Option I-- additional resources

For the "biographical" option of the writing assignment, you have been assigned an individual's identity at random. You have the name of the subject, the location of his entry (county/township/page in census schedule) in the 1870 census, and the Soundex code for locating him in the 1880 and 1900 census schedules.

Each of the names was found in the biographical section of a county history (usually from the 1870's or early 1880's), in the published index of names in the 1870 Iowa census, and on a Soundex card indexing the 1880 and 1900 censuses. However, you should be aware that 19th century census takers were not infallible, and details from entry to entry may not be identical. This is of most danger if the disagreement between entries causes you to lose the thread of your subject's movement. For example, if you were tracking someone who you know was born in 1845, you might find an entry for someone who fits all other identifying characteristics, but was listed as being born in 1849. If all other facts match, it is most likely that the birthdate was taken down incorrectly. It may be useful to make a note of things like year of birth, state (or country) of birth, spouses' name, and children's names, and to assume that if nearly all other facts match, any particular detail which does not seem to fit was as a result of “enumerator error”.

I have confirmed the location of these subjects' entries in the federal censuses of the period, but depending upon individual cases, they may not all be included in the census schedules compiled by the State of Iowa in 1885 and 1895. (These counts were conducted separately and independently of the federal censuses.) The best way to find a subject in the Iowa censuses is to take the township of residence in the 1880 or 1900 censuses and check the same location in the 1885 or 1895 census schedules. Again, beware of “enumerator error”.

A final point is stability of residence. You are being given the starting point for your research, but your subject will not necessarily stay in the same place over a 30-year period. This makes it even more important to be able to identify a subject by the details mentioned above, since someone living in Linn County in 1870 could well have relocated to Kossuth or Davis County by 1880 or 1900. Soundex indexes are arranged by name, not by location, so this makes it less difficult to track someone through a change of residence.

Owen Curley was a typical Midwestern farmer in the late 19th century, and his story illustrates a number of aspects of Gilded Age history. He was born in Grant County, Wisconsin, on March 4, 1845. However, his parents, Joseph and Delia Curley, were hardly native Midwesterners themselves. His father was born in New York, and his mother in Rhode Island, making them part of the general westward shift of population in the early 19th century. Wisconsin was not their first stop on the way west, as after one of their children were born in Connecticut, another was born in Missouri. Several years after Owen's birth the family moved to Crawford County, near Prairie du Chien, and when he was 20 years old they relocated to Fayette County in northeasternIowa.

From the various census reports and from the Fayette County histories, here is what we know about Owen Curley personally. He completed the equivalent of the sixth grade in rural schools near his birthplace. He married his wife, Abbie, in 1881, but had no children. Abbie was herself a transplanted easterner like Owen's family, as she had been born in Vermont. Over the course of her marriage, she worked off and on as a schoolteacher, and had a year of college education. The Curley family was Methodist, and Owen reported being a member of that denomination (as was his wife). He also reported in the Fayette County history that he was a Republican, an unsurprising affiliation due to the interconnection between pietist denominations such as the Methodists and the Republican Party. On none of Owen's entries is any indication that he served in the Civil War. Of course, Owen was only 16 at the outbreak of the war, but by the time of the last great push of the Union Armies he would have been of age to serve.

In the 1870 census report, Owen had not yet gained farmland of his own, and was listed as living with his parents and his siblings in Center Township, Fayette County. The numbers of acres in the Curley holding were not listed, but the value was given as $3000, and if the farm were a fairly typical 160 acres, the acreage value would have been $18.75 per acre.

According to the 1878 Fayette County history, by that year Owen had gone out on his own, farming 114 acres near Randalia. His land was valued at $1700, or nearly $15 per acre. His biographical entry does not indicate whether he owned his land outright, but even as a rentor it was impressive that he was able to accumulate enough capital to be able to acquire land of his own. Owen had not yet married, but he was listed as taking care of his grandmother Catherine.

