Census, Summary Information 1860 - 1900

CENSUS

Posted By: Joy Moore (email)
Date: 8/29/2018 at 11:55:08

Source: Twice-A-Week Plain Dealer May 22, 1903, FP, C7

The first United States census taken in Howard county was taken in 1860, F. J. Mead of the Plain Dealer having been appointed by Lanrel Summers, of LeClaire, then United States Marshal for Iowa. That census gave the county 3,168 inhabitants, that of 1870 gave 6,272, that of 1880 gave 10,837, that of 1890 gave 11,182, that of 1900 gave 14,512. When the first census of the county was taken, the Plain dealer was in its second year of publication, and the male population of the county, 21 years of age, by a computation at that time, was 792, a large proportion were unmarried men without families, a trifle more than one-fifth the present population of Cresco. And it should be remembered that all were poor and in very humble circumstances. And this was the basis for patronage and support upon which the Plain Dealer pinned its faith in its infancy, and in its mature years it is not disappointed.