The 1850 Logan County, Virginia Census

Enumerated by James G. Perry, Jul-Oct 1850

Tabulated Results and Population Analysis

Contents

Most of the information in this website is presented in table form. If your
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• Tabulated Columns
  1. Dwelling
  2. Family
  3. Name
     • Surnames
     • Forenames: Male
     • Forenames: Female
  4. Age
  5. Sex Ratio
  6. Color
  7. Occupation
  8. Real Estate
  9. Birth
  10. Married in Year
  11. School in Year
  12. Cannot Read and Write
  13. Whether ... pauper, etc.
• Population Counts
• Slavery
• Notes
• Sources

Dwelling

Family

Name

The early colonial period in America was characterized by quite separate colonies with comparatively little commerce between them. The Puritans and the Quakers were very different peoples, characterized by high contrasts in religion, dress, and speech. Puritans even executed Quakers when they were too persistent in preaching for converts, and Quakers expelled those who were not a part of their church. Virginia planters tolerated their northern neighbors, but rather looked down on them as less aristocratic. The insular character of the separate colonies began to break down by the middle of the eighteenth century as settlers moved into the interior areas of the continent. For the first time on the new continent, various people of differing beliefs were brought together with no single group dominating. Out of the diverse cultural elements, the amalgam of American culture came into existence. By 1850 the process was nearly complete, but it was still possible to differentiate sub-populations of Logan County which had derived from four main groups: 1) Virginian planters, 2) Pennsylvania Quakers, 3) Palatine Germans, 4) Back-country Scotch-Irish.

1. Original stock of the Tideland Virginia families tended to originate from the gentry of the southwestern counties of England: Devon, Somerset, Gloucester, Northants, Hampshire, Berkshire, Surrey, Middlesex, and Kent (Fischer, p. 236). After initial settlement, these lineages began to migrate in the early eighteenth century from the tidelands up various watercourses toward the Appalachian divide, and later down the Guyandotte or Sandy River tributaries into the area that became Logan County.
2. Quaker stock from Pennsylvania tended to originate in English Midland counties of Cheshire, Lancashire, Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire (Fischer, p. 445). In America these lineages migrated in the mid eighteenth century from Pennsylvania down the Shenandoah River Valley into North Carolina, then up the Clinch and Holston River watercourses to the Appalachian divide and down to the Guyandotte and Sandy River drainages.
3. Germans from the Palatine region bordering the Rhine River came into America in the 1680's after William Penn, whose mother was Dutch, traveled to Holland and Germany specifically to seek immigrants (Riffe, p. 6). The Quaker colony in Pennsylvania was very sympathetic to Germans, and communities of German-speaking colonists existed side-by-side with English-speaking immigrants. Within a generation, as German was supplanted by English, the language barriers which had isolated the two populations was erased. The Pennsylvania Dutch (Deutsch or German) eventually outnumbered the Quakers and spread into central and western Pennsylvania. From there they traveled down the Ohio and up the Guyandotte and Sandy River drainages into the Logan County, or followed the Quaker migrations of which they were a part.
4. Back country Scotch-Irish came later to America from northern and western counties bordering the Irish Sea: Ayr, Dumfries and Wigtown in Scotland, Cumberland and Westmorland in England, and Derry, Antrim, Down in Ireland (Fischer, p. 622). These groups migrated in the eighteenth century through ports in Pennsylvania and the Chesapeake more directly to the back country opening up prior to the American Revolution.

Each of these groups were initially characterized by distinct values and conventions on family patterns of marriage and child-rearing, social patterns of wealth, rank and power, personal patterns of speech and dress, work and sport (See Fischer). As these values blended into American culture, often the only clue to a person's genetic origins was their name.

Surnames

There were 266 distinct surnames in Logan County in 1850. The most common surname in the county was White with 131 persons bearing that surname. Of course, these Whites may have come from distinct lineages even though they all had the same last name. Browning and Perry were the next most common surnames with 106 and 82 persons of that name, respectively. The fifty most common surnames are tabulated below with the numbers of individuals of that last name.

