. 1979; Barbara J. Elgas, comp., 1850 Federal Census, Pike County, Illinois: Persons Aged 50 and Over, Janlen Enterprises, West Allis, Wisconsin, 1974; Evelyn V. Smith, comp., 1880 Federal Census of Pike County, Illinois, E.V. Smith, Pleasant Hill, Illinois, 198?; http://www.Ancestry.com.