The Challenge for this post was to write about an ancestor in a Non-Population Census- agriculture, industry, manufactures, or 1890 Union Veterans. These census were taken in 1860, 70, and 80. Not all are available on line. I was able to find this one on ancestry.com.

This was quite a challenge for me. I had originally thought I would base this weeks blog on an ancestor I have yet to write about, but alas I was unable to find one that fits this weeks challenge so instead I will write about one that was not a farmer but was listed under “manufactures”.

In the 1880 US Non-Population census Joseph Booth, my 2x great grandfather, was listed as a “Carriage Manufacture” in Castleton, Richmond county (Staten Island), New York.

Since the above document was a little hard to read (reminder: click on images to enlarge) here is the transcription for the above document. Booth, Joseph is on the third line in the above document.

The interesting facts that are found here are not only that Joseph had a viable business  in 1880 but that he paid wages in the amount of $2.00 a day for skilled workers and  75 cents for unskilled laborers. The work day is shown as 10 hours. The number of employees is listed as 2 and in the 1880 US Census we see that Joseph Booth’s two older sons, George (20 years of age) is listed as a Black Smith, and Walter (18) is listed as a Carriage Smith. They are most probably Joseph Booths two employees.

In the 1860 US census at the age of 23, the 1865 New York State census age 29, the 1870 US census age 34, the  1875 New York Census age 38, and the 1900 US census Joseph Booth age 63 is listed as a Blacksmith. In the 1900 census he is shown being out of work for 6 months. I certainly hope that he did not put in 10 hours a day for the 50 years that he was a Black Smith.

To read more see my earlier blog about Joseph Booth.