Ohio History Journal

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BOOK REVIEWS

BOOK REVIEWS

 

Illinois Census Returns, 180-1818. Edited by Margaret Cross

Norton. Illinois State Historical Library Collections, XXIV:

Statistical Series, II (Springfield, Illinois, Illinois State

Historical Library, 1935. 329p.); Illinois Census Returns,

1820. Edited by Margaret Cross Norton. Illinois State His-

torical Library Collections, XXVI: Statistical Series, III

(Springfield, Illinois, Illinois State Historical Library, I934.

466p.).

The first volume of the Statistical Series, Illinois Election

Returns, 1818-1848, edited by Professor Theodore Calvin Pease,

was published as volume XVIII of the Collections, in I923. The

publication of these two volumes affords additional statistical data

for the student of history. The editor writes:

Although disappointing in that biographical and genealogical data

concerning the early settlers are not given in these census records, they

are valuable not only for the sentimental reason that they preserve the

names of hundreds of pioneers otherwise forgotten, but also as providing

the basis for studies in population movement in the United States.

Miss Norton reprints, in the introduction to volume II of

this series, the censuses for 1732 and 1752, which were made

under the French regime. Under the British regime an enumera-

tion was made, in 1767, apparently for military purposes, but the

first census listing names of the heads of families was prepared

about 1787 for use in a petition to Congress for lands. These

censuses were published in volumes II and V of the Illinois His-

torical Collections. The earliest American censuses were those

taken by the Federal Government in 1800, while Illinois was still1

a part of Indiana Territory, and in 1810, one year after Illinois

became a separate territory. In addition to these two enumera-

tions, of which only summaries were published, the Territorial

Legislature of Indiana provided for two enumerations. One in

1805 ordered the sheriffs to take a count of all free male inhabit-

ants at the same time that they took the list of taxable property,

but they failed in many instances. At the session in 1806 the

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