Surname Rank 01-10		Surname Rank 11-20		Surname Rank 21-30		Surname Rank 31-40		Surname Rank 41-50
White	131	Elkin	50	Thompson	37	Vannatter	32	Lucas	26
Browning	106	Burgess	47	Bailey	36	Lawson	31	Trent	26
Perry	82	Mullins	45	Conley	36	Davis	30	Toney	25
Vance	75	Cline	44	Brewer	35	McDonald	30	Canterberry	24
Dingess	62	Curry	43	Dempsey	34	Baisden	29	Hinchman	24
Ellis	61	Evans	43	Chaffin	33	Hensley	29	Stollings	24
McNeely	58	Workman	41	Godby	33	Runyon	29	Brown	23
Hatfield	57	Fry	40	Pasley	33	Tiller	29	Brumfield	23
McCoy	57	Mounts	39	Varney	33	Smith	28	Murphy	23
Ferrell	51	Adkins	37	Farley	32	Clarke	27	Sansom	23

Table 3.1. Fifty most common surnames.

Family Origins

Because of the convergence of surnames in the various sections of England, it is not always possible to ascribe surnames to definite regions. Some surnames were present across wide areas of the British Isles, but others were more specific. Information on Logan County families from various sources can suggest patterns of migration back to origins.

• Virginia Counties:
  • Albemarle: Davis (Swain p. 76).
  • Culpepper: Clarke (Swain, p. 78).
  • Montgomery: Elkin (Swain, p. 54), Chaffin (Swain, p. 77), Godby (Swain, p. 59), McDonald (Swain, p. 62).
  • Russell: Trent (Swain, p. 68).
  • Tazewell: Brown (Swain, p. 57).
• English Midland Counties: Hatfield from York (Hatfield, p. 183).
• England, unspecified: Thompson, Smith, Clarke, Lucas (Mockler); Brewer (Swain, p. 80); Hinchman (Swain, p. 66).
• English or Anglicized German: Smith, Brown, Brumfield (Mockler).
• North Carolina: White, Browning, Vance, Burgess (Swain, p. 72); Mullins (Swain, p. 65).
• Germany: Dingess (Swain, p. 51), Cline (Swain, p. 74; Cline, p. 5).
• Pennsylvania: Workman (Sayre, p. 65).
• Northern Ireland, Scotland or England borderlands: Perry (Swain, p. 66), Lawson (Swain, p. 73), McDonald (Swain, p. 63); Ferrell, Curry, Murphy (Mockler).
• Wales: Ellis (Swain, p. 70); Evans, Davis (Mockler).
• Other:
  • Portugal: Mounts (Swain, p. 75).
  • With Lafayette (France): Baisden (Swain, p. 79).

Forenames: Male

There were 276 distinct male surnames in the county enumeration. The two most common names were John (184 males) and William (175). The fifty most common male forenames are tabulated below with the numbers of individuals bearing each name.

Forename Rank 01-10		Forename Rank 11-20		Forename Rank 21-30		Forename Rank 31-40		Forename Rank 41-50
John	184	Isaac	30	Daniel	18	Patterson	11	Preston	8
William	175	Charles	28	Elijah	18	Harrison	10	Guy	7
James	166	Lewis	28	Moses	17	Jackson	10	Martin	7
Thomas	58	Alex.	22	Anderson	16	Jesse	9	Alfred	6
George	47	Floyd	22	Allen	15	Lorenzo	9	Elisha	6
Andrew	40	Jacob	21	Harvey	14	Albert	8	Gordon	6
Joseph	40	Peter	21	Hiram	14	Francis	8	Henderson	6
Samuel	40	Benjamin	19	Anthony	13	Hugh	8	Ira	6
Henry	36	Richard	19	Edward	11	Melvin	8	Levi	6
David	31	Robert	19	Eli	11	Milton	8	Oliver	6

Table 3.2. Fifty most common male forenames (See Notes).

Naming Trends

Virginians exhibited a distinct naming pattern in forenames (Fischer, pp. 306-310):

• First-born sons tended to be named after grandfathers, second-born tended to be named after their father. This is in contrast with the Puritan tradition of New England in which the father's name was the first chosen.
• Godparents in the predominantly Anglican religious tradition held an important role in naming, adding a lateral element to linear naming patterns resulting in a very complex web of naming. Surnames were sometimes used to reinforce connections between families, especially for male children. Examples from the table above, the names Anderson, Patterson, Harrison, Jackson, and Henderson might be an example, and not in this table: McKinley.
• Choice of names favored Teutonic warriors, Frankish knights, and English kings: William, Robert, Richard, Edward, George and Charles. Biblical names were not as common in Virginia as other parts of America.