Despite the availability of Soundex coding information, no record of Owen Curley was found in the 1880 census schedules. However, he does reappear in the 1885 State ofIowa census records, this time residing in Orthel Township, Hancock County (about 100 miles west of Fayette County). His listed occupation is that of “farmer”, but there is no indication of the size of his holdings, or whether anyone other than his wife lives in the household. (The Hancock County Atlas of 1896 shows Owen Curley as having an 80 acre farm, and adds the occupational description “stock raiser”, so Owen probably also owned some livestock.) Ten years later, in 1895, Owen was still in the same location, but this time the size of his household was numbered at three, as his mother Delia (82 years old, widowed) was living with the family. It is possible that in the ten years between 1885 and 1895, Owen's father Joseph (who may still have been living on the Fayette County acreage after his son moved away) had died, and Delia joined her son and his wife on their new homestead.

The fact that the size of Owen's farm had decreased since his move to Hancock County is interesting, and it probably was related to the difficulties in agriculture during most of the Gilded Age. Several years of bad harvests, declining produce prices, or both could have resulted not only in Owen being more likely to move on to another location, but to have to settle for a smaller homestead in order to compensate for his possible debts.

By the time of the 1900 census, Delia Curley had apparently passed away, but a new addition to the household was a niece, Mary B. Seger. At the time of the census, Mary was 26 years old and was listed as a schoolteacher, as was Owen's wife Abbie. The addition of a niece, as with the inclusion of Owen's grandmother and mother in previous years, is a reminder that in the 19th century, extended families were common, with several generations tending to live under the same roof. The Curley family was unusual for the time in that there were no children, but was typical in that at any given time extended members of the family lived in the same household.

[Note: the next several paragraphs discuss the course of Owen Curley's life after 1900. In completing your assignment, no deductions will be assessed for papers not proceeding past 1900, and no special credit will be given for papers including such material. However, if you wish to pursue the “trail” further, it is your discretion whether to add post-1900 information.]

After a gap of several years, Owen Curley reappears in the census records in 1915, this time living in the town of Floyd, Iowa in Floyd County, about 50 miles east of his Hancock County farm. The 70-year-old Owen was listed as a retired farmer, with no farmland of his own. He owned his home, valued at $4000, and though he reported no official earnings from the previous year through farming, the household was listed as having made nearly $200 through sales of dairy products and fruits. This was most likely a holdover from the days of farming, when “side” enterprises were often essential to a farm family's economic well-being in times of poor farm prices. Overall, Owen owned 3.2 acres, of which 2.7 were used as pasture land (for his horse, cow, and 73 chickens) and a half-acre was cultivated, probably for his apple and plum trees and his potato production (40 bushels produced the previous year).

As a farmer, Owen Curley almost certainly experienced tough times in the Gilded Age, and although the available records do not show it, he very well could have been a member of farmers' organizations such as the Grange. However, it seems unlikely that he advocated more far-reaching protest movements like Populism. The records indicate that he was a staunch Republican who even in the late 1870's and early 1880's, when some farmers turned to the Greenback Party as a cure for agricultural problems, definitely labeled himself as a Republican. In a time of considerable party loyalty, it seems unlikely that he would have wavered. In addition, unlike neighboring states like Nebraska and Kansas, the Populist Party (as a third-party movement) never really caught on in Iowa. As a Methodist, Owen could have been vulnerable to the 1896 Democratic campaign of William Jennings Bryan, whose rhetoric appears to have attracted some normally Republican pietists into his camp, but once again party loyalty most likely ruled the day.

On two controversial social questions of the day, prohibition and female suffrage, Owen was probably in favor of both items. Methodists and other pietists were more likely to support state efforts to restrict or eliminate the liquor trade and the saloon. Very directly related to this was the question of female suffrage, because “drys” believed that giving women the vote would assure the election of “dry” politicians and the maintenance of prohibition legislation. In 1916, Iowa held a referendum on female suffrage in which prohibitionists pressed for a “yes” vote and “wets” opposed the question. Of course, there is no way to tell exactly how anyone cast their vote, but Owen's home township voted 106 to 87 in favor of female suffrage.

