The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1921-03-02
INDIANA FARM
GETS PROMINENCE
Comes Into Public Eye Through Being
the Center of United States
Formulation.

Engineers from the University of In,
I;o,,a are NOW surveying Uncle Jimmie
Herrin's 40-acre farm near Spencer, owen
county, Ind. in order to eStaDllSh I1e tA
act center of the population OF the tnlteu
States As determined by the 1870 census
| 4 stone marker will define the spot. but
! the engineers have not determined Wnelher
| if must be placed in the corntield or IN the
| pigpcn. :o,u,
The location upon which the engineers
are working is said by the census bureau :
| 10 be S3 miles southeast of the town oil
! Spencer. or. to be entirely accurate
/ where the parallel of latitude of SO de
/ graes 10 minutes p second north inter
! sccts the meridian of longitude of So de-
grees IL minutes II seconds west.
Indiana has held the center OF popula-
| tion for the last 80 years. The movement
! since 1910 IS slight, only 9.S miles west
Iward and about one-tifth of mile north
ward Of Bloomington, where 1t was set by
/ the census of that year. 1t Is far cry.
| Though. to Indiana from p miles east OF
| Baltimore. Md. where the first center of
InonuIation was established, 40 years ago,
| in 1890.
| The center of population is practically
4 center of gravity. having nothing to do
| with area. and is determined by the
weight of the people of the country. If
! the United States can be visualiZed as a
| fiat board or a tabletop, with the popula-
| ton distributed upon it at varying points,
the center of population would be the
point upon which the board or tabletop
! would balance. The census bureau de-
ScribpS it this way:
THE center of population may be con
sidered as the center of gravity for the
iponulation of the United States, that is
/ t. say, if the surface of the United States
! be regarded as Il rigid, level plane, with
out weight. but having the population dis
! tributed thereon as at present. each indi-
vidual inhabitant, being assumed to have
! the same weight as every other lnhabltant
would exert a pressure on any given point
in the plane directly proportional to his
distance from that point. The center OF
gravity for this plane, or the pivotal point
referred to by the term center of popula-
| ton" That being the case the city OF
| Seattle San Francisco and Los Angeles
with a combined population of 1,39S, 6G1
exert greater influence on the location OF
1.-THE center of population than the cities OF
Baltimore. Boston. Buffalo. Cleveland
! Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, with a com
bined population of 5.197. 624."
After the first census of 1870. the center
Of population switched from % miles east
OF Baltimore to Is miles west of that city
and i'm another decade it passed to 40 miles
northwest by west of Washington. BY
1890 it moved to what is now the state ol
| West Virginia. remaining within thai
state until 1860. when it pushed beyond
the West Virginia boundary into Ohio, Z
center until 1890. it leaving the neighbor
hood of Chillicothe to go 4S miles east by
north of Cincinnati in 1870. and 10 years
later to eight miles west by south of the
same city. In 1890, the center was u
miles east of Columbus, Ind. In 1900 the
point was six miles southeast of Colum
bus. proceeding to Bloomington in 1910
1t is California that has pulled the cen
ter westward. one other thing for the ma
tive sons to be proud Of The increase o
more than 100000 i'll the population o
that state in the last decade, a greater
growth than i'll the previous 10 years
10000, was the principal cause Th
lgrowth of the Pacific Coast states ha
Ibeen a steady impulse. They actuated tn,
westward trend. in the decade of 1901
also for at that time the combined popu
Iation of the cities of San Francisco
Seattle, Portland and Sacramento
$685. 16-exerted as great an influence OF
the center as did the combined population
of Philadelphia, Boston and Baltimore
2,I7S,07S. In other words, California be