Quakers (Fischer, pp. 502-507):

• As in Virginia, first-born sons tended to be named after their grandfather, second-born tended to be named after their father. Double-reversing the naming order often occurred in which the first born son was named after the mother's father, and the first born daughter was named after the father's mother.
• Choice of names included biblical names, especially John, Joseph, Samuel, and Thomas, but traditional English and Teutonic names were also favored: William, George. Grace names were occasionally used: Pleasant, Comfort, Increase, Preserve.

Germanic names were often Anglicized to make them indistinguishable from English names, but a few stood out as distinctly germanic: Peter, Lewis, Albert.

Back-country Scotch-Irish (Fischer, p. 683-686):

• First-born sons tended to be named after their grandfathers, later-born after their fathers, much like in Anglican Virginia and Quaker America.
• Choice of names was a distinctive combination of patterns:
  • Biblical names: John, as an example
  • Teutonic names: Robert, Richard, and the distinctive Teutonic-Scandinavian names of Archibald and Ronald
  • Border Saints: Andrew (Patron Saint of Scotland), Patrick (Patron Saint of Ireland), David (Patron Saint of Wales)
  • Celtic names: Ewan (Owen)
  • Scottish Kings: Alexander, Charles, James
  • Warriors noted in the borderland struggles between England, Scotland, and Ireland in the early eighteenth century: Wallace, Bruce, Percy, Howard
• Non-traditional naming patterns were more common in back country Scotch-Irish than in other American groups, and unique names were often chosen to accentuate cultural individualism.

More contemporary trends:

• After political figures, especially presidents.
  • George W. 's account for 72.73% of the George's with middle names (16 of 22), possibly named for George Washington, our 1st president.
  • James M.'s account for 22.39% of the James' with middle names (15 of 67). All were named after James Madison left office in 1817, and may have been named for him, the 4th president, or for James Monroe, the 5th president. Only 4 Madison's were so named, placing it below 62nd in frequency.
  • There were 10 Jackson's in Logan County in 1850, and all but 2 were named after 1829 when Andrew Jackson became president. Even those two, born in 1819 and 1825, might have been named for the popular 7th president, as Andrew Jackson had been a hero of the War of 1812. Of the 10 Andrew's with middle names, 7 were Andrew J's, and all were born after 1832.
  • There were 10 Harrison's in Logan County in 1850, and all were born after 1811 when William Henry Harrison was the hero of the Battle of Tippecanoe; Harrison went on to be the 9th president in 1841.
  • Martin was the name of 7 males of Logan County, and the name had a distinctly modern sound in 1850. Only one was born before Martin Van Buren became Andrew Jackson's Secretary of State in 1828 (Martin Toler was born in 1818); Van Buren was Jackson's Vice President in 1832, and went on to the 8th presidency in 1836.
• Religious figures: Lorenzo Dow, the Methodist Episcopal circuit rider active in the early years of the 1800's across America.
• Certain names were distinctly modern: Hiram, Guy, Alfred (in a revival of the Old English name).

Forenames: Female

There were 273 distinct female surnames in Logan County in 1850. There were 133 females by the name of Mary, and 126 Elizabeth's. The fifty most common female forenames are tabulated below with the numbers of individuals bearing each name.

Forename Rank 01-10		Forename Rank 11-20		Forename Rank 21-30		Forename Rank 31-40		Forename Rank 41-50
Mary	133	Lucinda	27	Rhoda	18	Susannah	13	Celia	7
Elizabeth	126	Eliza	23	Susan	16	Chloe	12	Dicy	7
Nancy	125	Ann	22	Malinda	15	Cynthia	12	Julia	7
Sarah	93	Peggy	22	Harriet	14	Lydia	12	Letty	7
Polly	72	Emily	20	Julia Ann	14	Phebe	12	Milly	7
Martha	54	Catharine	19	Lucy	14	Levicy	11	Isabel	6
Jane	48	Hannah	19	Amanda	13	Evaline	9	Lethia	6
Rebecca	45	Mary Ann	19	Louisa	13	Frances	9	Nancy Ann	6
Margaret	35	Matilda	19	Maria	13	Sarah Ann	8	Patsey	6
Sally	33	Rachel	18	Minerva	13	Sena	8	Penelope	6

Table 3.3. Fifty most common female forenames (See Notes).