Census records cannot show everything, or even most things, about any individual. However, they can drop clues as to both the course of a life and the context in which that life was lived. From this brief look at Owen Curley's life, we can see aspects of the times in which he lived.


	mark-carlile.com \| home The Gilded Age in America Writing Assignment Option I-- additional resources For the "biographical" option of the writing assignment, you have been assigned an individual's identity at random. You have the name of the subject, the location of his entry (county/township/page in census schedule) in the 1870 census, and the Soundex code for locating him in the 1880 and 1900 census schedules. Each of the names was found in the biographical section of a county history (usually from the 1870's or early 1880's), in the published index of names in the 1870 Iowa census, and on a Soundex card indexing the 1880 and 1900 censuses. However, you should be aware that 19th century census takers were not infallible, and details from entry to entry may not be identical. This is of most danger if the disagreement between entries causes you to lose the thread of your subject's movement. For example, if you were tracking someone who you know was born in 1845, you might find an entry for someone who fits all other identifying characteristics, but was listed as being born in 1849. If all other facts match, it is most likely that the birthdate was taken down incorrectly. It may be useful to make a note of things like year of birth, state (or country) of birth, spouses' name, and children's names, and to assume that if nearly all other facts match, any particular detail which does not seem to fit was as a result of “enumerator error”. I have confirmed the location of these subjects' entries in the federal censuses of the period, but depending upon individual cases, they may not all be included in the census schedules compiled by the State of Iowa in 1885 and 1895. (These counts were conducted separately and independently of the federal censuses.) The best way to find a subject in the Iowa censuses is to take the township of residence in the 1880 or 1900 censuses and check the same location in the 1885 or 1895 census schedules. Again, beware of “enumerator error”. A final point is stability of residence. You are being given the starting point for your research, but your subject will not necessarily stay in the same place over a 30-year period. This makes it even more important to be able to identify a subject by the details mentioned above, since someone living in Linn County in 1870 could well have relocated to Kossuth or Davis County by 1880 or 1900. Soundex indexes are arranged by name, not by location, so this makes it less difficult to track someone through a change of residence. If you have any further questions, or need help on a specific part of your research, please let me know. Otherwise, good luck in your search. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Owen Curley was a typical Midwestern farmer in the late 19th century, and his story illustrates a number of aspects of Gilded Age history. He was born in Grant County, Wisconsin, on March 4, 1845. However, his parents, Joseph and Delia Curley, were hardly native Midwesterners themselves. His father was born in New York, and his mother in Rhode Island, making them part of the general westward shift of population in the early 19th century. Wisconsin was not their first stop on the way west, as after one of their children were born in Connecticut, another was born in Missouri. Several years after Owen's birth the family moved to Crawford County, near Prairie du Chien, and when he was 20 years old they relocated to Fayette County in northeasternIowa. From the various census reports and from the Fayette County histories, here is what we know about Owen Curley personally. He completed the equivalent of the sixth grade in rural schools near his birthplace. He married his wife, Abbie, in 1881, but had no children. Abbie was herself a transplanted easterner like Owen's family, as she had been born in Vermont. Over the course of her marriage, she worked off and on as a schoolteacher, and had a year of college education. The Curley family was Methodist, and Owen reported being a member of that denomination (as was his wife). He also reported in the Fayette County history that he was a Republican, an unsurprising affiliation due to the interconnection between pietist denominations such as the Methodists and the Republican Party. On none of Owen's entries is any indication that he served in the Civil War. Of course, Owen was only 16 at the outbreak of the war, but by the time of the last great push of the Union Armies he would have been of age to serve. In the 1870 census report, Owen had not yet gained farmland of his own, and was listed as living with his parents and his siblings in Center Township, Fayette County. The numbers of acres in the Curley holding were not listed, but the value was given as $3000, and if the farm were a fairly typical 160 acres, the acreage value would have been $18.75 per acre. According to the 1878 Fayette County history, by that year Owen had gone out on his own, farming 114 acres near Randalia. His land was valued at $1700, or nearly $15 per acre. His biographical entry does not indicate whether he owned his land outright, but even as a rentor it was impressive that he was able to accumulate enough capital to be able to acquire land of his own. Owen had not yet married, but he was listed as taking care of his grandmother Catherine. Despite the availability of Soundex coding