Joseph Calm Griffith Kennedy (April 1, 1813 – July 13, 1887) of
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
, was a 19th-century
Whig politician, lawyer and journalist who was appointed to supervise the
United States Censuses for 1850 and 1860. A prosperous farmer and journalist from a prominent Pennsylvania family, Kennedy was appointed to supervise the census operations because of his political activism in the 1848 Pennsylvania election.
Biography
Kennedy graduated from
Allegheny College
he, תגל ערבה ותפרח כחבצלת
, mottoeng = "Add to your faith, virtue and to your faith, knowledge" (2 Peter 1:5)"The desert shall rejoice and the blossom as the rose" (Isaiah 35:1)
, faculty = 193 ...
in
Meadville, Pennsylvania. He received an M.A. in 1856, followed by an LL.D. in 1864. Upon the appointment to supervise the Census, Kennedy and his family moved to Washington, DC in 1849. His family included his wife, Catherine Morrison Kennedy, and children Joseph Morrison, John Reynolds, Sarah Jane and
Annie Ellicott Kennedy. They lived there until at least 1868.
On July 13, 1887, Kennedy was stabbed and killed in
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
[ by John Dailey. The latter was said to believe that Kennedy had cheated him in a business affair.
A small group of Kennedy's papers are held in the Walter Willcox Collection, ]Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...
.
Census
The US Congress passed a census bill on March 3, 1849, which established a Census Board with an initial appropriation of $10,000. In May 1849, President Zachary Taylor
Zachary Taylor (November 24, 1784 – July 9, 1850) was an American military leader who served as the 12th president of the United States from 1849 until his death in 1850. Taylor was a career officer in the United States Army, rising to th ...
appointed Kennedy to serve as the first Secretary of the new Census Board.[Anderson (2015), p. 42]
Under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior and with contentious Congressional oversight, Kennedy was responsible for redesigning the census methodology and forms, negotiating with Congressional leaders and committees, and gathering of census data throughout the United States. He was also responsible for supervising the ultimate compilation of census data, tabulation of statistics, and publication of census summaries.
The Seventh Census of the United States (1850) was taken June 1, 1850. This was the first year in which the census bureau attempted to count and name every member of every household, including women and children. Slaves were counted by gender and age on associated Slave Schedules, listed by their owner's name. The first slave schedules were produced in 1850. Prior to 1850, census records had recorded only the name of the head of the household and broad statistical accounting of other household members, (three children under age five, one woman between the age of 35 and 40, etc.)..
The Eighth Census of the United States (1860) estimated the population of the United States at 31,400,000. This was the first census in which American Indians were officially counted, but only those who had 'renounced tribal rules'. That figure for the nation was 40,000. Results of this census were tabulated by 184 clerks in the Bureau of the Census
The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of the ...
.
However, by the time the 1860 census returns were ready for tabulation, the United States was moving toward the American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...
. As a result, Superintendent Kennedy and his staff produced only an abbreviated set of reports, which included no graphic or cartographic representations. As the war began, however, Kennedy and the Census staff used the new statistics to produce maps of Southern states for Union field commanders. These maps displayed militarily vital topics, including white population, slave population, predominant agricultural products (by county), and rail and post-road transportation routes.
Publications
* ''Agriculture of the United States in 1860; Compiled from the Original Returns of the Eighth Census, Under the Direction of the Secretary of the Interior.'' Washington D. C., Government Printing Office, 1864.
* ''Population of the United States in 1860; compiled from the original returns of the eighth census, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior''. Washington D.C., Government printing office, 1864
complete text online
See also
* Annie Bidwell, Annie Kennedy Bidwell
References
Further reading
*
* Fitzpatrick, Paul J.
"Leading American Statisticians in the Nineteenth Century II"
''JASA'' 53 (September 1958) pp. 692–694.
* McDonald, Lois H. "Annie Kennedy Bidwell: An Intimate History." Stansbury Publishing. 2004.
External links
Kennedy's 1879 letter to the ''NY Times'' regarding Laws governing the 1880 census
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kennedy, Joseph C. G.
American statisticians
United States Census Bureau people
Pennsylvania Whigs
19th-century American politicians
1813 births
1887 deaths