Naming Trends

Virginians (Fischer, pp. 306-310):

• Virginians exhibited a distinct naming pattern in forenames: first-born daughters tended to be named after their grandmother, second-born tended to be named after their mother. Choice of names favored Christian saints who did not appear in the Bible: Margaret, Jane, Catherine, Frances, Alice and well as the universal English favorites: Mary, Elizabeth, Anne and Sarah.

Quakers (Fischer, pp. 502-507):

• As in Virginia, first-born daughters tended to be named after their grandmothers, later-born tended to be named after their mother. Among Quakers, there was often a hierarchy of bilateral descent of names. Double-reversing the naming order often occurred in which the first born daughter was named after the father's mother, and the first-born son was named after the mother's father. When the eldest children were daughters, the naming sequence could be: father's mother, mother's mother, mother of the child.
• Choice of names for daughters was often biblical: Anne-Anna-Hannah and Esther-Hester were common Quaker names. Biblical names of Mary, Elizabeth and Sarah were often chosen, but these were common throughout America. Phoebe was a Quaker name uncommon in Anglican Virginia, and in early Appalachian cultures it was sometimes rendered as Ferabe. Grace names were occasionally used, such as Patience, Grace, Mercy, Chastity.

Germanic names were often anglicized to look like English names. Matilda had German origins, but by 1850 would not have seemed very Germanic. Names like Levicy, Sena, Dicy, and Lethia may have an Appalachian association, but scholarship on their origins has been difficult to locate.

Middle Names

Before 1800 not more than 2% of the males and even fewer females had middles names (Mockler). A generation later a revolution in naming practices had occurred, and the use of middle names was widespread. In Logan County in 1850 an average of 21.55% of the 3522 enumerated people were listed with a middle initial. This percentage was not evenly distributed across age and gender classes, and there were far fewer older persons and women with middle names. No one over the age of 70 had a middle initial. (See Table 3.1).

Age

In the 140+ years since James Perry's enumeration, there has quite naturally been considerable population growth. Census figures for 1990 (See Sources) show a total of 76,940 persons living in Logan and Mingo Counties, an increase of over 2128% (See Data Table 4.1).

Not only was the population far smaller in 1850, it was far younger. The median age in 1850 was 14, but by 1990 the median age had risen to 33.9 in Logan County and 31.1 in Mingo County. In 1850 there were proportionately far more children under 10 than there are now, and far fewer older people. When the profiles are standardized around 1850 populations levels of 3615 persons, the differences between 1850 (red) and 1990 (blue) are evident (See Figure, Notes). The 1850 pattern might be described by demographers as characterized by high population growth and death rates that are nearly random. The 1990 data show a more stable growth pattern and much lower death rates.

In 1850 there were only 14 people in Logan County 80 years of age or over. Only three of the most senior citizens, David Toler, William Hinchman, and Richard Elkin, were listed as head of household. The others were listed within the household of others, probably their children. None of the eldest lived in a household smaller than 4, and Anna Elkin lived with 13 others.

The sex-ratio of these oldest citizens was exactly 50:50. None lived with a spouse of the same surname with approximately the same age, suggesting that all were widows or widowers. Richard Elkin listed Rebecca McGuire age 67, and David Toler listed Jane Sortidge age 53 as second in the household. The census data cannot clarify their relationship to the head of household.

The most mysterious of the eldest is Sarah Dingess' 100 year old Black slave woman. Her name is not given, nor her birthplace, but if she was born in Africa, she may have traveled further than anyone in the County to be an American.

Resident	Age	Sex	Resident	Age	Sex
Slave of Sarah Dingess	100	F	Anna Elkin	85	F
Biddy Pasley	93	F	Hasten Evans	84	M
John Grimmit	90	M	Susannah Vance	83	F
Geo. Hammon	87	M	William Hinchman	82	M
David Toler	87	M	John White	80	M
Wynna Burgess	85	F	Amy Wallen	80	F
Rachel Dempsey	85	F	Richd. Elkin	80	M

Table 4.2. Logan County, VA residents 80 and over in 1850. Click on their name to go to their household on the census, Schedule I or Schedule 2.

Sex Ratio

Color

Although sampling error is an important factor in comparing 87 slaves with 3528 free persons for whom there is age information, the pattern is clearly not the same. There an apparent deficiency of Blacks and Mulattos in the youngest age group, and an excess of Blacks in the 20 - 29 age group. Slaves were a population whose fertility was an important aspect of their usefulness as property. Very young slaves had lower value as workers, and were not sought except for their working potential. Prime non-skilled labor would probably be found in the 20-29 age group, and this is precisely where the Black population is concentrated. It is interesting to note that the pattern for the Mulatto population is more similar to that of Whites than of Blacks. Unfortunately, the numbers are too small for an analysis, but there seems to be significant degree of on-going interbreeding between the White and Black populations. Of course, this is an important feature of American demographics since the beginning of our nation.