information, no record of Owen Curley was found in the 1880 census schedules. However, he does reappear in the 1885 State ofIowa census records, this time residing in Orthel Township, Hancock County (about 100 miles west of Fayette County). His listed occupation is that of “farmer”, but there is no indication of the size of his holdings, or whether anyone other than his wife lives in the household. (The Hancock County Atlas of 1896 shows Owen Curley as having an 80 acre farm, and adds the occupational description “stock raiser”, so Owen probably also owned some livestock.) Ten years later, in 1895, Owen was still in the same location, but this time the size of his household was numbered at three, as his mother Delia (82 years old, widowed) was living with the family. It is possible that in the ten years between 1885 and 1895, Owen's father Joseph (who may still have been living on the Fayette County acreage after his son moved away) had died, and Delia joined her son and his wife on their new homestead. The fact that the size of Owen's farm had decreased since his move to Hancock County is interesting, and it probably was related to the difficulties in agriculture during most of the Gilded Age. Several years of bad harvests, declining produce prices, or both could have resulted not only in Owen being more likely to move on to another location, but to have to settle for a smaller homestead in order to compensate for his possible debts. By the time of the 1900 census, Delia Curley had apparently passed away, but a new addition to the household was a niece, Mary B. Seger. At the time of the census, Mary was 26 years old and was listed as a schoolteacher, as was Owen's wife Abbie. The addition of a niece, as with the inclusion of Owen's grandmother and mother in previous years, is a reminder that in the 19th century, extended families were common, with several generations tending to live under the same roof. The Curley family was unusual for the time in that there were no children, but was typical in that at any given time extended members of the family lived in the same household. [Note: the next several paragraphs discuss the course of Owen Curley's life after 1900. In completing your assignment, no deductions will be assessed for papers not proceeding past 1900, and no special credit will be given for papers including such material. However, if you wish to pursue the “trail” further, it is your discretion whether to add post-1900 information.] After a gap of several years, Owen Curley reappears in the census records in 1915, this time living in the town of Floyd, Iowa in Floyd County, about 50 miles east of his Hancock County farm. The 70-year-old Owen was listed as a retired farmer, with no farmland of his own. He owned his home, valued at $4000, and though he reported no official earnings from the previous year through farming, the household was listed as having made nearly $200 through sales of dairy products and fruits. This was most likely a holdover from the days of farming, when “side” enterprises were often essential to a farm family's economic well-being in times of poor farm prices. Overall, Owen owned 3.2 acres, of which 2.7 were used as pasture land (for his horse, cow, and 73 chickens) and a half-acre was cultivated, probably for his apple and plum trees and his potato production (40 bushels produced the previous year). Little changed for Owen Curley in subsequent census reports. His wife Abbie died in 1921, and Owen passed away on July 17, 1927 of “diabetic gangrene.” He was buried in Oakwood Cemetary in Floyd. As a farmer, Owen Curley almost certainly experienced tough times in the Gilded Age, and although the available records do not show it, he very well could have been a member of farmers' organizations such as the Grange. However, it seems unlikely that he advocated more far-reaching protest movements like Populism. The records indicate that he was a staunch Republican who even in the late 1870's and early 1880's, when some farmers turned to the Greenback Party as a cure for agricultural problems, definitely labeled himself as a Republican. In a time of considerable party loyalty, it seems unlikely that he would have wavered. In addition, unlike neighboring states like Nebraska and Kansas, the Populist Party (as a third-party movement) never really caught on in Iowa. As a Methodist, Owen could have been vulnerable to the 1896 Democratic campaign of William Jennings Bryan, whose rhetoric appears to have attracted some normally Republican pietists into his camp, but once again party loyalty most likely ruled the day. On two controversial social questions of the day, prohibition and female suffrage, Owen was probably in favor of both items. Methodists and other pietists were more likely to support state efforts to restrict or eliminate the liquor trade and the saloon. Very directly related to this was the question of female suffrage, because “drys” believed that giving women the vote would assure the election of “dry” politicians and the maintenance of prohibition legislation. In 1916, Iowa held a referendum on female suffrage in which prohibitionists pressed for a “yes” vote and “wets” opposed the question. Of course, there is no way to tell exactly how anyone cast their vote, but Owen's home township voted 106 to 87 in favor of female suffrage. Census records cannot show everything, or even most things, about any individual. However, they can drop clues as to both the course of a life and the context in which that life was lived. From this brief look at Owen Curley's life, we can see aspects of the times in which he lived.