1905 State of Iowa Census Register: Book introduction to the register
Transcriber's Notes:
The following text was taken from the title pages of a 1905 census register book. The
column header information appears on each page thereafter.
Transcriber's comments are in brackets [ ].
INTRODUCTION.
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This Register of Iowa people consists of the names of the
residents of the State of Iowa on the first day of January, A. D.
1905. The arrangement is by civil townships and incorporated
towns and cities. The several registers are bound together by
counties in the alphabetical order of the names of the several
townships as the same exists at this date. The incorporated
towns are placed following the name of the township in which
the town is situated. Where a town is partly within two or
more townships it has been the intention to place it following
the name of the township in which the larger part of the town
is situated. This order has not been followed in the case of the
larger cities. Where a city of considerable importance exists
the registers for that city are generally separated so as to place
the registers of that city in a separate volume. In a few cases
more than one volume is made for a city. For the city of Des
Moines one volume includes the residents of Wards 5, 6 and 7,
known as East Des Moines, being the territory situated East of
the Des Moines river, and two volumes for the residents West
of the Des Moines river, division being made upon the ward
lines as the same are now officially constituted. The record of
the boundaries of the wards may be found in the city directories
of this date. Other cities are divided upon ward lines and their
boundaries may be determined by the official directories of this
date.
The names appearing in the several town and townships
registers are arranged by numbers according to the numbers of
cards which were made in the census enumeration for the year
1905. These cards indicate the color, place of birth, natuarli-
zation, years in the United States, years in Iowa, conjugal
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condition, school attendance, literacy, occupation and military
service of each person enumerated in the census of 1905. It is
the intention to preserve these cards, the Registers serving as
indexes to the same. The cards are to be arranged in steel
cases by counties, in packages, by an age and sex arrangement
indicated by the labels thereon.
The census of the year 1905 has been made under a statute
enacted by the Thirtieth General Assembly and under the
direction of the Executive Council, the undersigned acting as
Director, ex-officio. These registers were designed in part to
prove the correctness of the census enumeration, to protect
against loss of the original cards by verifying the numbers and
to make it possible to verify the enrollment as to its integrity.
The result has been that the Registers, on account of the fact
that they include postoffice address and street number of
citizens of cities, has made it impossible for fictitious enumera-
tion and the census has the confidence of everyone who has
investigated the same.
The future use of these lists of names has been the chief
object, however, in providing the Register. Herein is found a
complete list of all the people of Iowa so far as it has been
possible, by careful officers, to enroll the same.
The arrangement of families may be determined by the
order of the names in almost every case. The instructions
under which enumerators have acted were to enumerate first
the father of the family, second the mother, following with the
names of children in order of the seniority of their ages. Inves-
tigators will find this arrangement followed generally. This
will make possible the determination of the names of the
children in nearly every family of the State. These registers
it is hoped may find in the State Historical Department a place
where they will be preserved for the use of succeeding genera-
tions. There having been up to this period no uniform record
of the names of people in the different territories of the state,
it is believed that the value of this list will in time become
very great. Lists of names from previous census enumerations
have been discovered in the debris of the attic of the Capitol
building which will be placed with these registers in the
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Historical Department, whenever the legislature shall give
legal sanction to the same. These registers will include a list
of the people at the date of 1850, only four years after the
admission of the State into the Union, and also of the people
in 1860, immediately preceding the breaking out of the great
Civil War, which registers will be of almost inestimable value
in connection with the present registers in the hands of inves-
tigators.
The census of 1905 has been made possible only on account
of the great interest taken by His Excellency, Governor Albert
B. Cummins, and his associate members of the Executive Coun-
cil, Secretary of State William B. Martin, Auditor of State B. F.
Carroll and Treasurer of State G. S. Gilbertson. At the Gov-
ernor's earnest solicitation a statute making the same possible
was enacted, as above indicated, by the Thirtieth General
Assembly; and at every step he and his Council have taken the
deepest interest and exercised the most painstaking care in the
successful execution of the trust. The official report of this
census which will be bound as a volume in the series of this set
of Registers for the examination of all who have occasion to
consult the Registers, will show in detail the extent of the
information obtained by this enumeration.
A. H. Davison,
Secretary.
Des Moines, October 4, 1905.
3
[Book title page with instructions to the enumerator and column headers]
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CENSUS REGISTER
1905
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__________________________________________________ County
________________________________________________ Township
____________________________________________ City or Town
____________________________________________________ Ward
---------------------------------------------------------
Book Number "A" [or "B" or "C"]
---------------------------------------------------------
The Number given each name in this list must be placed
on the population card for that person. (Also on the
"Agriculture" card of each person managing a farm.)
This book must be returned to the County Auditor with the
cards, and by him sent to Des Moines with the cards.
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Card NAME OF PERSON POSTOFFICE ADDRESS
Number
1
2
3
[etc]
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Transcribed by Stephen D. Williams
for the IAGenWeb State Census Project http://iagenweb.org/census/
Copyright (c) 2007,2008. All Rights Reserved.
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