SOLON ROBINSON, 1847 63 



governed in this as in case of the valuation of lands — 

 For instance, Cows were $15 or $20 a piece. The per- 

 sonal property tax amounted to $521. — The total $2002. 

 It is needless to say that much of this was never col- 

 lected. The owners of land would not pay & quite a 

 number of the floating population, floated out of reach of 

 the collector, before pay day. — Luman A. Fowler was the 

 first collector. The floating and unsettled nature of the 

 settlers of a new country is aptly illustrated by the first 

 settlers of this county — for of the 249 persons who were 

 assessed here only ten years ago, eighty only remain and 

 twenty-seven have died here — so that 142 have rolled on 

 in that irresistable wave of Western emigration, that 

 never will cease till it meets the resisting wave of the 

 Western ocean which will cause the mighty tide to react 

 upon itself until all the mountain sides and fertile plains 

 of Mexico & Oregon are teeming with the Anglo Saxon 

 race. 



The usual mode of estimating the number of inhabi- 

 tants, is to multiply those assessed, which are mostly 

 heads of families, by five — This would make the popula- 

 tion in the spring of 1837 about 1245. In 1840 the U. S. 

 census was taken by Lewis Warriner — it was then 1468 — 

 Now let us examine the assessment of 1846 — There were 

 600 persons assessed, and I am aware of several who were 

 not included — This would give us a population of up- 

 wards of 3000 in the spring of 1846 — Of the men assessed 

 last spring, seventeen have since died — this at the rate of 

 about 2 1/2 per cent per annum and would give 75 or 80 

 as the total number of deaths in the county the last year. 

 I have no means of ascertaining the truth. I will give the 

 names of those whom I know have died — They are : Isa- 

 iah L. Beebe, David Currin, Doct. Joseph F. Greene, 

 Thomas Henderson, Myiel Pierce, John R. Simmons, 

 Thomas Gibson, Jeremiah Green, John Hack, Jr., Corne- 

 lius F. Cooke, Judge Samuel Turner, Mr. Hollingshead, 

 Mr. S. C. Beebe, David E. Bryant & Mr. Miller, Royal 

 Barton, John Smith, Mr. Lathrop, Ambrose Williams, a 



