Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1882-06-01
THE CENTER OF POPULATION.


census Office, embracing a portion of
the statistics gathered at the enumera-
ton Of 1880, contains, among many
valuable maps illustrating the distribu-
ton, density, and character OF pOpula-
ton, a diagram which shows how the
center of population has shifted from
decade to decade since 1870, in its
steady march westward. What statis-
ticians understand by the term center
Of population, 1t may be well to explain,
Is the point at which equilibrium would
be reached were the country taken as
a plane surface without weight, but
capable of sustaining weight, and the
inhabitants distributed over it in num-
Der and position as they are found at
the period under consideration, each
inhabitant being supposed to be of
equal weight, and consequently to ex.
ert pressure on the pivotal point in
direct proportion to his distance there
from. The first census OF the United
States, taken in 1890, showed the center
Of population to be on the eastern shore
OF Maryland, about twenty-five miles
from Baltimore, and near the thirty
ninth parallel Of latitude. From that
point 1t has moved westward at the
average rate of about fifty-one miles
in decade, never deviating as much
as a degree to north or south Of the
thirty-ninth parallel. BY 1900 it was
moved forty-One miles, and was found
at point eighteen miles west Of Balti-
more. In 1910 it was near the Potomac
in Virginia, at a place forty miles
northwest of Washington, having
travelled thirty-six miles during the
preceding decade. Its progress in the
following ten years was fifty miles, and
in 1920 it was in the valley Of Virginia,
sixteen miles north of Woodstock.
The census Of 1880 discovered that
the center of population, previously
little north Of the thirty-ninth parallel,
had passed that line and was a trihe
to the south of it, at point in the AL
legheny mountains nineteen miles west
Of Moore6eld, Va, the progress west
ward since 1920 being thirty-nine miles.
This was the most decided southwark
movement it has made in any decade,
and is explained by the acquisition Of
Florida and the settlement Of Alabama,
Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas.
In the ensuing decade the center re.
crossed the thirty-ninth parallel, moved
fifty-hve miles westward, and was
found at a point sixteen miles south of
Clarksburg, Va. Southern Michigan
and Wisconsin and northern Indiana
and Illinois had begun to fill up,
and their population turned the
balance to the northward. In
1850 it was still in Virginia
but close to the Ohio river, having
moved fifty-hve miles and being at a
point twenty-three miles southeast Of
Petersburg. Again it was south of
the thirty-ninth parallel, but only a
distance of about a mile. the detection
being explained, by the annexation of
Texas. BY 1860 it had reached point
twenty miles south of Chillicothe, o.,
and little north of the thirty-ninth
parallel, having made the greatest pro-
gress ever made in decade, the dist
ance from the last point being eighty
one miles. This remarkable move
ment wac caused by the settlement of
the Pacific coast-twelve persons in
San Francisco, by reason of their
pivotal point, counterbalancing forty
persons in Boston. The next step was
forty.two miles westward, and about
twelve northward, which brought the
center into Highland county, Ohio,
about forty-eight miles east by north
Of Cincinnati. 1t is believed that the
apparent northern movement during
this decade was caused by defective
enumeration of the colored population
of the southern states at the census of
1870. In 1880 the center was near
the village of Taylorsville, KY, about
eight miles west by south of Cincin-
natl, the westward progress being
fifty-eight miles and the detection to
the south about eight. The census OF
1890 will probably discover it in Jen-
nings county, in southeastern Indiana
If there is no great change in the
rate Of western movement Of popula-
ton, the central point, still travelling
as it doubtless will, on a line closely
corresponding to the thirty-ninth
parallel of latitude, will not cross the
Mississippi river until 1850, when il
will be found not far from the mouth
Of the Missouri. 1t is not improbable
however. that it will never reach thai
stream, but will remain nearly station
airy somewhere in southern Illinois
There are large areas Of country in the
far west unfit for habitation, save
where deposits of the precious metals
are found, and other considerable area!
where grazing, which supports but {
scanty population. will always be tho
chief industry. The increase Of popu
lation in the trans-mississippi region
may not, therefore, much more thar
counterbalance the increase in thu
older settled portion of the countr,
after the close of the present century
In estimating the changes and progress
of the future we must not forget that
marvellous as is the growth of tn,
new west, it is only little more rapi'
than that Of the great middle regioI
between the Hudson and the Missis
aippi. The state of New York, it mus