FENTRESS COUNTY, TN 1860 FEDERAL CENSUS NOTES (Page 1 of 1) TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES: Prepared by Donald Robbins Transcription aid by Betty Hawley Checked by D. K. Robbins June 5, 2011 Census Sheet's Format ------------------------------- Census Sheet Header Information ------------------------------- Each Census Sheet consists of 40 lines. The Header information contains a place for the Date of entry, Post Office, the County Name (Fentress) and the name of the recorder of the information. ------------------------------- Census Sheet Detail information ------------------------------- Column 1 - Dwelling - houses numbered in the order of visitation Column 2 - Families, numbered in the order of visitation Column 3 - The name of every person whose usual place of abode on the first day of June, 1860 was in this family Column 4 - Age Column 5 - Sex Column 6 - Color, White, Black or Mulatto or Indian Column 7 - Profession, Occupation or Trade of each person, male and female, over 15 years of age Column 8 - Value of Real Estate Column 9 - Value of Personal Estate Column 10 - Place of Birth, Naming the State, Territory, or Country Column 11 - Married within the year Column 12 - Attended School within the year Column 13 - Person over 20 who could not read or write Column 14 - Whether deaf & dumb, blind, insane, idiotic, pauper or convict In the interest of getting the information transcribed to an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet, some adjustments were made in the format of the transcription. A new line was created, which contains the Page Number and Line Number that the information was transcribed from. The Surname is in Caps, along with the date of the census page, the census district, the Post Office, and the information from Column 1 and Column 2. The information from Columns 11, 12, 13 was encoded following the Column 10 information, Place of Birth. The encoding is: M, for married within the year, S, for attending school within the year, and I, for illiterate for a check in Column 13 for persons over 20 who could not read or write. The information from Column 14 is added, as is, to the person's line. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - The information for the 1860 Census for Fentress County consists of 133 pages. The information for Fentress County is on Microfilm Reel M653-1249 The Enumerator was C. Reagan, at P004-01. There were 871 Houses and 806 Families in Fentress County COUNTS Number of White Males 2459 Number of White Females 2402 Number of Students 1207 Number of Illiterates 603 Number of Married 42 in the last year PLACES OF BIRTH Tennessee 4045 Kentucky 411 North Carolina 183 Virginia 130 South Carolina 26 Pennsylvania 17 NY 16 Maryland 12 Illinois 10 Ireland 10 Georgia 7 Ohio 6 Indiana 6 Engl 5 Alabama 4 Swiss 3 Conneticut 1 Miss 1 Texas 2 Unk 1 OCCUPATIONS by name appt BS 1 appt 1 Black Smith 12 ckt clerk 1 county clerk 1 county register 1 Cabinent Maker 3 Carpenter 8 Coal Miner 1 Collector 1 Constable 1 Cooper 5 Day Laborer 80 Domestic 117 Farm Laborer 3 Farm Tenant 211 Farmer 683 Gardener 2 Gardening 8 Gardner 1 Grocer 1 Hatter 1 Herdsman 1 Jailor 1 Laborer 3 Lawyer 4 midwife 1 Mason 1 MD 5 Mechanic 4 Merchant 7 Meth Min 1 Mill Wright 1 Miller 7 Miner 2 None 8 student(med) 1 Saddler 1 Salesman 1 Shoe Maker 2 Stone Mason 1 Tailor 2 Tavern Keeper 1 Teacher 3 Tenant 1 Tobacconist 1 Trader 2 Wagon Maker 3 Wagoner 2 Weaver 2 Wheel Wright 1 INFIRMITIES & OTHERS deaf & dumb 5 Domestic blind 1 Domestic idiotic 1 Farmer insane 1 Farmer deaf & dumb 1 idiot 1 idiotic 1 OCCUPATIONS by frequencies Farmer 683 Farm Tenant 211 Domestic 117 Day Laborer 80 Black Smith 12 Gardener 11 Carpenter 8 None 8 Merchant 7 Miller 7 Cooper 5 MD 5 Lawyer 4 Mechanic 4 Cabinent Maker 3 Farm Laborer 3 Laborer 3 Teacher 3 Wagon Maker 3 Miner 2 Tailor 2 Shoe Maker 2 Trader 2 Wagoner 2 Weaver 2 appt BS 1 appt 1 ckt clerk 1 county clerk 1 county register 1 Coal Miner 1 Collector 1 Constable 1 Grocer 1 Hatter 1 Herdsman 1 Jailor 1 midwife 1 Mason 1 Meth Min 1 Mill Wright 1 student(med) 1 Saddler 1 Salesman 1 Stone Mason 1 Tavern Keeper 1 Tenant 1 Tobacconist 1 Wheel Wright 1 History of Fentress County Created 1823 from Morgan, Overton and White counties; named in honor of James Fentress (1763- 1843), speaker of the state house, chairman of Montgomery County Court, commissioner to select seats for Haywood, Carroll, Gibson and Weakley counties. Fentress County was formed in 1823 from Morgan, Overton and White counties. Private Acts of Tennessee 1823, Chapter 302). There was a fire at the Fentress County courthouse in 1905. The Tennessee General Assembly created Fentress County from parts of Overton and Morgan Counties on November 28, 1823. The county was named in honor of James Fentress, the Speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives, who had assisted in passing the enabling legislation for the new county. Frentress County is located in northeast Middle Tennessee on the picturesque Cumberalnd Plateau. The county initially formed the state's border with Kentucky, but when Pickett County was established in 1881, that part of Fentress was included in the new county. The 2000 population of the county was 16,625. The history of the county is diverse, ranging from farming to mining to German immigration. Established in 1828, Jamestown, the county seat, also was named in honor of James Fentress. The settlement was once called Sand Springs because several fine springs bubbled up from the sandy soil. Today, a city park named Mark Twain Park in honor of the Clemens family, who once carried water from the spring, surrounds the only remaining spring. Jamestown was a small agricultural trade center for most of its history. Important agricultural products included corn, small grains, livestock, tobacco, poultry, and pumpkins. In 1928 the York Institute constructed its modern campus on the outskirts of Jamestown, and during the 1930s the town's population expanded from 857 to over 1,200 residents. During these years industry became more important in the county as six manufacturing firms located in Jamestown by the 1940s. Coal, barite, ore, and natural gas mining already had opened new economic avenues; indeed, the coal mining towns of Davidson and Wilder were the second and third largest communities in the county in 1941. The Fentress Coal and Coke Company and the Davidson Mining Company operated both communities as virtual company towns; they were the scenes of bitter and violent strikes in 1932-33. Unemployed miners later worked for the Tennessee Valley Authority at Norris and for the Civilian Conservation Corps at LaFollette and Cumberland Homesteads. