The 1890 Federal Census restored…what if?
As most of us who dabble in genealogy know, we are missing a big gap in many of our family trees because of the destruction of this important volume of information by fire in 1921. This is particularly true for our family; Charley Hogue was recorded on the 1870 census of Blount County, TN, and didn’t show up on another census until 1900, 30 years later. I won’t go into this tragic fire in detail. You can read a great article about it, written by Kellee Blake, by following this link:
https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1996/spring/1890-census-1.html
As it turns out, a separate census was taken of the Indian Territory in 1890. It was recorded, transcribed and indexed in a three volume set of books:
1890 Census of Chickasaw Nation, Indian Territory
Book 2: Pickens County (present day Oklahoma counties of Carter, Love, Marshall and portions of Garvin, Grady, Stephens, Jefferson, Murray and Johnston Counties)
By JOYCE A. REX, McClain Historical and Genealogical Society
Printed 1992, copyrighted.
I happened to run across this source while perusing some old message board posts on Genealogy.com. Anita Emberlin lives in Healdton, OK (west of Ardmore, north of Rubottom, in Carter County, OK) and posted the census listings of her hometown on 26 Aug 2007. Some of these posts are still floating around out there, believe it or not, and can contain some valuable info. Anita is big on researching old newspapers and books in her area and posting them whenever she can.
After a bit of internet sleuthing, I came across an email address for Anita. I’ve tried connecting with people using these old email addresses in the past, but have always come up empty. Many of the posts I find are from the late 90’s and the contact information is way out of date. I got lucky this time, however, and Anita answered my query. We exchanged several emails and she provided some great avenues for research in the Indian Territory, which I will follow up on in the future. Turns out there are many copies of this book (now out of print) in local Oklahoma libraries, as well as one copy in the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. Unfortunately, I didn’t know about that when we were there this spring.
I’m not sure if she had a copy of this volume, or just access to it, but Anita looked up some Hogues for us and came up with these:
Henry Hogue 42700
J. J. Hogue 49100
W. H. Hogue 70190
Jess Hogue 70280
Henry Hogue and wife, his age 41, 2 sons, 2 daughters, got mail delivered at Brownsville (Sect. 35, TSS, R6E in Marshall County), U. S. citizen, no description for a permit or no permit
J. J. Hogue and wife, his age 30 two sons, one daughter, got mail delivered at Linn (Marshall County), U. S. citizen, no description for a permit or no permit
W. H. Hogue and wife, his age 25, two sons, got mail delivered at Erin Springs (near Lindsey, Garvin County), U. S. citizen with permit
Jess Hogue and wife, his age 37, two sons, got mail delivered at Erin Springs, U. S. citizen with permit, his wife’s age 40
The only confirmed connection is J.J. Hogue, who is Jackson M. Hogue’s brother, and Charley’s half brother from his father William’s first wife Sarah. White settlers were required to obtain a permit if they lived in the Indian Territory. If they didn’t register, they were listed as “Intruders” in this census. I was hoping for the big oil strike on this one, but didn’t end up with much. I’m sure these Hogues are related, just not exactly how. She told me she would check alternate spellings (Charley was recorded as “Hoag” in 1900) and get back to me, so we’ll see what happens.
So, what if the 1890 census was restored and made available to all of us amateur genealogists out here? I think it would be awesome! Actually, the 1890 census was the first to use punch-cards and an electrical tabulation system. But, as always, It just depends on who was out actually talking to the residents and doing the recording that makes or breaks the whole census process.
I know it’s horrible if a blog or a website goes for days or weeks or months without an update, but there probably wont be many posts from me during the next several weeks. We’ll be heading back to Wisconsin to do a bit of family time in my wife Jane’s home state, Aug 10-Sep 17. I’ll update this blog after that, unless I manage to get to it out on the road (Lazy Retired Man Disclaimer). Thanks for visiting The Hogue Connection and enjoy the rest of your summer!