52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – 34a – Another Non-Population

Yesterday I wrote about the non-population schedule where my 3^rd gt-grandfather, William L. England, appeared in 1880.

But in 1850, 1860 and 1870 he was on a different non-population schedule: agriculture. Since I grew up on a farm, learning what livestock and crops my ancestors grew is fun for me.

This is a table showing what the agriculture schedules showed about him.

	1850	1860	1870
Township/Precinct	Fabius	Fabius	Coyote Valley
County	Davis	Davis	Lake
State	Iowa	Iowa	California
Improved Acres	50	110	40
Unimproved Acres	110	150	120
Land Value	$800	$2600	$400
Implements Value	$85	$100	$50
Horses	5	6	2
Milch Cows	4	8	2
Working Oxen	12
Other Cattle	3	21	2
Swine	20	26
Livestock Value	$405	$796	$300
Wheat bushels	30		300
Barley bushels			150
Oats bushels		150
Indian Corn bushels	500	2600
Hay tons		12	14
Irish Potatoes bushels	10	50	25
Sweet Potatoes bushels	5
Butter pounds	200	150	150
Honey pounds			100
Produce value			$680
Slaughtered Animals	$24	$107

In looking at this table, I see the only agricultural items that are the same for 2 different years are the pounds of butter produced, and that was done in 2 different states.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – 34 – Non-Population

I have not written for several weeks, but this topic was one I found very interesting. I like to find every bit of information about my ancestors that I can, so generally I enjoy looking at the non-population schedules for the United States census. However, with a title like “1880 Schedules of Defective, Dependent, and Delinquent Classes,” do I really want to find my ancestor listed there? Maybe it wouldn't be too bad to see cousins or ancestor's siblings, but someone in my direct line?

But I did find someone there in the Lane County Oregon section. Although the census taker marked him in the wrong precinct, it was my 3^rd gt-grandfather, William L. England. His name appeared in two sections: Deaf-Mutes and Blind.

I should have expected that since he was marked as blind and deaf on the population schedule for 1880 where he was living with his daughter and her family. Besides that, his obituary in September 1893 stated “although for several years he has been without use of eyesight or hearing he lived a happy Christian life to the end.”

Then as I thought about this, I realized that for at least 13 years William had been blind and deaf. It must have been hard for the family to communicate with him. I wonder what methods they used. I expect I will never know.