CHAPTER XXXVI.
POPULATION AT DIFFERENT TIMES.

     The first census of Illinois was taken in 1810, when the whole population, including a few blacks, but no Indians was 12,450.  In 1820, it was 55,128.  In 1830, it was 158,232.  In 1840, it was 471,515.  In 1850, it was 876,038: males, 445,544; females, 400,490; excess of males, 45-054.
     The population of Peoria county for the first four quinquennial censuses was as follows:
1825, by Bogardus .....1236;
1830, by Isaac Waters..... 1792;
1835, by William Compher.... 3199;
1840, by A. W. Harness... 7041.
     The census taken by Bogardus included all the country then attached to Peoria - Chicago, Galena, etc.; but the other three included Peoria county as it now exists.  Why the county was at the expense of taking the census in 1830 and 1840 is not apparent, for in those years the general government took the census of the whole United States, which, when taken, was at the service of every one.
     Some idea may be formed of the advance of population from 1826 to 1843, inclusive, from the following table of the votes cast in Peoria county in those years:
 

     The tables from which the above is taken were professedly deficient as to the years 1829 and 1833, and hence I omit them; and I suppose they are deficient as to the yeas 1827, 1828, and 1830.  In ascertaining the number of population from the number of votes, it is usual to multiply by five; but this rule is not reliable, for voters frequently fail to go to elections.  Although at the Congressional election in August, 1836, the vote was 294, yet at the Presidential election in November of the same year the vote was 531.
     In January, 1844, Mr. Drown, under the authority (as I suppose) of the Board of Trustees of the Town of Peoria, took the census of said town, and reported the same at 1619.
     I suspect the above is an overestimate, for he was always thought to be inclined to overestimate the population of our city, as was proved by the census he took in 1850, when Hon. H. S. Austin, employed by the General Government, took it the same year, and made it out much less.  In fact, there is always so great a difference between the reports of different persons employed to take any census, that we can only approximate at the truth.
     The following table shows the number of voters in the City of Peoria in the years 1845, 1846, 1847, 1848, 1849 and 1850 (provided, at the adoption of the present constitution, in 1848, they were actual residents, and if they have come in since, they have become naturalized), and the state or country in which they were born.  Any table of votes actually given in those years will show a less number, for there are usually some who neglect to attend elections.
 

     In June, 1855, the County Commissioners' Court employed Mr. Drown to take the census of the county, and in November he made a report of his work; and, as he had been censured before for too inflated a report, he took the precaution to make them spread on their record a vote of approval of this report.  I extract from it the following:

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