A Look At Wilton, Ct. in 1860

Population: 2208
Male: 1049 Female: 1159 In School During Past Year: 577 Married During Last Year: 33 Born During Last Year: 43 Died During Last Year: 9 Free Black: 24 Under 20, Can't Read or Write: 4

Introduction

Having the 1860 census for Wilton on the computer in spread sheet form, it was an unavoidable temptation to sort out and sum up various types of data to get a picture of the town in those days in a statistical or graphic form. Thus, the charts which follow.

G. Evans Hubbard, the founder and first editor of the Bulletin and early president of the Wilton Historical Society, did much the same analysis of the 1860 census by hand in the early 1900's and included it in his "History of Wilton", drafts of which are stored in the History Room of the Wilton Library. In his narrative, he was able to enhance the raw numbers with much detail taken from his knowledge of the people and neighborhoods of that era. His discussion is presented in quotation marks along with pertinent charts.

Hubbard's History was first printed in regular installments in The Bulletin in the late 1930's and was again reprinted in sections in the late 1980's.

The data is shown in three parts:

The People

Their Farms

Their Industries