This morning I was wondering why so few Steubenville newspapers have been made available and searchable online by companies like OldNews, Newspapers.com, NewspaperArchive, Google Newspaper Archive, Chronicling America, and some of the larger genealogy companies with online newspaper content. Not a tiny town, Steubenville's across the Ohio River from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. And with at least eight newspapers in publication simultaneously for several decades, Steubenville must have been a fairly large city, right?
Wrong.
Population.us tells me that in 1870 Steubenville, Ohio, had 8,107 residents; whereas, Pittsburgh had a population of 86,076 residents, more than ten times larger. No wonder Steubenville's not high on the list for companies making their newspapers available online. (It's true they are available at Ohio History Connect, formerly the Ohio Historical Society, but without a date, I might have to read newspapers all day because they are on microfilm and not searchable.)
But this post isn't about Steubenville's population. It's about a great website for finding the population of an American city through the decades. I like Population.us for its simplicity and clarity, and because it tells the sources of its information.
Its brief introduction tells us its website is
about current and historical population statistics for USA country, states, counties and cities (approximately 20000 settlements). Most of the data are from US censuses, some of them since 1790. All information on this website (population statistics, images, population maps etc.) is free for any use (...attribution appreciated)....
These are the results of my search for Steubenville, Ohio.
This information appears at the top of the screen and gives me brief information about Steubenville's location and population. (Click the image to enlarge in a new tab.)
This graph is clickable on each decade and it tells me the population.
This shows Steubenville on a section of a U.S. map, shows the annual growth rate, and gave me the opportunity to click through to a satellite map.
There is a clickable list of nearby cities and their distance and direction from Steubenville proper.
And these are the source notes at the bottom of the results page.
I've shown sections of the screens because, yes, there are ads to ignore (or use, if you choose). It's not an ad-free site but I was able to overlook those for the information Population.us offers.
The little village where I grew up is not included in their results and if your ancestors came from a small town, it may not be included, either. But I think most large and medium cities are.
I think knowing the population of an area where my ancestors lived will help me put into perspective things like possible distance between neighbors, especially in rural areas; availability of purchasing or selling necessities; etc. Add a map, as detailed and possible, and a city directory, and I might be able to imagine living in the community. I think I'm more of a family historian than a genealogist. These kinds of things interest me.
If you try Population.us, I'd love to hear what you think. Perhaps you've already found another site that tells historic population that you use? Please share. Maybe it's better than Population.us
—Nancy.
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