1830 Federal Census, Madison County, Missouri - Transcriber's Notes

This census was transcribed by Dorothy Oberhausen, Doberha152@aol.com, 
and proofread by Dan "Eagle Eye" Oberhausen, at the same email address,  
for the USGENWEB Archives Census Project, http://www.usgwcensus.org.

Copyright (c) 2000 by Dorothy Oberhausen.

This transcription of the 1830 Madison County, Missouri Federal census was 
taken from a diazo microfilm, National Archives number M19-73.

According to the reference staff at the Missouri State Archives,
"There was no official census taken for Missouri prior to 1830.  There were a 
few censuses taken prior to statehood [1820], however very few records exist. 
 In fact we only have transcribed listings for a couple of the counties that 
existed pre-statehood."

Generally, censuses taken before 1830 listed the number of free white male 
heads-of-household within a county; no names of those individuals were 
included.  A Library of Congress document, "Memorial and resolutions of the 
legislature of the Missouri Territory, and a copy of the census of the fall of 
1817", LC call #AC901.M7  vol. 24, no. 3, ends with the statement
"The census was taken in August and September, 1817, and is the male 
population only, independent of the females and blacks", and includes the 
following enumeration.

Howard County          3,380
St. Charles            2,866
St. Louis              4,725
St. Genevieve          2,203
Washington             1,245
Cape Girardeau         2,593
New Madrid               669
Lawrence               1,529
                       ______
                       19,218

Goodspeed's "History of Southeast Missouri", published in 1888, includes a 
table that lists populations of counties from 1821 through 1880.  But its 
sources are not stated and the numbers may be estimates, although possibly 
pretty accurate.  Also in that book is a census of 1803 Cape Girardeau County 
that lists the names of heads-of-household along with numbers of white and 
slave males and females and crop and livestock statistics.

Madison County was organized from Cape Girardeau and St. Genevieve 
Counties on December 14, 1818 by an act of the fourth Missouri Territorial 
Legislative Assembly; formation of Pike, Lincoln and Montgomery counties 
were authorized under the same act.

In his book "A History of Madison County, Missouri" Henry Clay Thompson 
refers to an 1820 census that gives the county census as 2,047; that is 
corroborated by Goodspeed's. 

This 1830 census, then, is probably the oldest enumeration that survives 
which lists names of individuals in Madison County.  It was performed by 
Moses Cox, who was one of the trustees of Fredericktown, the county seat, 
when it was organized in 1827.  He was a county court judge for the 1831 and 
1832 term and with his brother Caleb, owner of one of the first stores in 
Fredericktown.  

Mr. Cox wrote in a firm legible script with a fine ink that has not faded.  No 
dates are recorded on the census.  Running totals for each of the 59 columns 
for each individual in each township are kept at the top and bottom of each 
page and they are recapitulated at the end.  And following that is an overall 
list for the townships:

     St. Michael Township
           Frederick Town            129
           St. Michael Village        35
           St. Michael Township      901
     Castor Township                 586
     Twelve Mile Township            176
     Liberty Township                238
     German Township                 306 
                                     ____
                                     2371

Mr. Cox took his work seriously and we thank him for it.

Mr. Cox used a whole row to record the division of one township from the next; 
these breaks are recorded in the "Remarks" column at the extreme right end 
of this transcription as are the hand written page numbers.