[1]. Census of March, 1885.
TOWNS AND CITIES.
In 1860 there were only ten towns and cities in Kansas having a population in excess of 500 each; only three having over 1,000 each; and only one having over 5,000 inhabitants. In 1880, ninety-nine towns each had a population in excess of 500; fifty-five towns and cities had each over 1,000 inhabitants; six had each over 5,000; and three had over 15,000 each. In 1885, each of one hundred and fifty-four towns had over 500 population; ninety-one towns and cities had each over 1,000; twelve had each over 5,000; six had each over 10,000; four had each over 15,000; and two had each more than 20,000.
ORIGIN AND CHARACTER OF THE POPULATION.
The origin and character of the population in Kansas is, in this connection, worthy of special note. Every State in the Union and every Territory except Alaska, contributed to the population of this State. The United States census of 1880 shows that 233,066 persons born in Kansas were then living in the State. The singular fact that native-born Kansans were then living in every State and Territory, is shown by the same authority. Illinois contributed 106,992 to our population; Ohio, 93,396; Indiana, 77,096; Missouri, 60,228; Pennsylvania, 59,236; Iowa, 55,972; New York, 43,779, and Kentucky, 32,979. Three other States, Tennessee, Virginia, and Wisconsin, each contributed over 15,000; and all others less than that number.
The same authority shows that the so-called “exodus” from the South has been greatly exaggerated, Louisiana and Mississippi furnishing only 4,067 of our colored population, while nearly 19,000 came from the three States of Kentucky, Missouri, and Tennessee.
The colored people constitute, at the present time, less than four per cent. of our total population, and the inhabitants of foreign birth a little more than ten per cent. of the total.
THE MATERIAL RESOURCES OF KANSAS.
The growth of our State in population has not, however, equalled the development of its material resources. The United States census of 1880 shows that while Kansas, at that date, ranked as the twentieth State in population, it was the eighth State in the number and value of its live stock, the seventeenth in farm products, the fourteenth in value of farm products per capita, the twentieth in wealth, the thirteenth in education, the seventeenth in the amount of its indebtedness, State and municipal, and the twenty-fourth in manufactures. Only one State, Nebraska, shows a smaller proportion of persons unable to read and write. And in twenty-eight of the forty-seven States and Territories, taxation, per capita, was greater than it is in Kansas.
In 1880 Kansas was the sixth corn-producing State of the Union. Only Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Indiana and Ohio, then produced larger crops of this cereal. But the corn product of Kansas, that year, was only 101,421,718 bushels, while for the year 1885 it was 194,130,814 bushels, or nearly double the crop of 1880.