The last of the 1860 agricultural census reported

By Bill Young

The article this week will be the last one pertaining to the 1850 and 1860 agricultural censuses. I don’t have any census for 1870 or later and even if I did, I think we need to break away from the census for a while. Every now and then too much of one thing can get boring.

Last week I started listing the values of animals slaughtered and I stopped last week at $200. This week’s article will list some of the farmers who had less value starting with Jeremiah Melton from the Dresden area with $185 followed by Thomas Conner from Hester Grove with an odd amount of $181. Six individuals were tied at $180 each. They were H.B. Epps, David Pevehouse from Cross Roads, Margaret Houston, M. Davis, Robert Lewis and A.N. Smith.

Josiah Daniel told the census taker he had slaughtered $176, another odd number followed by W.C. George with $175. Jedadiah Welch and Jonathan Melton, both from the Dresden area, were tied at $170 each. Next was R.P. Oliver with $168 followed by several more tied at $165. These farmers were Thomas Melton, another member of the Melton clan from the Dresden area, Martin Box and Warren Blackwell. Four individuals were tied at $160 each. They were Robert Davidson from the Eureka area, Sidney Haynie also from the Eureka area, W.S. Robertson from Corsicana and William Richie who lived north of present-day Dawson.

J.W. George and Francis Jones were the only farmers who listed $155 but 15 farmers were tied at an even $150. They were Joseph Bragg from Hester Grove, Nancy Hickman, J.J. Hammond, A.C. Brown, Hiram Brown, Benjamin Roberts from Pursley, William H. Garner from the area where Lake Navarro Mills is now located, Martha Barnett, Thomas Haynes, Naz White, who lived for a while on Pisgah Ridge but moved to the area south of Retreat, J.P. Anderson, D. Weaver, Jesse Pugh, E. Nash from Pisgah Ridge and Elias Carroll, who owned land on the ridge but had other holdings in the Rural Shade area.

One individual, Silas Baker, told the census taker he had slaughtered $147 of animals and 11 farmers were tied at $140. They were R.M. Phillips, John Burt, Anderson Nix, Roger Q. Mills, J. Brewster, B.F. Carroll, J.V. Real, Minerva McCane, Henry Griffin, James McDuncan and P.F. Winn. Three people were tied at $135. They were Thomas Smith, Martin Caddell and James W. Coppell. One individual, J.M. Curry from the Purdon area, had an odd amount of $133 followed by five individuals tied at $130 each. They were Philip Trammel from the ridge, Samuel Parmley, James Smith, S.P. Nabors and H.J. Cage. Theophilus Killian had a total of $126 followed by Moses Newman and William Meador with $125 each.

I decided to cut this list off at $125 but there were many more farmers who listed less than $100 each. During the past few months I have written a number of articles about the 1850 and 1860 agricultural censuses. With each article, new names appeared under one of the various categories while other people’s names appeared almost continuously. With each new name we have a better understanding of some of the people who helped Navarro County get started. If we look at the actual census where each person told the census taker what his profession was, we realize not every one was associated with farming on a full-time basis. However, many of the people who migrated here especially after 1850 brought with them numerous skills which helped the county grow. Farming and the cattle business have always been important to our region because we had good land and most of the time a reasonable amount of rainfall. However, we know from our past experiences just how fickle the weather for this area can be. Many farmers had one or several bad years back to back forcing a number of families to move on to other areas. The practice of sharecropping came in the late 1880s. One year would be good and the next two were terrible and eventually the practice of sharecropping slowly faded away. It is my hope most of the people doing research on their ancestors have found their names somewhere within the two early agricultural censuses written over the past few months.

Starting next week, I will be writing about some of the new discoveries in archeology. Keep in mind archeology is part of the science of anthropology which is the study of man. Archeology studies the artifacts left by various cultures in an attempt to define how a certain culture lived. The distribution of certain similar artifacts helps us understand where a specific group lived but there are many variables. Nowadays it is best if an archeologist also has one or more courses in geology which enables the archeologist to better understand the stratigraphic sequences where artifacts were discarded by one or more groups utilizing a specific site. One of the biggest questions still not well understood by archeologists is why some of the Native American leave so many unused artifacts at a site? It took a lot of time and energy to manufacture some of these stone items so why did they leave them lying on the ground? Religion may be part of the answer, used-up tools which they might have been considered no longer functional may explain part of the discard but some of the tools and weapon tips were left on the ground in pristine condition. Why? There is some new terminology written in the books today. Some of these terms I can’t pronounce much less describe but hopefully I can explain some of these new terms.

Next week: What was the first Americans?