27 May 1828: "Girls beyond the power of enumeration"

On this day in 1828, the Athenian newspaper published this bit of local demographic data:

 

This population estimate seems to be for within the city limits of Athens, which was only a few blocks of downtown and the streets around North Campus at the time. The U.S. Census total population count for Clarke County in 1830 was much higher, 10,176 people. According to the 2010 U. S. Census, Athens-Clarke County has 115,424 residents. 

The numbers of carriages was an indicator of wealth, as was, apparently, the number of marriageable widows in town. A more accurate indicator can be found in the county tax records, where from 1819 to 1829, tax revenue in Clarke County increased by nearly 35%.

The University of Georgia was referred to as "Franklin College" in its early years. In 1828, total student population was 105 young white men. Women would not be admitted as undergraduates for another 90 years; African-Americans not for another 133 years. Today, the number of students at UGA's Athens campus is nearly 34,000, with a ratio of women to men of 58% to 42%, still pretty good odds for most male students.

Learn More:

• Athenian January 26, 1827 - March 13, 1832 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Athens Historical Newspaper Archive collection in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• Antebellum Athens and Clarke County, Georgia by Ernest C. Hynds in the Heritage and general collections.
• Clarke County, Georgia Tax Digests, 1811-1820, transcribed by Mary Hoit Abbe, in the Heritage and general collections.
• Clarke County, Georgia Tax Digests, 1821-1830, transcribed by Mary Hoit Abbe, in the Heritage and general collections.
• College Life in the Old South by E. Merton Coulter in the Heritage and general collections.
• The University of Georgia Under Sixteen Administrations by Robert Preston Brooks in the Heritage collection.
• The University of Georgia: A Bicentennial History, 1785-1985 by Thomas G. Dyer in the Heritage and general collections.
• Daily Life on the Nineteenth Century American Frontier by Mary Ellen Jones in the Reference and general collections.
• Atlas of Historical Geography of the United States by Charles Oscar Paullin the Heritage collection.
• The Next Hundred Million: America in 2050 by Joel Kotkin in the New Books collection.
• Way Off the Road: Discovering the Peculiar Charms of Small-Town America by Bill Geist in the general collection.
• American FactFinder on the U. S. Census Bureau website.
• U. S. News & World Reports review of the University of Georgia.