History and Comprehensive Description of Loudoun County, Virginia Part 9

[* - Decrease.]

The most striking fact to be noted concerning the reported farm areas is the comparatively great decrease in the decade 1860 to 1870. This was, of course, one of the disastrous effects of the Civil War, from which the South, in general, after more than forty-five years, has not yet fully recovered, as is shown by the fact that in some of the South Atlantic states the reported acreage of farm land in 1900 was less than it was in 1860.

A continuous increase is shown in the area of improved farm land except in the decade 1860-1870. The decrease in the amount under cultivation, reported in the census of 1870, was due to conditions growing out of the change in the system of labor which prevented a complete rehabilitation of agricultural industry.

Only three other of the 100 Virginia counties reported larger improved areas in 1900, viz: Fauquier, 291,734 acres; Pittsylvania, 280,456 and Augusta, 276,459.

TABLE II.--_Number of Farms by Decades: Summary, 1850 to 1900._

1900 1,948 1890 1,818 1880 1,841 1870 1,238 1860 1,207 1850 1,256

Comparison of the number of farms reported in 1850 with the number at the last census shows an addition in fifty years of 692 farms.

The great increase between 1870 and 1880 is seen at a glance. During this period the large plantations were steadily undergoing part.i.tion, in consequence of the social and industrial changes in progress after the Civil War.

TABLE III.--_Farms Cla.s.sified by Area--1900._

Under 3 acres 22 3 and under 10 acres 155 10 and under 20 acres 171 20 and under 50 acres 246 50 and under 100 acres 264 100 and under 175 acres 396 175 and under 260 acres 324 260 and under 500 acres 274 500 and under 1,000 acres 88 1,000 acres and over 8

TABLE IV.--_Number of Farms of Specified Tenures, June 1, 1900._

Owners 1,116 Part owners 173 Owners and tenants 18 Managers 48 Cash tenants 232 Share tenants 361 ----- Total 1,948

POPULATION.

The persistent high price of Loudoun lands has discouraged increase of population by immigration. Indeed, in more than eighty-five years, except for the slight fluctuations of certain decades, there has been no increase through any medium.

The last census (1900) fixed Loudoun's population at 21,948, of which number 16,079 were whites, 5,869 negroes, and the remaining 101 foreign born. This aggregate is even less than that shown by the census of 1820, which gave the county a population of 22,702, or 754 more than in 1900.

The succeeding schedules, giving complete statistics of population for Loudoun County by the latest and highest authority, were taken from United States Census reports, collected in 1900 and published in 1902.

_Population, Dwellings, and Families:_

_1900._ _Private Families._ Population 21,948 Number 4,195 Dwellings 4,157 Population 21,690 Families 4,231 Average size 5.2

_Private Families Occupying Owned and Hired and Free and Enc.u.mbered Homes, 1900._

Total private families 4,195

_Farm Homes Owned._ _Other Homes Owned._ Free 959 Free 622 Enc.u.mbered 257 Enc.u.mbered 147 Unknown 120 Unknown 81 Hired 648 Hired 1,169 Unknown 7 Unknown 185 ----- ----- Total 1,991 Total 2,204

_Native and Foreign Born and White and Colored Population, Cla.s.sified by s.e.x, 1900._

_Native born._ _Native White--Foreign Parents._ Male 10,634 Male 114 Female 11,213 Female 121

_Foreign born._ _Foreign White._ Male 59 Male 58 Female 42 Female 42

_Native White--Native Parents._ _Total Colored._ Male 7,583 Male 2,938 Female 8,161 Female 2,931

In 1860, one year before the outbreak of the Civil War, the County held within its boundaries 21,774 souls: 15,021 white, 5,501 slave, and 1,252 free colored. In number of slaves at this period Loudoun ranked thirty-sixth in the list of Virginia counties which then also included the counties now in West Virginia. This number was distributed amongst 670 slave-holders in the following proportions:

1 slave 124 2 slaves 84 3 slaves 61 4 slaves 83 5 slaves 46 6 slaves 39 7 slaves 35 8 slaves 27 9 slaves 22 10 and under 15 slaves 80 15 and under 20 slaves 36 20 and under 30 slaves 23 30 and under 40 slaves 4 40 and under 50 slaves 4 50 and under 70 slaves 1 100 and under 200 slaves 1

The following table gives the population of Loudoun County decennially, from and including the first official census of 1790:

1900 21,948 1890 23,274 1880 23,634 1870 20,929 1860 21,774 1850 22,079 1840 20,431 1830 21,939 1820 22,702 1810 21,338 1800 20,523 1790 18,952

The reports of population by magisterial districts given below, with a single exception, show an appreciable decrease between the years 1890 and 1900:

----------------------+-------+------- | 1900. | 1890.

----------------------+-------+------- Broad Run district | 3,309 | 3,463 Jefferson district | 3,106 | 3,307 Leesburg district | 4,299 | 4,246 Lovettsville district | 3,104 | 3,210 Mercer district | 4,010 | 4,570 Mt. Gilead district | 4,120 | 4,478 ----------------------+-------+-------

The following incorporated towns for the same period are charged with a corresponding decrease in the number of their inhabitants:

-------------+-------+------- | 1900. | 1890.

-------------+-------+------- Hamilton | 364 | 407 Hillsboro | 131 | 156 Leesburg | 1,513 | 1,650 Lovettsville | 97 | Middleburg | 296 | 429 Waterford | 383 | 385 -------------+-------+-------

These circ.u.mstances of fluctuation and actual decrease might appear singular if it could not be shown that practically the same conditions obtain elsewhere in the State and Union, or wherever agriculture is the dominant industry. Especially is this true of the counties of Clarke, Fauquier, Prince William, and Fairfax, in Virginia, and Jefferson, in West Virginia. All these farming communities adjoin Loudoun and exhibit what might be called corresponding fluctuations of population between the above-named periods.

A decrease then in the population of any of these districts is obviously due, in a large measure, to the partial or total failure of the crops which causes the migration of a portion of the population to large cities or other parts of the country. If the failure occurs immediately preceding a census, the decrease shown will, of course, be large.

As another contributing cause, it can be positively stated that the disfavor in which agriculture is held by the young men of Loudoun, who seek less arduous and more lucrative employment in the great cities of the East, is, in part, responsible, if not for the depletion, certainly for the stagnation of the county's population.

The white population of Loudoun County in 1880, 1890, and 1900 was as follows:

_Census._ _Population._

1880 16,391 1890 16,696--305 increase.

1900 16,079--617 decrease.

The negro population of Loudoun County for the same periods was:

_Census._ _Population._

1880 7,243 1890 6,578--665 decrease.

1900 5,869--709 decrease.

The figures show that the negro population has steadily decreased, while the white population increased from 1880 to 1890, and decreased from 1890 to 1900. The proportion of decrease for the negroes was much greater than for the whites. As the occupations of the negroes are almost entirely farming and domestic services, crop failures necessarily cause migration to other localities, and as Washington and Baltimore are not far distant and offer higher wages and sometimes more attractive occupations, there can be no doubt that the decrease is princ.i.p.ally due to the migration to those cities.

INDUSTRIES.

Agriculture, in many of its important branches, is by far Loudoun's leading industry, and is being annually benefited by the application of new methods in cultivation and harvesting. The farmers are thrifty and happy and many of them prosperous.