The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1871-01-12
OhlO-Its Population and Movement.

The census of Ohio for 1870 gives, in
round numbers, 100000. 1t is
enough to preserve her rank as the
third State of the American Union,
but it certainly disappoints many who
expected a more rapid Increase. There
is one element in the movement OF
the interior States which it is utterly
impossible to calculate. This is the re-
latiOn between the immigration and
the emigration. Each day of the
year hundreds of people are coming
into Ohio, and hundreds going out.
What the difference between these
movements is, it is impossible to tell
until the census is taken. In the
present case those going out have been
I greater than those coming IN. Had
nobody gone out or come in in the last
ten years, the population of Ohio
would have been greater than it is.
The natural increase of the American
population is % per cent, each year;
/ but the actual increase in Ohio is only
Is per cent. The basis of population
/ in 1860 was 2,340,0O The natural in
/ crease would have been 585, 900, and
/ the real increase was $4,000. The
difference between these, 235,000 is
what Ohio has contributed to the
growth of the Western States. The
emigration began many years since
/ to Indiana, then to Illinois, then to
Iowa, and since to Kansas and Ne
braska. Few people have any idea of
what tremendous wave of emigra-
/ ton is going now from the Central
/ States to the West. 1t pOurs on re-
sistlessly to the West, but it viii not
/ pour on so many wears. Although
| the government owns thousand mill
lions of acres of land, yet there is COM
paratively but small portion of good
lands remaining. No such fields of
enterprise as Ohio, Indiana, and Illi-
nois presented will ever again occur
in this or any other country. These
three States comprise 10000 square
miles, fully capable of sustaining forty
millions of people, the entire pOpula-
ton Ofthe United States. What viii re-
suit from this ? In a few years the mi
grafton will comparatively cease,
simply for want of good lands to tempt
the young farmer to new abOdes.
When this is the case population will
react, go where an acre of land will
produce, and where iron and coal will
create numerous factories, and give
employment to surplus population.
This process will probably begin in
about ten years, when new impulse
will be givenfto Ohio population, as it
has been in Massachusetts and Penn
sylvania.
Ninety years ago the buffalo roam
ed the Muskingum Valley, and Ohio
had less wood on it than it has to-day
although wood is now fast disappear
ing), for a great deal Of Ohio was then
prairie land. Eighty years ago the
Indian chiefs looked down from the
big oak (then on Observatory hill to
see what the whites were doing in
Fort Washington. Seventy years ago
the great tide Of Western immigra-
ton began to flow Twenty thOus-
and people and seven thousand horses
and wagons, passed the mouth Of the
Muskingum in one year. Then i'll
flowed on in a mighty current, as it
flows on beyond the Mississippi. Sixty
years ago (1S1O) Ohio was a small
State, marching on in the bloom and
vigor of its youth. Chillicothe was
the. seat Of government. Cincinnati
was a small town. In the Northwest
the Indian tribes were rallying, under
the genius of Tecumseh, for their last
battle against the whites. Ohio was
still border State, and from that
time till 1915 she had to pass the Or
deal of Indian and Of British warfare
Fifty years ago Ohio began to hear of
the canals, which the genius Of De-
Witt Clinton was urging TO encour-
age the commerce Of the West. Forty
years ago Ohio was completing her
canals, and had begun her great
school system. We need not pursue
the eras further We have reached
the climax Of the great civil war
which has established for the whole
country the same freedom and equal
rights which Ohio has enjoyed from
the beginning-which has, we conf
IDENTIFY believe, perpetuated the Amer
lean Union. and made Ohio a star Of
the first magnitude in a glorious firm
ament of stars, which the world has
never seen surpassed. The reasons
why Ohio should grow are obvious
enough. Good lands, free institutions
public Improvements, and popular
education, were each cause enough to
make growing and vigorous State.
The following is a table Of the
growth Of population during seventy
years: