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This month the government will be counting residents in the 23rd official census.
The population of the Katy area has certainly grown in the last 10 years. The
city of Katy
’s population in 2000 was 11,715. Today that number is expected to be more than
14,000. The population of the greater Katy area is expected to exceed 280,000.
In the early 1600s, a census was taken in Virginia and most of the British
colonies. But it is in Article One, Section Two of the Constitution that the
official census is mandated so that citizens would all be counted. In 1790,
members of Congress gave federal marshals the job of visiting every house and
establishment and filling out paperwork for the first official census. It took
them 18 months to finish the task and another year to deliver the results to
President Washington.
That census consisted of only six questions: the name of the head of the
household, the number of persons, the number of free white males who were 16
years old or older, the number of free white males under the age of 16 and the
sexes and colors of all of the other persons living in the household. The
information let the government know how many young men were available to be
drafted into wars and how many were available to work.
Every 10 years thereafter, government census workers visited every household—and often schools—to count all Americans. This was difficult and sometimes dangerous work. In some
areas, census workers were viewed with suspicion, and some have even been
killed while doing their job.
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Over the years, the census has changed many times. Additional questions have
been added to gather more information. By 1880, the census was so long it took
almost a decade to publish the results. In 1890 a tabulating machine was used
to reduce the processing time to two and a half years. Since 1950, input has
been tabulated by computers, which has reduced the processing time to about a
year. In 1960, the census was sent for the first time by mail. The population
completed it, and a census bureau worker
then came to pick it up. In 1970 mail-in forms took precedence over door-to-door
enumerators.
This year the census form will be one of the shortest in many years with only 10
questions; most of which have been on the census for more than 100 years. If it
is not mailed back, a census worker will still come to the home to verbally ask
the head of the household questions and fill out the required form.
Historically, the census allows us to see exactly who was living in a certain
place at a certain time. Today, most census records are available online, and
genealogists often use them to trace a family tree. The 1900 census records
list Katy
’s founding families including Wm. Eule, who is recognized as Katy’s first rice farmer. Census records are a valuable tool for the government to
know what services will be needed to meet population demands. Local funding,
legislative representation and more are dependent on an accurate count.
Participating in the 2010 count is a way for each of us to be a part of
history.
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