Recently I was fortunate to find some data from the 1840 census, which tells the story of Effingham County’s agricultural past.  

It can be documented as early as 1734 that the Salzburgers produced crops to feed their families in what is in what is known today as Effingham County. One hundred sixty-seven years ago, we can now see what the census showed that they produced in the year 1840.  

I was amazed with the number of cattle and hogs recorded in this data. This data collection recorded the dollar value of the poultry in the county in 1840. I wish they had put down the number of chickens.  

We can come up with a figure by estimating that  each chicken was worth 25 cents.  Using the value of the poultry of $2,850 and figuring them as worth 25 cents each, the county would have had an estimated 11,200 chickens at that time.  

The number of horses and mules seems to me to be a very low amount. Horses and mules were used to pull plows, pull wagons and for personal transportation. With figures of 240,603 pounds of cotton gathered and 54,830 bushels of corn gathered, there had to be large amounts of land being plowed.  

I wonder if some of the cattle in the 1840 census were used as oxen to pull plows.

There are several unusual figures in this data.  One of them is the number of pounds of wax produced that year.  I believe this figure represents the domestic raising of bees for honey.  The wax from the beehives would have been processed and purified in order to make candles or crayons or maybe some types of polishes.  

Another strange item is that Effingham County produced 231 pounds of silk cocoons.  The Salzburgers raised silk worms and produced the largest amount of silk cocoons on the Eastern Seaboard of the United States prior to the American Revolution.  

The art of raising and unraveling the silk cocoons nearly vanished by the time the British forces occupied Ebenezer in 1779. But by 1840, someone in Effingham County was still carrying on this lost art. Since I have seen actual silk cocoons,I know they are very small, each one weighing only grams. It would take a very large set up of silk worm raising to produce 231 pounds of silk cocoons.  I wonder if some of the silk items still around in the collections of Effingham County families today could be from this time?

Another interesting fact from this data was that there were only four retail dry goods, grocery and other stores recorded as being operated in the county in 1840.  This data shows 21 men worked in the mills.  These were water powered saw mills and grits mills. This data showed eight houses were built in 1840 and it was the occupation of 12 men who built them. I assume that the 7,786 cords of wood sold was used as firewood.  

It looks like our ancestors ate very well. They produced plenty of meat, corn and potatoes, rice, bread from the wheat ground and with the number of pounds of sugar produced that year there must have been a lot of cakes and pies baked.  

I hope that you find this historical data as interesting as I did.

Norman V. Turner

Research and data compiled by Norman V. Turner.  If you have comments, photos or topics to share for this column, please email susanexley@historiceffingham.org or call her at 754-6681.