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - THE STORY TELLERS We are the chosen. My feelings are, in each family there is one who seems called to find the ancestors. To put flesh on their bones and make them live again, to tell the family story and to feel that somehow they know, and approve. To me, doing genealogy is not a cold gathering of facts but, instead, breathing life into all who have gone before. We are the story tellers of the tribe. All tribes have one. We have been called as it were, by our genes. Those who have gone before cry out to us: Tell our story. So, we do. In finding them, we somehow find ourselves. How many graves have I stood before now and cried? I have lost count. How many times have I told the ancestors you have a wonderful family you would be proud of us? How many times have I walked up to a grave and felt somehow there was love there for me? I cannot say. It goes beyond just documenting facts. It goes to who am I and why do I do the things I do? It goes to seeing a cemetery about to be lost forever to weeds and indifference and saying I can't let this happen. The bones here are bones of my bone and flesh of my flesh. It goes to doing something about it. It goes to pride in what our ancestors were able to accomplish. How they contributed to what we are today. It goes to respecting their hardships and losses, their never giving in or giving up, their resoluteness to go on and build a life for their family. It goes to deep pride that they fought to make and keep us a Nation. It goes to a deep and immense understanding that they were doing it for us. That we might be born who we are. That we might remember them. So we do. With love and caring and scribing each fact of their existence, because we are them and they are us. So, as a scribe called, I tell the story of my family. It is up to that one called in the next generation to answer the call and take their place in the long line of family storytellers. That, is why I do my family genealogy, and that is what calls those young and old to step up and put flesh on the bones. Author unknown The 1860 Census or Lots of Questions Answered The 1860 Census lists a dwelling number and family number and each sheet lists the county as well as town and post office name. Questions answered on the 1860 census include, name, age and sex of each individual; color, occupation, value of real and personal property; birthplace, whether married within the year (m.y.), whether attended school, can read or write and the date of the enumeration. Also included are boxes to indicate if an individual was a pauper or convict. Here is an article published in 1859 about the upcoming 1860 census: Friday September 23, 1859 Weekly Star THE NEXT CENSUS The year 1860 is the time appointed for taking the eighth census of the United States. From having been originally a simple enumeration's of persons, this Federal census has grown to be a decennial register of the number of inhabitants and their occupation, religious denominations & c, and also a statement of the commerce, manufacturers, arts and industry, and the wealth of the nation. The collection of these statistics has hitherto been attended with immense labor and difficulty. The inquiries of the census takers have not only been baffled by the stupidity and perverseness and ignorance of many to whom they were addressed; but it has been impossible to obtain accurate information upon important subjects because the parties; who alone are presumed capable of imparting it, have never taken the trouble to inform themselves. It often occurs that, in the absence of the head of a family no other member of it is able to give the information required; for instance as to the ages of the different members or it, or the amount of land in cultivation, the number of negroes and their ages, the quantity and value of horses, mules and oxen, etc., or of farming implements or farm products. In town and country similar difficulties are continually met with by the marshals appointed to collect these statistics, and the census is consequently returned incomplete. It is probably that while care will be observed to prevent any frauds or excess in the publication of the next census, it will be ordered by Congress to be taken so as to include all the most important items of information in regard to the progress of our population and our country. In view of this contingency the Nashville News very sensibly suggest that each farmer, this fall , as he gathers his crops, shall keep something like an accurate account of the quality and value of the same; and if he will take the trouble to make out a statement of the names and ages of his family; the number and ages of his servants, the number and value of his horses and mules; the number of bales of cotton, barrels of corn, bushels of wheat, oats, rye, barley, potatoes, etc., and leave it in some place where any member of the family, who may be at home when the deputy marshal shall call, can readily get hold of it, it will save time to all concerned, and very greatly assist to make the census return perfect, complete and satisfactory.