The 1870 census collected much of the same information on the population of the United States with the addition of two questions (numbers 19 and 20) under the heading of “Constitutional Relations.”

Male citizen of the U. S. of 21 years of age and upwards. Yes or No

Male citizen of the U. S. of 21 years of age and upwards, whose right to vote is denied or abridged on other grounds than rebellion or other crimes. Yes or No

The instructions to enumerators reflect the situation as a result of the Civil War.

Upon the answers to [these questions] . . . will depend the distribution of representative power in the General Government. It is therefore imperative that this part of the enumeration should be performed with absolute accuracy. Every male person born within the United States, who has attained the age of 21 years, is a citizen of the United States by the force of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution; also, all persons born out of the limits and jurisdiction of the United States, whose fathers at the time of their birth were citizens of the United States (act of February 10,1855); also, all persons born out of the limits and jurisdiction of the United States, who have been declared by judgment of court to have been duly naturalized, having taken out both ‘‘papers.’’

The part of the enumerator’s duty which relates to column 19 is therefore easy, but it is none the less of importance. It is a matter of more delicacy to obtain the information required by column 20. Many persons never try to vote, and therefore do not know whether their right to vote is or is not abridged. It is not only those whose votes have actually been challenged, and refused at the polls for some disability or want of qualification, who must be reported in this column; but all who come within the scope of any State law denying or abridging suffrage to any class or individual on any other ground than the participation in rebellion, or legal conviction of crime. Assistant marshals, therefore, will be required carefully to study the laws of their own States in these respects, and to satisfy themselves, in the case of each male citizen of the United States above the age of 21 years, whether he does not, come within one of these classes.

As the fifteenth amendment to the Constitution, prohibiting the exclusion from the suffrage of any person on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude, has become the law of the land, all State laws working such exclusion have ceased to be of virtue. If any person is, in any State, still practically denied the right to vote by reason of any such State laws not repealed, that denial is merely an act of violence, of which the courts may have cognizance, but which does not come within the view of marshals and their assistants in respect to the census. (Measuring America: The decennial censuses from 1790-2000, US Census Bureau, 2002).

The population in Benezette was the largest to date in 1870, numbering 897 individuals in 120 households. Many families had single men staying with them, perhaps as boarders. While children, both male and female, continue to be a large age group (about 21 percent), they are overshadowed by the large increase in the number of men ages 20-29 who also make up about 21 percent of the population.

Unlike previous censuses, where males and females made up nearly equal proportions, males have surged far ahead in 1870, outnumbering females by more than two to one. Females hold a similar advantage in the youngest age group age 0-19.

Most of the men, specifically 349 out of 368, age 20 to 50 worked in the category simply called “laborer.” Whether they worked on a farm or a railroad or in the woods, a mine, a tannery or a mill is unclear, but they had clearly come to Benezette to take advantage of the opportunities. Other occupations, such as blacksmith (there were 4), carpenter (4) and wagon and harness makers (1 each) supported the laborers. Some new occupations also appeared; there was now a minister and a physician. There were two “landlords” and two “landladies.” There were “clerks” in the stores (2) and at the railroad (1) and six “retired merchants.”

Women were also working for pay. In addition to the “landladies,” four women were working as “domestic servants,” typically in large households with what are assumed to be not only family but boarders. A new category that represents most unpaid women’s work is simply called “keeping house;” 108 of the 132 women more than 20 years of age have this occupation.

More than 41 percent of the population was born someplace other than the United States, a reflection of migration patterns common during the Industrial Revolution. Within the foreign-born population, more than 55 percent were from Ireland. Of the population born in the United States, Pennsylvania was by far the most common birthplace at 85 percent. New York and Maine accounted for 13 percent (7 and 6 percent respectively).