GROWTH OF A CENTURY

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jun 26, 1893

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 19, No. 33.

GROWTH OF A CENTURY.

In 1790 the first national census was taken. In 1890, 100 years later, the last national census was taken. These censuses are taken every ten years, and from their examination an adequate idea of the growth of the country may be obtained.

"Statistics are usually considered very irksome reading," says the Yankee Blade, "but the census statistics of the United States, recording as they do the most marvelous national growth in all history, are of great interest to all who are impressed by our country's development.

"In the census of 1790 the present States of Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, West Virginia, Wisconsin, North and South Dakota, Montana, and Washington were not represented, for the simple reason that they had not yet come into existence. Indeed, the territory of most of them had not yet been explored. It was a solitude, roamed by savages and wild beasts.

"The population of Massachusetts in 1790 was 378,787, or about 100,000 less than the population of the single city of Boston to-day.

"The population of the State of New York in 1790 was 340,126. There are seven cities in the United States to-day,—New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Brooklyn, St. Louis, Boston, and Baltimore,—that contain a larger population than did the entire State of New York in 1790.

"The population of the entire country in 1790 was 3,929,214—about as many people as are contained to-day in the three cities of New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia."—Selected.