The 1860 United States Agricultural Census
Portage County, Ohio
Did your ancestor own a farm in the 1860's? If so, they are probably included in this census.
This particular census is hard to find and its existence is not widely known of. It contains information about almost every farm in the county. In order to be enumerated, the farms had to have an annual produce value of at least 100 dollars. Farms were included in this census whether the occupant owned or rented the land.
Portage County, Ohio is featured in this sale. This census consists of approximately 156 pages. Each entry is spread over two pages. Portage county includes the following townships: Atwater, Aurora, Brimfield, Charlestown, Deerfield, Edinburg, Franklin, Freedom, Hiram, Mantua, Nelson, Palmyra, Paris, Randolph, Ravenna, Rootstown, Shalersville, Streetsboro, Suffield, and Windham.
The census contains the following information:
- name of owner or manager of the farm
- improved acres of land
- unimproved acres of land
- value of farming implements and machinery
- livestock
- horses
- asses and mules
- milch cows
- working oxen
- other cattle
- sheep
- swine
- value of livestock
- produce during the year
- bushels of wheat
- bushels of rye
- bushels of Indian corn
- bushels of oats
- pounds of rice
- pounds of tobacco
- bales of ginned cotton, four hundred pounds each
- pounds of wool
- bushels of peas and beans
- bushels of Irish potatoes
- bushels of sweet potatoes
- bushels of barley
- bushels of buckwheat
- value of orchard products in dollars
- gallons of wine
- value of produce of market gardens
- pounds of butter
- pounds of cheese
- tons of hay
- bushels of clover seed
- bushels of grass seed
- pounds of hops
- tons of drew rotton hemp
- other prepared hemp
- pounds of flax
- bushels of flaxseed
- pounds of silk cocoons
- pounds of maple sugar
- hogsheads of one hundred pounds each of cane sugar
- gallons of molasses, and from what made
- pounds of beeswax
- pounds of honey
- value of homemade manufactures
- value of animals slaughtered
This census is very interesting in that it gives an overview of what each person produced on their farm. You may know that your great great grandfather was a farmer, but do you know what he produced? Do you know how big his farm was? This also becomes interesting when you see siblings enumerated and can compare their farm's value to each other. This census can help you fill in some of the gaps and give you a more complete picture of who your ancestor was in the days just before the Civil War.
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