Eleventh Census of the United States (1890)

The eleventh Census was taken June 1, 1890. The 1890 census an-
nounced that the frontier region of the United States no longer 
existed and therefore the tracking of westward migration would 
no longer be tabulated in the census. This trend prompted 
Frederick Jackson Turner to develop his milestone Frontier Thesis.

The 1890 census was the first to be compiled on a tabulating 
machine, developed by Herman Hollerith. This introduction of 
technology reduced the time taken to tabulate the census from 
seven years for the 1880 census to two and a half years for 
the 1890 census despite the fact the U.S. population had almost 
doubled during that period. The total population of 62,622,250 
was announced after only six weeks of processing. Ironically, 
the public reaction to this tabulation was disbelief, as it was 
widely believed that the "right answer" was at least 75,000,000.

The logistical difficulties in compiling the census drove com-
puting technology for the next fifty years until computers 
became widespread in industry. IBM's first electronic computer 
was created primarily to deal with the needs of the census in 
addition to military and academic uses.

This census is also notable for the fact it is the only one for 
which the original data is no longer available. Almost all the 
population schedules were destroyed in a fire in 1921.

SOURCE: Wikipedia

1890 Census Notes from newspapers of the day:

From the Fitchburg Sentinel, (Fitchburg, MA), July 18, 1891: 

  "The Work of the Census Enumerators Nearing Completion.
WASHINGTON, July 18. - Superintendent Porter has laid before the
acting secretary of the interior a report of the operations of the
census office for the last six months ended June 30 last.  Mr. 
Porter says that with the exception of eight or ten special agents
gathering fragments of information in relation to manufactures, the
field of the eleventh census is completed.   The enumerators have
all been paid and the division in charge of this work abandoned. By
July 31 the 62,622,230 cards representing each individual enumer-
ated will be punched, ready for the electrical tabulating machines.
The completion of this work will release 1,250 employes.  By Aug. 1
Superintendent Porter hopes to be able to have finished and com-
pleted bulletins of the aggregated population of the United States
by minor civil divisions.  The force of the office will next be 
directed to the preparation of the compendium of the census, the
manuscript for the first volume of which Mr. Porter expects to have
in the hands of the printer not later than October."

From the Fitchburg Sentinel, (Fitchburg, MA), August 15, 1891: 

  "Iowa is not an old state by any means, but under the last census
27 of the 99 counties show a decrease of population as compared to
1880.  The aggregate population of the state has increased 17 per 
cent in the decade."

From the Fitchburg Sentinel, (Fitchburg, MA), July 17, 1891: 

  "PAUPER POPULATION - Plainly Shown by Figures from the Census
Bureau - WASHINGTON, July 17. - The superintendent of the census
issued last night a bulletin on paupers in almhouses in 1890. Their
bulletin contains much of curious and painful interest to New 
England.  Aggregate number of inmates in 1890 in the United States,
73,045; aggregate number in 1880, 66,203, increase in the decade, 
6842.  It will be pleasant for the American people to know that
there has been a marked relative decrease in pauperism in the last
decade.  The ratio of almshouse paupers in 1880 to total population
was one to 758.  It is now one to 857...There are only thirty-six
Indian paupers in the United States, of whom Connecticut has one,
Massachusetts one, and New Hampshire two.  Of the 66,578 white pau-
pers, 36,656 are native born, 27,648 foreign born, and the place of
birth of 2274 is unknown.  The foreign population of this country
contributes, directly or indirectly, in the persons of the foreign
born or of their immediate descendants, very nearly three-fifths of
all the paupers supported in almshouses.   The disproportion be-
tween the two elements in respect of the burden of pauperism is 
even greater than that in respect of crime.  The foreign born pau-
pers alone outnumber all of the white native paupers, whose paren-
tage is known, whether the same be native or foreign.  They also 
equal in number of the white native paupers of purely native origin
and the colored paupers taken together.
  The number of paupers in the New England states is: Massachusetts,
472; Connecticut, 1438; Maine, 1161; New Hampshire, 1143; Vermont,
543; Rhode Island, 490.  The relative proportion of native and
foreign born paupers in New England is shown by this compilation:

 States.      Parents native.   Foreign born.
Maine.............770....................221
New Hampshire.....528....................208
Vermont...........308....................100
Massachusetts....1547...................2141
Rhode Island......156....................164
Connecticut.......447....................660

  It will be seen that in Massachusetts and Connecticut the number
of foreign born greatly exceed the number of native paupers.  There
were 192 more paupers in Massachusetts in 1890 than in 1880.  The 
increase in Connecticut was 20.  In the other New England states 
there was an absolute decrease in the decade as follows: Maine, 344;
New Hampshire, 55; Vermont, 112; Rhode Island, 36.  In the decade 
there was an increase of 637 in the in-door poor of Massachusetts."

From the Elyria Democrat, (Elyria, OH), November 4, 1891: 

  "The census office has announced the population of Mississippi by
minor civil divisions.  The population of the state is given as
1,289,600 against 1,121,567 in 1880.  Of the seventy-five counties
in the state eleven show decreases."

From the Elyria Democrat, (Elyria, OH), February 18, 1891: 

  "The Census Bureau on the 18th announced the population of the State
of Arkansas by races as follows: White, 616,517; colored, 311,227; 
Indians, 304; Chinese, 131; total, 1,128,179."

From the Suburbanite Economist, (Chicago, IL), August 2, 1912: 

  "In 1890 the United States census showed that there were at that 
time 3,981 centenarians in the country, of whom 2,583 were women.  Out
of 89 centenarians who died in England during the year 1883, 79 were
women and ten were men, while out of 21 centenarians who died in Scot-
land in 1895, 16 were women and five were men."

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