NEWS OF 150 YEARS AGO
September/October 1860
From The Missouri Democrat, Tuesday, September 4, 1860.
St. Louis the Queen City of the West.
HER POPULATION OVER 160,000.
The census returns are not yet completed, but enough has been gained from the Marshals to enable us to state, with tolerable correctness, the actual population of St. Louis. The following table approximately shows the population of the various Wards:
|
First Ward
|
21,847
|
|
|
Second Ward
|
13,864
|
|
|
Third Ward
|
10,557
|
|
|
Fourth Ward
|
15,000
|
|
|
Fifth Ward
|
12,589
|
|
|
Sixth Ward
|
8,000
|
|
|
Seventh Ward
|
13,035
|
|
|
Eighth Ward
|
22,798
|
|
|
Ninth Ward
|
20,000
|
|
|
Tenth Ward
|
22,787
|
|
|
Total
|
160,577
|
Thus it satisfactorily appears that the population of St. Louis has more than doubled in the last ten years. In 1850 her population was 77,860, while that of the “Queen City” was 115,435. Now, Cincinnati has 158,851, while the “Mound City” has 161,000. Thus the increase of Cincinnati in ten years has been 37 and that of St. Louis 106 per cent. At present, the future looks fairer for us than it has done for several years past, and it is at least as certain as future human events can be, that St. Louis will suffer no diminution in her ratio of increase for an indefinite period to come. We are proud to remember that the growth of our city is not alone in the numbers of her people, but that a corresponding augmentation is visible in the prosperity of her educational and art institutions, and in the general intelligence of her citizens.
It is proper to add to the above statement of the population of St. Louis, that the figures embrace only the people of this city, and are not swollen by any increment of a suburban population. St. Louis has no suburban towns or villages as intimated by certain of our Cincinnati contemporaries. The only outlying city at hand is Carondelet, which is not included in the preceding enumeration.
