Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1890-06-23
FORTY THOUSAND
TIE ESTIMATED AND PROBABLE POPULATION
OF WHEELING,
Although the Totals Of the Census EnumsratorS
Will Fall Little ShOrt-The Rapid Gain
Made IN The Last Few Years

The seventeen census enumerators VINO
for three weeks past have been counting
the population of Wheeling, practically
concluded their work Saturday evening,
although nearly all the gentlemen have a
few visits to make to-day, TO gather up
families and individuals missed, from one
cause or another, during the progress OF
the work. This additional and supple
mental labor will be completed by this
evening. and the final returns will be made
To the Census Bureau at Washington. Inc
held meeting upon com
pleting the work, at which all but
three or four were present, ana
from comparison OF totals, ana close
estimates for the sections for which the
enumerators were missing. the conclusion
was reached that the population, as ascer-
tanned bv the count, would be somewhere
between 3 900 and $4,000, probably reach
ing the latter figure after all final add
tions and corrections have been made.
This means that Wheeling's actual pop
ulation is $4,000. for, as all will agree, no
census enumerator who ever made the
rounds. ever succeeded in getting all the
inhabitants of his district. Then, too,
many people, from fear that the count
will have some bearing upon TAX
alton. do not give correct re
turns rs To their families, always erring
ON the side of safety, which means the
Withholding of one OF more names IN the
family. others are absent temporarily,
leaving behind them 80 certain source oil
information concerning them; there Is a
large floating population difficult to count
accurately. and the figures as 10 "rOomers,
and the dwellerS in boarding houses ana
hotels are apt to be erroneous. Men VINO
sleep at one place and other, and eat AT
restaurants, hap-hazard; and laoorers
on railroad work and other similar
and from these causes and others,
which every reader will readily recog-
nizc. il is safe TO say 1000 or more lnhaDl-
tants Of this city have been missed
This assumption does not necessarily imply
a reflection upon the industry or accuracy
of the enumeratOrs. or any Of them. Tor let
them be as accurate rs they may, IL Is al
most or quite impossible TO make return
which shall be beyond the suspicion OF err
ror. and that, too, on the short side oil the
account.
There is vet another fact that goes a long
way 10 support the reasonable claim that
Wheeling is a city of 10000 people. boH,
ems and scores-nay. almost hundreds-of
men do business here, have all their inter,
ests tied up in Wheeling enterprises and
Wheeling mercantile and manufacturing
pursuits. aud who arein every sense wheel
ing people. except the simple fact that their
families do not reside within the corporate
limits. They are seen pursuing their daily
avocations in our business houses,
mills and factories, or are part
of our professional life, but AT
night thew board the Elm Grove road and
are dropped of all along the line rs FAR as
Elm Grove, or cross the river, or retire IN
other directions without the city limits.
Yet they are nevertheless Wheeling peo-
pie. and ought TO figure in Wheeling's sta
tistical record In this class there are GER
tainlv 900 or !, 800 people, who are Wheel
ingites. vet who are counted in the returns
for the county at large, or 60 to swell the
nopulation of some suburban town.
Wheeling is "A city of 10000 people, de-
spite all the figures that can be gwen 10
the contrary. e,
But assuming the actual returns oil Tue
enumerators to make total of $500,
which seems to be about the mean OF the
estimates made, tabulated statement oil
the growth Of our population from lSlO TO
Tho nresent time. would be as follows: