Part 20

Under 3 acres 22 3 and under 10 acres 155 10 and under 20 acres 171 20 and under 50 acres 246 50 and under 100 acres 264 100 and under 175 acres 396 175 and under 260 acres 324 260 and under 500 acres 274 500 and under 1,000 acres 88 1,000 acres and over 8

TABLE IV.--Number of Farms of Specified Tenures, June 1, 1900.

Owners 1,116 Part owners 173 Owners and tenants 18 Managers 48 Cash tenants 232 Share tenants 361 ----- Total 1,948

POPULATION.

The persistent high price of Loudoun lands has discouraged increase of population by immigration. Indeed, in more than eighty-five years, except for the slight fluctuations of certain decades, there has been no increase through any medium.

The last census (1900) fixed Loudoun's population at 21,948, of which number 16,079 were whites, 5,869 negroes, and the remaining 101 foreign born. This aggregate is even less than that shown by the census of 1820, which gave the county a population of 22,702, or 754 more than in 1900.

The succeeding schedules, giving complete statistics of population for Loudoun County by the latest and highest authority, were taken from United States Census reports, collected in 1900 and published in 1902.

Population, Dwellings, and Families:

1900. Private Families. Population 21,948 Number 4,195 Dwellings 4,157 Population 21,690 Families 4,231 Average size 5.2

Private Families Occupying Owned and Hired and Free and Encumbered Homes, 1900.

Total private families 4,195

Farm Homes Owned. Other Homes Owned. Free 959 Free 622 Encumbered 257 Encumbered 147 Unknown 120 Unknown 81 Hired 648 Hired 1,169 Unknown 7 Unknown 185 ----- ----- Total 1,991 Total 2,204

Native and Foreign Born and White and Colored Population, Classified by Sex, 1900.

Native born. Native White--Foreign Parents. Male 10,634 Male 114 Female 11,213 Female 121

Foreign born. Foreign White. Male 59 Male 58 Female 42 Female 42

Native White--Native Parents. Total Colored. Male 7,583 Male 2,938 Female 8,161 Female 2,931

In 1860, one year before the outbreak of the Civil War, the County held within its boundaries 21,774 souls: 15,021 white, 5,501 slave, and 1,252 free colored. In number of slaves at this period Loudoun ranked thirty-sixth in the list of Virginia counties which then also included the counties now in West Virginia. This number was distributed amongst 670 slave-holders in the following proportions:

1 slave 124 2 slaves 84 3 slaves 61 4 slaves 83 5 slaves 46 6 slaves 39 7 slaves 35 8 slaves 27 9 slaves 22 10 and under 15 slaves 80 15 and under 20 slaves 36 20 and under 30 slaves 23 30 and under 40 slaves 4 40 and under 50 slaves 4 50 and under 70 slaves 1 100 and under 200 slaves 1

The following table gives the population of Loudoun County decennially, from and including the first official census of 1790:

1900 21,948 1890 23,274 1880 23,634 1870 20,929 1860 21,774 1850 22,079 1840 20,431 1830 21,939 1820 22,702 1810 21,338 1800 20,523 1790 18,952

The reports of population by magisterial districts given below, with a single exception, show an appreciable decrease between the years 1890 and 1900:

----------------------+-------+------- | 1900. | 1890. ----------------------+-------+------- Broad Run district | 3,309 | 3,463 Jefferson district | 3,106 | 3,307 Leesburg district | 4,299 | 4,246 Lovettsville district | 3,104 | 3,210 Mercer district | 4,010 | 4,570 Mt. Gilead district | 4,120 | 4,478 ----------------------+-------+-------

The following incorporated towns for the same period are charged with a corresponding decrease in the number of their inhabitants:

-------------+-------+------- | 1900. | 1890. -------------+-------+------- Hamilton | 364 | 407 Hillsboro | 131 | 156 Leesburg | 1,513 | 1,650 Lovettsville | 97 | Middleburg | 296 | 429 Waterford | 383 | 385 -------------+-------+-------

These circumstances of fluctuation and actual decrease might appear singular if it could not be shown that practically the same conditions obtain elsewhere in the State and Union, or wherever agriculture is the dominant industry. Especially is this true of the counties of Clarke, Fauquier, Prince William, and Fairfax, in Virginia, and Jefferson, in West Virginia. All these farming communities adjoin Loudoun and exhibit what might be called corresponding fluctuations of population between the above-named periods.

A decrease then in the population of any of these districts is obviously due, in a large measure, to the partial or total failure of the crops which causes the migration of a portion of the population to large cities or other parts of the country. If the failure occurs immediately preceding a census, the decrease shown will, of course, be large.

As another contributing cause, it can be positively stated that the disfavor in which agriculture is held by the young men of Loudoun, who seek less arduous and more lucrative employment in the great cities of the East, is, in part, responsible, if not for the depletion, certainly for the stagnation of the county's population.

The white population of Loudoun County in 1880, 1890, and 1900 was as follows: