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1818 Illinois Territory Census


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Illinois Territory Census, 1818

1818 Illinois Territory Census Records, as found in the Collections of the State Historical Library, Volume XXIV, Statistical Series, Volume II.

Notes on the 1818 Illinois Territory Census

An abstract of the census for 1818 is given in Buck, Illinois in 1818, pp. 318-319, but as those figures do not in all cases agree with the ones found in rechecking the schedules, they are ignored here. The differences are minor. Most of the census commissioners made mistakes in footing the columns so only the totals have been listed in printing the schedules. The figures for the report of the secretary of the territory are copied here from Mr. Buck's list. The "Report to the Convention" is taken from the Journal of the Constitutional Convention reprinted in the Illinois State Historical Society, Journal, 6: 359.

Edwards County. No returns for 1818 are extant except that the supplementary census for Washington County contains also that "from the detached parts of Edwards Co. on the maridian line joining Washington."

Madison County. At the end of the enumeration of families the census commissioner adds a note to the effect that there are 980 souls at Forts Crawford, Armstrong, Edwards and Clark. At this is obviously an estimate, if not frankly padding, this figure 980 has not been added in, though included in the secretary's report. Fort Crawford was located at the mouth of the Wisconsin River, north of the Illinois boundary as set by the enabling act.

Pope County. Sixty-four "blacks" are added to the total without indication of family connections or status as slave or free.

Randolph County. Only the "additional census" schedules are extant.

St. Clair County. The manuscript for this county has been partly destroyed by fire. The names beginning with A to E and part of those beginning with F are entirely missing; also about thirty-one names and many figures from the bottoms of the pages as indicated. The total of the extant figures in the first four columns is 3196, and of extant figures in the "totals" column, 3110. The figures for St. Clair County are in italics to indicate that they are incomplete.


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