[No census from 1840 is available.]

The 1850 census was the first to list everyone in a household by name. The age, sex, race, profession or occupation and place of birth were included for each person, so more detailed biographical and demographic analysis were possible. The value of real estate was noted for each individual. There were also questions about school attendance and whether the individual was “deaf and dumb, blind, insane, idiotic, pauper, or convict.”

In the 1850 census for Benezette Township, Elk County, PA, there were 332 people in 48 households.

Men slightly outnumber women 52 to 48 percent. It is definitely a youthful population with 35 percent under the age of 10; 59 percent is under age 20. About a third are in the middle ages of 20-49. People over age 50 make up 7 percent.

Two-thirds of the men listed their occupation as “farmer;” no distinction was made between the farm owner and the farmhands who worked but did not own a farm. Most of the remaining one-third were “laborers” who probably worked in the woods. Some very useful occupations were also present: a blacksmith (forged useful items of iron such as nails, hinges, tools, chains), a carpenter, a cooper (someone who makes barrels, kegs, buckets of wooden staves), a millwright (typically someone who builds waterpowered grist and saw mills but who is not a mill operator or owner), and a surveyor. 

William Lane, b 24 Mar 1804 (Leeds, England), d 13 Feb 1856 (Mason Hill Cemetery, Cameron County, PA). Departed St. John, New Brunswick on ship Henry Robert and arrived in Philadelphia 29 July 1833.[1] At the time of the census, William was married to Sarah Lane, both age 46. Their oldest children, Rachael, Mary, and William J, ages 16 to 24, were like their parents, born in England. The younger children, Joseph, Sarah Ann [Cole], Lydia L, Robert and Hugh [Bourn], ages 3 to 13, were born in Pennsylvania.

A H Gray, b 1824. According to the census, he was married within the year (1850) to Emeline Gray, age 22, who was listed below him on the census form. At that time, the newly-wed Grays were listed in the household of Thomas and Betsey Dent, age 63 and 59. Also in this household was:

Roxa Dent, age 10

Susan Dent, age 18

Ellen Dent, age 20

Thomas Dent, Jr, age 29

Daniel Knee, a cooper, was born in Germany about 1816. At the time of the census he lived with his wife, Sarah, age 26, and their two children, John, age 2 and Mary R, about age 1. Sarah and the children had all been born in Pennsylvania.

Ebenezer Brown, a 35-year-old carpenter, was in the household of Hezekiah Mix, a farmer, at the time of the census. Mix, age 33, and Almy, age 26, also had two daughters, Nancy E and Eliza Ann, ages 3 and 1.

Surveyor John Brooks lived with his growing family at the time of the census. He was born in Pennsylvania in 1817 (age 33), as was his wife, Martha, also age 33, and their five children, Victor A, Mary A, Marcillus J B, Margaret A L, and Martha J. Victor, the oldest, was 8; Martha, the youngest was just one.

[1] The National Archives at Washington, D.C.; Washington, D.C.; Series Title: Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Record Group Title: Records of the United States Customs Service, 1745-1997; Record Group Number: 36; Series: M425; Roll: 48