Seattle's School Census Explodes: One Year Beats Five
Clerk W. H. Taylor counts 2,675 children under 21 in District No. 1—a one-year jump of 798 that the paper calls proof of the Queen City's rapid rise.
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A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The school census of District No. 1, King County, which includes the city of Seattle, was taken by W. H. Taylor, the clerk, during the latter part of July, and the results are stated below. The census is divided into two parts, one including children between the ages of 4 and 21 years, and the other the children under 4 years of age.
In 1883 there were 2,675 children under 21 in the district, an increase of 798 over the 1,877 of 1882. The number of children of school age—between 4 and 21—rose from 1,384 to 2,009, an increase of 625; children under 4 rose from 498 to 666, an increase of 173.
It will be noticed that in the two classes the disparity between the sexes has been strangely reversed during the last year: the little girls outnumbered the boys last year by 46, while this year the little boys have a majority of 22. And again the big boys last year exceeded the big girls to the number of 34, while the big girls of 1883 number 41 more than the boys. In 1881 the whole number of girls exceeded the whole number of boys by 6; in 1882 by 7; and in 1883 by 19.
A comparison of this year's figures with those of previous years will not be uninteresting. The total under 21 was 1,171 in 1877, 1,267 in 1878, 1,341 in 1879, 1,462 in 1880, 1,581 in 1881, 1,877 in 1882, and 2,675 in 1883. Six years' increase: 1,504. The school children of the city increased in number more during the past year than during the first five years combined—their combined increase being 706, against 798 for the one year alone. The children of school age numbered 410 in 1873, 549 in 1874, 1,093 in 1880, 1,170 in 1881, 1,384 in 1882, and 2,009 in 1883.
Official and reliable statements like the foregoing indicate most forcibly the rapidity of growth of the Queen City of the North Pacific.
“The school children of the city increased in number more during the past year than during the first five years combined.”
School enrollment was the census of its day: a single number that told Seattleites their town was becoming a city. The 798-child jump in one year prefigured the booms that kept reshaping Seattle schools, housing, and neighborhoods.
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