Logan County was once populated by Indian tribes, but most Indians were forced out by government edict of 184X. In prior decades there certainly had been some degree of inbreeding between Indian and White populations, perhaps a significant amount. Untaxed Indians were not censused in 1850, and any remaining Indians or part-Indians do not show up as such on the schedules.

Occupation

Occupation	Workers	Occupation	Workers
Farmer	561	Miller	2
Merchant	8	Babtist Preacher	1
Attorney	5	Clerk of Courts	1
Blacksmith	5	Colier	1
Cook	5	Jailor	1
Physician	4	Lumberman	1
Salesman	4	Midwife	1
Constable	3	Preach M. E.	1
House Joiner	3	Saddler	1
Shoemaker	3	School Master	1
Tailor	3	Surveyor	1
Carpenter	2	Wheelright	1

Table 7.1. Occupations in Logan County, VA in 1850 (See Notes).

Clearly, the economy of Logan County was dominated agriculture in 1850. Most of the farming was probably subsistence agriculture, since only the 2 millers (Nathan Elkin, Louis Wagner) would have been consistently processing crops of lumber or grain for commerce. A single worker was listed as lumberman (Christian Nicksley), probably engaged in removing timber for building construction, a labor supported by the 2 carpenters (Barney Carter, James Thompson) and 3 house joiners (Job Lambert, John Willson, Jesse S. Hicks). Building construction in the mid-nineteenth century was by post-and-beam construction in which weight-bearing posts were connected to transverse beams. House-joiners worked with the heavy beams and posts, joining them to form the framework supporting the building. The work was hard and required a very special expertise. Walls then were largely non-load-bearing, and constructed by carpenters. Post-and-beam construction was supplanted in the late nineteenth century by balloon construction, in which the beams were supplanted by a more diffuse framework of load-bearing walls, making heavy supporting beams somewhat obsolete.

Horses were important to the local economy and supported 5 blacksmiths (Grayson White, Patterson Christian, Ogden Spencer, Elisha Lowe, Elijah A. Gartner), a saddler (Samuel Derossit), and a wheelright (Samuel Ronk) to keep the horse-drawn wagons rolling.

Money-based commerce was traded by 8 merchants (Anthony Lawson, John Dempsey, Guy Dingess, Henry Conley, William Smith, Warren M. Alderson, Benjamin Williamson, Allen Butcher) and 4 salesmen (Hiram P. Huff, Hickman S. White, George Clapool, John Dempsy, Jr.) . Clothing needs were managed by 3 shoemakers (James M. Wyatt, Alex. W. Hatfield, Joseph Lowe) and 3 tailors (Johnson McAson, James Whitman, Daniel Harman). Five female cooks (Julian Brumfield, Jane Hicks, Rhoda Baisden, Polly White, Rebecca Majlvalin) lived in various households as dependents.

County administration was carried out with a Clerk of Courts (William Straten), 3 Constables (Samuel Vannatter, John R. Browning, Lewis Dempsey), and a Jailor (John Bailey), with assistance of the surveyor (James Lawson). Cases were filed and perhaps sometimes prosecuted by the 5 attorneys (James H. Ferguson, Leander Spurlock, Everment Ward, Isaac J. Samuels, Patrick K. McComas). Education was in the hands of the schoolmaster (Cumpten McCoy) and two full-time preachers (John Ferrell, Lewis Woods). Four physicians (Thomas W. Leftwich, Hugh Bryan, Ulysses Hinchman, Peter Dingess) and a midwife (Mary Ann Spencer) administered the medical needs when health matters got too complicated for those who practiced folk medicine.

A collier (Thomas Bartee) may have been the first worker in the county to herald the industrial revolution dawning late in the area. Colliers transported coal, a commodity useful as a fuel, especially for the pig iron furnaces to the north in Greenup County, KY and Lawrence County, OH. The trade of collier might also have referred to workers who turned wood into charcoal through a careful slow burn. Charcoal was used as a smoke-free fuel mostly for industrial uses.

