1820 State Census Dallas County, Alabama (Preface) ************************************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwcensus.org/notices/ http://www.usgwcensus.org/ http://www.usgwcensus.org/cenfiles/ ************************************************************************** Abstracted by B.J. Smothers from public records. Proofreader Needed. Submitted by B.J. Smothers. Edited and formatted by Maggie Stewart. ************************************************************************** All above information must remain when copied or downloaded. ************************************************************************** NOTE: For more information on Dallas County, Alabama, Please visit the Dallas County, ALGenWeb page at http://www.prairiebluff.com/algenweb/dallas/ ========================================================= ALSO visit the ALGenWeb archives at http://www.usgwarchives.net/al/alfiles.htm ************************************************************************** KEY TO COLUMNS: A=White males over 21 B=White males under 21 C=White females over 21 D=White females under 21 E=Total white inhabitants F=Total of free people of colour G=Total of slaves H=Total of inhabitants. ************************************************************************** The 1820 State Census of Alabama On February 9, 1818 the territory of Alabama passed an ordnance requiring that a census be taken of everyone within the territory. It was signed by Wm. W. Bibb, Governor of the territory. However before the Census could be taken, Alabama became a State, thus this census is known as the Alabama State census of 1820. A federal Census was also taken in 1820, but the two were separate and distinct. No copies of the Federal Census have been found. In 1944 The Alabama Historical Quarterly published Census record from 8 counties, Baldwin, Conecuh, Dallas, Franklin, Limestone, St Clair, Shelby And Wilcox. Apparently The Gentleman who found the records was In Washington during the War and had time to do research. Apparently the Additional 22 counties returns have been lost to history. Below are the preface to the original publication and the returns of the various counties. Of the counties for which no returns had been made, obviously Baldwin did finally make the returns so that data has been added at the bottom of the table. Since the original publication date was almost 60 years ago, these record have long passed into public domain. The Census Project is happy to add these transcriptions to those we have completed for the federal censuses. Earnie Breeding Alabama State Census Coordinator US Gen Web Census Project PREFACE TO THE ORIGINAL EDITION This issue of the Alabama Historical Quarterly, No 3. Of Vol.6, is devoted to the publication of the first Census records of Alabama for eight counties for the year 1820 and an abstract of the federal Census of Alabama for the year 1830, The Department of archives and History has tried for years to locate the Census returns or the other Counties covering the period, but has so far failed. Not even the census Bureau at Washington, D. C. Has these early returns. Mrs Gertrude Worthington Jeffries, of Birmingham and Boligee, Alabama has given money to the Department as a memorial to her late husband, Frank M. Jefferies, to be expended for such other census returns as may be found for 1830, 1840, 1850, 1860,and 1870. Copies of some Alabama County Census returns were located in Washington, D. C., at the census Bureau by Dr. Clanton Williams, professor of History at the University of Alabama. He had microfilm copies made from these originals which are in the Amelia Gayle Gorgas Library at the University, and are being copied and indexed by Mrs. Pauline Jones Gandrud, of Tuscaloosa, for the department. The Census returns for the eight Alabama Counties herewith presented were prepared under the direction of Miss Frances M. Hails, State Archivist, with the aid of Mrs. Mary Livingston Akin her assistant in the archival division of the Department. Mrs Akin is painstaking and accurate in her work and in addition to copying old historical records she also has chargw=e of the portograph machine for reproducing original records. These records from our archival material are frequently called for by students and business organizations, and prove of great help to both. Marie Bankhead Owen, Editor