1890

The blackbirds have organized a camp, roost or conclave of some kind in the eastern part of the town of Washington, Ills,. which is something remarkable.  They have assembled in countless numbers, and the noise and racket which they keep up and the whirring of their wings have become very troublesome.  The Mayor has given permission to shoot the birds, and thousands are slaughtered every evening, the time when they concentrate.  Strange to say, the shooting does not seem to frighten or disturb them in the least, nor do their numbers seem to diminish.  These blackbird camps are quite common in Illinois, but one of such magnitude as this is rarely seen. - Chicago Herald - January 1890

Asa Danforth, the patriarch of the family, passed away in late November.

The 1890 Federal Census gives the population of the City of Washington as 1,301 people, a drop of 96 people from 1880 and the lowest population Washington had seen since the 1850s.  Our population was smaller than Eureka at the time.

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