State

The First Census of 1790 POPULATION OF « О I M ILS IN 1790 Anson 5.133 Beaufort 5,462 Bertie 12.606 Bladen 5.084 Brunswick 3.071 Burke 8,118 Camden 4.033 Carteret 3.732 Caswell 10.090 Chatham 9.221 Chowan 5.011 Craven 10,469 Cumberland 8.671 Currituck 5,219 Duplin 5,662 Edgecombe 10,255 Franklin 7,559 Gates 5.392 Granville 10.982 Greene . 6.893 Guilford 7.191 Halifax 13.965 Hertford 5,828 Hyde 4.120 Iredell 5.13.» Johnston 5.634 Jones 4.822 Lincoln 9.224 Martin 6,080 Mecklenburg 1 1,395 Montgomery 4.725 Moore 3.770 Nash 7.393 New Hanover 6,831 Northampton 9.981 Onslow 5,387 Orange 12,216 Pasquotank 5,407 Perquimans 5,440 Pitt 8.275 Randolph 7,276 Richmond . 5,055 Robeson . 5,326 Rockingham 6.187 Rowan 15,828 Rutherford 7.808 Sampson 6,065 Stokes 7,191 Tyrrell . 4,744 Wake 10,192 Warren 9.397 Wayne 6,133 Wilkes 8.143 IKouan Ii;hI Iho lar^tvsl population anil Bruns- uie*k had Ihc smallest. Population of the entire stale* was only :Ш.751. THE year. 1950. is a census year, and in this connection. Mr. P. T. McDaniel, of Moncure, writes in to say: "The first official U. S. census was taken in 1790. The biggest county in North Carolina 1 in popu¬ lation! was Rowan. "Tyrrell County had 4.744 folks in it in 1790 and only 5.564 in 1940, a gain of only 820 people in 130 years. "Orange County had 23.492 peo¬ ple within its boundaries in 1820 and only 17.895 in 1920, a hundred years later." ЛИ of which is very interesting, and we thank Mr. McDaniel for bringing the information to our at¬ tention. However, before the people of Tyrrell and Orange counties start jumping on us. we might call his attention to the fact that since the 1790 census was taken. Durham County was sliced from Orange and unless we arc mistaken. Dare and Washington counties were sliced from Tyrrell. Mr. McDaniel’s letter brought on further thought about the original census, so we went up to the State Library and obtained the book which has a record of that first census in it. Л Different Procedure The original census was taken differently from the procedure that is followed today. Wo discovered that the book listed only the heads of families and deuendents. with no compilation of figures whatso¬ ever However, with the assistance of Mrs. Price we found another book in which these figures had been tabulated. There were only 53 counties in North Carolina in 1790. so if you don't find your own county in the accompanying list you wifi under¬ stand that it is because your county had not been formed at that time. As Mr. McDaniel says, the county with the largest population was Rowan, with 15.828 people within its boundaries. < Rowan, in those days, likewise was considerably larger than it is today. I Next in ie population came Halifax, with 13,- 965 people. Bertie was third with 12.606; Orange was fourth, with 12,216. and Mecklenburg was fifth with 11.395. Brunswick stood at the bottom of the list with 3.071. And look at Caswell County, with a population of 10,096 — larg¬ er than Beaufort. Guilford. John¬ ston. Nash. New Hanover. Pitt. Randolph. Richmond and a num¬ ber of others. Fifty-three counties in the state in 1790, and there are many of our citizens who are of the opinion that it would be better for North Caro¬ lina as a whole if there were only that same number today. The last county to be formed was Avery. And a short while be¬ fore that. Hoke was created. Both Avery and Hoke were formed in 1911. but the bill creating Hoke was passed in the Legislature be¬ fore the Avery bill was brought up. Lee County is another one that it comparatively young: it was formed from parts of Chatham and Moore counties and was created in 1907. Scotland came into being in 1899 and Durham and Vance were both created in 1881. Bladen County is generally re¬ garded as "the mother of counties." Unless our memory fails us, U. S. Page, member of the Legislature for several sessions, used to say in some of his speeches that about half of the counties in the state were carved from Bladen. We've always had the impression that he never has exactly forgiven the rest of the state for such a desecration of Bladen’s integrity. Anyway. North Carolina has made tremendous gains in popula¬ tion since the 1790 census. The population of the state at that time was 393.751. The 1940 census showed it to be 3.571,623. Incidentally, the most populous county in the state when the 1940 census was taken was Guilford, with Mecklenburg in second place and Forsyth standing third. THE STATE. Juni S. 1948