Accuracy is crucial in records like this. Data with a lot of errors
is worse than no data. I have tried to transcribe this as accurately as
possible, but some errors may remain. If you notice any mistakes, even
slight ones, please contact me.
Notes on the data, by column:
# - The entries are numbered from 1 to 418. This is not part of
the original record. Shown here because I thought it would be more useful
than the separate numbering that appeared on each page of the census.
house - The census allows dwelling houses and families to be
enumerated separately, but this census taker has not made a
distiction. There are 71 dwelling houses. I have labeled the
column "house" instead of "family" since many
don't look anything like nuclear families. Most of the houses included
several single men, seemingly unrelated.
surname - Some were hard to read, in the original handwriting.
given - The most common names were Joseph (25), John (24), Mary (20).
age - The oldest person in the county was 72, and there were only
3 over 59. The oldest woman was 51. There were 18 children (13 girls, 5 boys)
under 1, and their ages in months were recorded. The average age was 20.6,
and the median was 22.
birth date - Birthdates are not part of the census. The dates shown
are simply the recorded age subtracted from 1850, shown here for your
convenience.
sex - There were 275 males, 143 females, almost a 2-to-1 ratio.
The females were much younger, with average age 15.6, median 14, compared
with the males, with average age 23.2, median 24. Only 60 of the 143
females were 18 or older.
misc - The "occupation" category was combined with other
categories that were sparsely marked. Many people have occupation "none,"
but I think that means that they are unskilled workers. I can't imagine that
many 20- and 30-somethings being idle. The "color" was left blank by the
census taker, except for one black and one mulatto. Presumably, the rest
were considered white. One person was recorded as idiotic - of course that
was not meant as an insult, but merely an unfortunate fact. One person was
called illiterate, but I don't know why he was singled out - there were
surely many others.
birth place - I used 2-letter acronyms for states,
although these were not used in 1850. Out of 418, there were 154
born in Minnesota, about 37%. There were 81 people born in
foreign countries including 62 born in Canada. (Not including Selkirk.)
* Among the settlers in Sauk Rapids were 5 people
born in "Selkirk Col" This refers to the
Red River Colony, established in 1811 by Thomas Douglas, 5th Earl
of Selkirk. Also known as Pembina, it included what is now northwestern
Minnesota, northeastern North Dakota, and southern Manitoba.
