30 May 2012

1870 Agricultural Census for Henry Jacobs

This is part of the 1870 Agricultural Census schedule for Prairie Township, Hancock County, Illinois, which includes Henry Jacobs [Fecht] one of my ancestors. The digital image of this was blurry and I noticed that most of these images (at least for Hancock County) are blurry.

There is a legend for the column headings here http://files.usgwarchives.org/nc/mitchell/census/1870agri.txt

80 acres--improved
$3000 was the value of the farm
$100 in farming equipment and machinery
2 horses
1 milk cow
2 head of swine
$200 was the value of all livestock
200 or 300 bushels of oats produced
$40 in animals sold or slaughtered
$600 estimated value of all farm production, including betterments and additions to stock

Another third-grandfather is on the same census page--with a 200 acre farm. I may have to create a spreadsheet and compare the individuals that I can find.

You may also find some agricultural census records on  Ancestry.com