Considering the Censuses for Ichabod Howe

In order to look at the various censuses for Ichabod I had to look them up. I discovered that the indexers at Ancestry.com had been very creative in the ways they spelled his name. See some examples: 1850 - Pehabod Howe; 1830 - Iehabod Hone; 1820 - Jchabod Howe; 1810 - Schabod How; 1800 - Tchabod Now. All of these were located where he lived, in the town of  Cornwall, Litchfield County, Connecticut.

1850.  Now I want to share my reasoning for some conclusions I have come to about Ichabod's family in the censuses. Since we are usually advised to start with the information nearest to us in time I began with the 1850 census. I found 81 year old Ichabod was living with a Norton Howe, age 40 with a wife Harriet and 3 children, Edward, Mary and Luman. When I wrote about Ichabod's father-in-law, Stephen Scoville, on 28 Jan 2017 I noted that Stephen's probate papers gave information about his grandchildren, the children of Ichabod and Irene. However I failed to give their names. They were Levi born about 1803, Thirza born about 1806, Luman born about 1810 and Lucy born in 1811. Since Luman was born about 1810, he was the same age as this Norton. Then I found that he was listed in some places as Luman N. Howe and that Luman had married someone named Harriet, so I believe this "Norton" is Luman and Norton was his middle name.

1840.  Now we move back 10 years to 1840. The indexers got this one right, although someone submitted a correction to change the surname to Flowe. In this census which only lists the head of household by name it gives the household composition as 1 male 70 to 79, 1 male 10 to 14, 1 female 70 to 79, 1 female 30 to 39. The older two would probably be Ichabod and his 2nd wife Lucy. Ichabod's daughter Thirza was born about 1806, so would be age 34 and she did not get married until 1842, so the 30 to 39 year old female is probably her. The 10 to 14 year old male is a mystery to me. But Ichabod's son Levi also had a 10 to 14 year old male in his household in 1840. Levi had 2 sons of about the right age, Dyer born in 1825 and Levi Jr born in 1827, so I suspect one was helping his grandfather. The 1840 census for Ichabod shows that 2 persons were employed in agriculture.

1830.  Since there was only 1 entry for Howe (sounds like or similar) in Cornwall in 1830, I found Ichabod. There were 4 persons in the household: 1 male 60 to 69, 1 male 15 to 19, 1 female 60 to 69 and 1 female 10 to 14. Again the older two would most likely be Ichabod and his 2nd wife Lucy. The 2 younger people do not fit any of Ichabod's known children with his first wife Irene. Since Lucy is listed as over 60, these children seem young to have been hers. Both daughters, Thirza and Lucy, were not yet married so they could have been in the household but these ages do not match them. A female 10 to 14 would have been born 1816 to 1820 and the male 15 to 19 would have been born 1811 to 1815. Since Levi Norton Howe was born about 1810, they could have made him a little younger and he would be the male 15 to 19. But the female 10 to 14 is still unknown.

1820.  The 1820 census shows two adults, 1 male over 45 and 1 female over 45, which would be Ichabod and Lucy. There are three who would probably be children, 1 female 10 to 15 which fits Thirza, 1 female under 10 which fits Lucy and 1 male under 10 which could be Luman. Since Levi would have been 17 or 18 he could be working somewhere. He did not get married until 1823.

1810.  The 1810 census is quite puzzling to me. It would be reasonable that the male 26 to 44 was Ichabod. The oldest female was 16 to 25 which was too young for Irene, his first wife, who should have been about 37 then. It shows 5 children and I know of 4 and the youngest of those had not been born yet. Did Ichabod and Irene have some children who died young, before 1813 when the children were named in the probate record? Were there nieces or nephews living in the household? I don't know.

1800.  The indexer really made Ichabod hard to find in the 1800 census. This census shows 1 male 26 to 44, 2 males under 10, 1 female 26 to 44 and 1 female under 10. The 2 adults fit the ages of Ichabod and Irene. However I have no record of any children born before 1800 and here are 3. With no names to check it makes it even harder. Maybe I will never know.