Real Estate

The fifteen richest landowners in the county in 1850 are tabulated below. The average age of these prosperous men was high at 48.87. Wealth tended to be earned rather than inherited, and acquiring it took time. Average household size for these men, 8.40, was also considerably above the norm for Logan County. Prosperity in 1850 was accompanied by responsibility to others.

Name	Age	House Size	Occupation	Real Estate	Birth	Illit
Anthony Lawson	37	8	Merchant	$15,815	Engl.		slaveowner
Geo. Smith	52	8	Farmer	$9,200	VA		slaveowner
James White	64	9	Farmer	$7,440	VA	1	slaveowner
Lewis B. Lawson	41	8	Farmer	$6,500	Engl.		slaveowner
Wm. Toney	63	7	Farmer	$6,000	VA		slaveowner
Henry Farley	60	6	Farmer	$6,000	VA		slaveowner
Benjamin Wmson	42	15	Merchant	$5,600	VA		slaveowner
James Lawson	39	6	Surveyor	$5,200	Engl.		slaveowner
Lorenzo D. Hill	39	5	Farmer	$4,800	VA		slaveowner
John Dempsey	53	3	Merchant	$4,750	VA		slaveowner
Isaac Adkins	60	2	Farmer	$4,700	VA		slaveowner
William W. McDonald	33	11	Farmer	$4,700	VA		slaveowner
Joseph S. Baisden	56	11	Farmer	$4,655	VA
Henry Conley	48	10	Merchant	$4,380	VA
John Brumfield	46	17	Farmer	$4,000	KY

Table 8.1. Fifteen richest landowners in Logan County, VA in 1850 (self-reported). Click on the landowner's name to go to their census page in Schedule I. Click on "slaveowner" to go to their entry in the slave schedule, Schedule 2.

Birthplace

More recent times showed significant migration from Kentucky (dark blue) bordering Logan County on the west, and to a far lesser extent, Tennessee (dark green) and Ohio (light blue). Movement directly from Pennsylvania (brown) was minimal, and from Maryland only in much earlier times. Those of foreign birth were either from England (red) or Germany (light green) in migrations ending at least twenty years ago. Those few over 70 born outside Virginia were either from North Carolina (3 or 10.71%) or Maryland (2 or 7.1%).

Dittos were frequently used in the column for birth, probably resulting in a significant underestimate in the number of those born outside Virginia. It was far easier for James Perry to draw the dittos down than to inquire on birthplaces.

Married in Year

School in Year

The overall age pattern of school age children in Logan County in 1850 shows several interesting features. There are even-year peaks at 10, 14, 16 and 18 which suggest that there may have been some even-year rounding off of the ages given to the enumerator. A sharp peak in the number of 6 year old girls is matched by a corresponding decrease of 6 year old boys. A sharp peak of 18 year olds suggests that there may have been some rounding up to the age of adulthood, especially among girls.

The average age of those attending school was 11.75, ranging from 4 to 39. At age 10 there were more males in school than at any other age, with another peak at 14 to 15. Interestingly, there was a sharp decrease of 10 year old girls attending school, with peaks at 8, 11, and 14. Sample sizes for those attending school are frequently too small in some of the age classes for analysis, suggesting that some of the apparent patterns may be due to sampling error in this fairly small data base.

The only School Master listed in the county was Cumpten McCoy, a 24 year old male living in the household of William Staten. It is not clear whether he taught in a special school house or traveled through the county, but it is highly unlikely that he was the only schoolmaster for all 207 students.

Cannot Read and Write

Whether deaf and dumb, blind, insane, idiotic, pauper, or convict

Population Counts

Although the summary at the end of the census by James G. Perry states that he enumerated 3570 persons, the use of modern software spreadsheets reveal a slightly different tally.

	Perry's Count	Actual Count	Difference
White males	1846	1868	-22
White females	1637	1665	-28
Male slaves	44	44	0
Female slaves	43	43	-1
TOTAL	3570	3620	-50

Table 14.1. 1850 Logan County, VA census enumeration (See Notes).

Slavery

The actual occupations of the slaves is hard to determine from census data, but some inferences can be made based on the occupation of their owners. Farmers held 68 or 78.16% of the slave population in Logan County in 1850; Merchants held another 13 slaves, or 14.94%. The remainder of the slaves were held by a Baptist Preacher (3) and a Surveyor (3).

