Index of 1870 Federal Census Stearns County, Minnesota List of the Starting Page and Name for each Census Division ************************************************************************ USGENWEB ARCHIVES(tm) NOTICE Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm All documents placed in the USGenWeb Archives remain the property of the contributors, who retain publication rights in accordance with US Copyright Laws and Regulations. In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, these documents may be used by anyone for their personal research. They may be used by non-commercial entities so long as all notices and submitter information is included. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit. Any other use, including copying files to other sites, requires permission from the contributors PRIOR to uploading to the other sites. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgenwebarchives.org ************************************************************************** The USGenWeb Archives provide genealogical and historical data to the general public without fee or charge of any kind. It is intended that this material not be used in a commercial manner. All submissions become part of the permanent collection. Abstracted by Thomas J. Steichen from public records. Edited and formatted by Kathy Grace, May 2004. Submitted by Thomas J. Steichen, March 22, 2004. This transcription has been proofread by Sandy Sterling Both above notices must remain when copied or downloaded. ___________________________________________________________________________ NOTE: For more information on Stearns County, Minnesota, Please visit the Stearns County, MNGenWeb page at http://www.rootsweb.com/~mnstearn/ ___________________________________________________________________________ This work follows all guidelines of the USGW Census Project, http://www.usgwcensus.org/. ___________________________________________________________________________ This is the 1870 Federal Census for Stearns County, Minnesota ___________________________________________________________________________ Starting Page and Name for each Census Division 1A Albany 5A Avon 9A Eden Lake 13A Fair Haven 17A Grove 22B Getty 27B Raymond 31B Melrose 35A Lake Henry 38A Lynden 42A Le Sauk 46A Luxemburg 50A Maine Prairie 59A Munson 67A North Fork 70B Crow Lake 73A Oak Transcriber's Notes: Microfilm M593-716: 1870 Stearns County, MN. ------------------ This is a transcription of microfilm M593-716, containing the 1870 Federal Census for Stearns County, MN. Please note that there were two completely separate and different microfilmings of the 1870 Federal Census for Stearns County, MN, one labeled M593-716 and the other labeled T132-11. Both contain the complete 1870 Stearns Census. History: When the census was taken in 1870, the enumerator entered the data into a ledger book. After the census was complete, two copies were made, each transcribed by hand onto paper forms. One copy was given to the Federal government, the other to the State of Minnesota. Many years later, in large part because their copy was deteriorating rapidly, the Federal government microfilmed and then discarded the paper version. M593-716 is the filming of the original Federal copy. Unfortunately, about two-thirds of the Federal microfilm for 1870 Minnesota (the M film series) was later destroyed. Stearns is one of the counties whose film survived. Nonetheless, the Federal government borrowed and filmed the complete State copy (as the T132-11 series), so Stearns County ended up with two microfilm versions. Note though, that the two microfilms are from different hand copies of the original ledger books and differ slightly in transcription as well as page order. Furthermore the original Federal copy (the M series) appears to be from the better-preserved paper copy, so ultimately is more complete. In fact, large portions of the State paper copy had faded so much by the time it was filmed that many microfilmed pages are nearly or completely illegible. It is also clear that the transcribers of the original census ledger put their own personal biases into their copy. For example, using Catharina vs Katherina, Gerdruth vs Gerthrud, etc. They also struggled, I'm sure, with the writing of the original enumerator, as spellings of many last names differ slightly between the versions. Thus, the two microfilms differ for reasons beyond legibility also. Townships: --------- The township system of Stearns County was still being formed in 1870. At the time of the 1870 census, only 28 of the current 37 townships existed. Thus, some 1870 townships included all or part of the additional, current-day townships. In particular, Township Included current-day in 1870 township(s) -------------------------------------- Albany Krain Brockway Holding Crow Lake Crow River (west half) Lake Henry Crow River (east half) Spring Hill Lake George (east half) North Fork Lake George (west half) Munson Farming Collegeville (west half) St. Joseph Collegeville (east half) Oak Millwood Sauk Centre Ashley Said differently, Current-day In 1870, Township was in township: --------------------------------- Ashley Sauk Centre Collegeville - west half Munson - east half St. Joseph Crow River - west half Crow Lake - east half Lake Henry Farming Munson Holding Brockway Krain Albany Lake George - west half North Fork - east half Lake Henry Millwood Oak Spring Hill Lake Henry The following townships were the same in 1870 as today: Avon Lynden St. Augusta Eden Lake Maine Prairie St. Cloud Fair Haven Melrose St. Martin Getty Paynesville St. Wendel Grove Raymond Wakefield Le Sauk Rockville Zion Luxemburg Transcription: ------------- Transcribing microfilm is not always an easy task, as many of the paper pages were marked up or had become faded before being filmed. Further, the writing styles of 1870 transcribers in Stearns County were both more elaborate and substantially different compared to current day writing; in particular, German script characters frequently appear (and though they may look like current alphabetic characters, they represented other letters). We have attempted to faithfully transcribe what is on microfilm M593-716, but have also consulted film T132-11 (or other resources) when the information on the film was unclear. We have not corrected spelling mistakes (though we often provide a note when we first see an unusual or non-standard spelling). Nonetheless, there are many instances where we are making a "best guess" of what we believe appears on the film; please accept our apology if our interpretation differs from yours. You should contact the transcriber, though, if you can provide documentation that might assist in correcting a bad guess. Our intention is to provide the most accurate transcription possible. Any assistance you can render will be appreciated. Transcriber: Thomas J. Steichen, steichen@triad.rr.com Proofreader: Sandy Sterling, slts@comcast.net Copyright © 2002-4