The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 59, July 1955 - April, 1956 Page: 152
587 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
ing to the occupational census of 186o, only 59 per cent of all
Texans gainfully employed considered themselves ranchers, farm-
ers, planters, gardeners, nurserymen, ranch hands, or agricul-
tural laborers. Eleven per cent were reportedly engaged in the
professions, in business, or in transportation services while to
per cent claimed occupations in manufacturing or mechanical
and building trades.2 Doubtlessly some persons reported occupa-
tions which they practiced in their former homes, but not in
Texas at the time the census was taken, and other persons named
crafts which they combined with agriculture, for where everyone
farms a person is likely to be identified with some less common
trade. While the extent to which the non-agrarian third of the
population actually engaged in their reported vocations is a matter
of conjecture, it is nonetheless apparent that many Texans re-
garded agriculture as a temporary expedient-they meant to woo
fortune not by the art of husbandry, but by selling land, goods,
and services to the practitioners of that art.
Only 40 per cent of the 1,ooo Texans who claimed manufac-
turing, mechanical, or building trades in 186o were associated
with what the United States Census Bureau designated "factories,"
that is, establishments producing at least five hundred dollars
worth of manufactured goods during the census year. Yet it is not
to be supposed that of 1,29o Texans calling themselves black-
smiths, only the 361 employed in factories actually laid hammer
to anvil, or that of 397 shoemakers only the 90 in boot-and-shoe
factories wielded the awl. More than two-thirds of the state's 178
coach-makers worked either individually or in small shops, for
Texas carriage factories reported only 49 "hands," some of whom
may have been unskilled or semi-skilled helpers. Not more than
11 of the state's 67 silversmiths and 3 of its 10o9 gunsmiths worked
in factories, and none of its 48 cigar-makers. Again, there were
24 Texans who called themselves woolen manufacturers, but only
two woolen goods establishments met the census definition of
2Compendium of the Ninth Census, 92-97; U. S. Census, i86o, I, pp. xvi, 486-487,
49o-491. Thirteen per cent of Texas' working population, reported simply as agents,
apprentices, bookkeepers, clerks, laborers, and overseers, should be classified in one
or another of the above categories, including agriculture. Another 7 per cent were in
occupations not related to these groups, such as actors, barbers, laundresses, and
servants. Ibid., I, 490-491.1,52
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 59, July 1955 - April, 1956, periodical, 1956; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101162/m1/170/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.