Of the 87 slaves, however, not all would be considered a part of a highly productive and active labor pool. Slaves under 10 accounted for 22 of the total, and a total of 44 were under 20. An additional 3 slaves over 60 might not be counted on for extensive labor, leaving a total of only 40 laborers (45.98%) between the ages of 20 and 50. The majority of those (29 or 72.50%) were held by farmers, 17 males and 12 females . Certainly, nothing like a plantation agriculture existed in Logan County in 1850, and crops harvested were probably corn and vegetables for local consumption rather than commercial crops like cotton or tobacco. Slaves with non-agricultural owners were held by merchants (5), by a surveyor (2) and by a Baptist Preacher (2). These latter owners could have used their slaves in an agricultural context, or to assist in their occupations; nothing in the census can be used to differentiate.

Notes

• Names
  Cumfort Hensley, female, in Dwelling 519, p. 156 and Cumfort Brewster, male, in Dwelling 537, p. 157 are the two instances of the name in Logan County in 1850. The former entry may be in error since the penmanship was questionable.
• Male Forenames
  • Table 3.2. Solomon also had a frequency of 6; all other forenames had a frequency of 5 or less.
  • Perry abbreviated many male forenames, often inconsistently, although he never abbreviated female forenames. For the compilation above: Wm. is William; Geo. is George; Richd. is Richard; Saml. is Samuel; Andw. or And'ew is Andrew; Benj., or Benja. or Benj'a are Benjamin; Robt. is Robert; Chs. is Charles; Danl. is Daniel; Edwd. is Edward; Jas. is James; Nath'l. is Nathaniel; Thos. is Thomas.
• Female Forenames
  Table 3.3. Ruth also has a frequency of 6; all other females forenames had a frequency of 5 or less.
• Age
  • Figure. James Perry did not list the age for a total of 5 persons, here omitted from the age analysis.
• Birthplace
  Place of birth for slaves was not listed.
• Married in Year
  Emily Smith (37) in Dwelling 405, page 148 was married within the year, while the head, George Smith (52) was not entered.
• Cannot Read and Write
  Only those 20 and over were to be evaluated for literacy. Arminta Spratt, however, a 16 year old living in dwelling number 315 with Isaac Spratt (page 142) was listed in Column 12.
• Population Counts
  Table 14.1. In a few instances James Perry omitted information in various columns or entered inappropriate information, such as "F" for Color. In most cases these errors can be unambiguously corrected, and the numbers here are based on corrected figures.
• Slavery
  Slaveowners can unambiguously determined with only one exception. Dan'l Hensley could have been one of two persons by that name: 1) A 76 year old Farmer with $600 in Real Estate in Household 557 with 66 year old Jemimy and 24 year old Elizabeth, or 2) A 44 year old Farmer with $175 in Real Estate in Household 464 with 30 year old Margaret, 4 year old Rebecca, 2 year old Mary, and 7 month Elizabeth. The former is chosen since slaveowners tended to be older and own more in Real Estate. At $600 in Real Estate evaluation, the elder Daniel Hensley is already the least prosperous slaveowner. The younger would have been even more of an outlier from the general data pattern.

Sources

• Cline, Marlin G. Descendants of Peter and Michael Cline of Virginia and Kentucky; Marlin G. Cline: Ithaca, NY, 1992, pp. 295.
• Fischer, David Hackett. Albion's Seed - Four British Folkways in America. New York, NY and Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1989. 946 pp.
• Hatfield, G. Elliott. The Hatfields; Big Sandy Valley Historical Society: Stanville, KY, 1988, pp. 329+.
• Mockler, William E. West Virginia Surnames - The Pioneers; McClain Printing Co.: Parsons, WV, 1956 & 1973, pp. 197+.
• Riffe, Fred J. Reiff to Riffe Family in America; Fred J. Riffe: Marathon, FL, 1995, pp. 806.
• Stewart, George Rippey. American Given Names - Their origin and history in the context of the English language; Oxford University Press: New York, NY, 1979, pp. 264.

• Figures were produced using Microsoft Excel 4.0 for Macintosh.
• Populations for Logan and Mingo Counties for 1990 are from the Government Information Sharing Project at Oregon State University: http://govinfo.library.orst.edu. Data presented there for U. S. counties are from the Bureau of the Census, Census of Population and Housing, Summary Tape Files (STF) 1C (complete-count data) and 3C (data from sampling).

David J Webb
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djwebb@main.com

Copyright 1999 by David J Webb

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This page was last updated on 31 January 1999