Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 6.djvu/325

 FRENCH

FRENCH

Distribution of French American::

Foreign- born.

Maine 30,908.

New Hampshire 44,420.

Vermont 14,924.

Of Foreign Parentage.

57,682 73,359 40,097

Massachusetts 134,416 244,586

Rhode Island 31,533 55,771

Connecticut 19,174 36,867

New York 27,199 69,236

New Jersey 1,118 2,140

Pennsylvania 1,468 3,603

Totals for North At

lantic Division 305,160 583,341

Delaware 41 77

Marj'land 87 178

District of Colimibia 97 236

Virginia 104 194

West Virginia 72 165

North Carolina 36 69

South Carolina 31 56

Georgia 80 203

Florida 88 200

Totals for South At

lantic Division 636 1,378

Ohio 2,903 7,034

Indiana 948 3,242

Illinois 9,129 24,477

Michigan 32,483 75,584

Wisconsm 10,091 27,981

Minnesota 12,063 32,406

Missouri 1,059 3,536

Iowa 1,519 5,613

North Dakota 3,162 6,512

South Dakota 1,138 3,516

Nebraska 1,039 3,003

Kansas 1,485 5,547

Totals for North Cen ■

tral Division 77,019 198,451

Kentucky 136 397

Tennessee 119 312

Alabama 89 211

Mississippi 75 141

Texas 400 1,004

Louisiana 253 759

Indian Territory 48 173

Oklahoma 179 702

Arkansas 161 411

Totals for South Cen-

tral Division 1,460 4,110

Montana 3,516 5,725

Wyoming 150 385

Colorado 960 2,300

NewMe-xico 84 270

Arizona 153 264

Utah 128 505

Nevada 222 486

Idaho 395 846

Washington 1,899 3,862

Oregon 874 2,169

California 2,410 5,392

Totals for Western

Division 10,791.

22,204

The figures given for Louisiana are, of coiu-.se, exclusive of all other inhabitants of French extraction ; those relating to California are exclusive of the large population of immigrants from France established m that State, more especially in the city of San Francisco. There were also, 115 persons of French Canadian parentage in Alaska, and 4 in Hawaii, besides 502 persons of the same parentage in the military and naval service of the United States, stationed abroad and not credited to any State or Territory. Com- bining with these small figures the totals for the five VI.— IS

divisions given in the last column of the table, we get the grand total of 810,105 persons of French Canadian parentage living under the United States Flag. But these figures only represent the first and second genera- tions, i. e. original immigrants still living, and their immediate descendants. In this connexion the director of the census says: "A small number of the persons reported as of foreign birth, are themselves of native parentage, so that, to a very small e.xtent, the number of persons of foreign birth reported at each census is not included in its entirety in the num- ber of persons reported as of foreign parentage. The figures are sufficiently comparable, however, to .show the large body of population which must be added to the foreign born element itself in order to ascertain, even appro.ximately, the number of persons of foreign extraction at any of the census periods considered. Moreover, this is the best figure that can be given as expressing the element of our population which is of foreign extraction, as the census inquiry does not go beyond the immediate parents of each person enu- merated, and it is impracticable, at least imder present conditions, to endeavor to determine the origin of the people beyond a single generation."

It is obvious, that an inciuiry which does not go beyond the immediate ancestors of each person enum- erated cannot convey an exact idea of the real number of those who may still be distinctly classified as French Americans, even though both of their parents may have been born in the United States. And when it is remembered that the French Canadians were early settlers in the northern part of the State of New York, that they were, practically, the first settlers of the State of Maine, and had found their w-ay into Vermont as early as 1S30; that French Canadians were the pioneers of the Wcsti rii Stufcs. where they founded, or assisted in foundinu. i;ri:ii cities like Chicago, St. Louis, St. Paul, Duliu>|iic, .Milwaukee, and Detroit, it is not difficult to undcrstami that in certain parts of the country at least three generations of French Americans have been recorded by the census of 1900 as native whites of native parents. How far short of the actual number of French Americans are the figures of the National Census, may be estimated by con- sidering the local eiuunerations taken in the New England States since 1900, with the following results:

Maine 91,567

New Hampshire 84,011

Vermont 58,217

Massachusetts 366,879

Rhode Island 76,775

Connecticut 46,083

Total 723,532

These figures, compared with the tot^l (508,362) of those given in the Census of 1900 for the same six States, show an excess of the local over the national enumeration of 215,170 persons, or more than 42.3 per cent, for New England alone. This excess, ex- plained in part by the fact that the census inquiry of 1900 was limited to only two generations, is also at- triljutable to the continuous flow of immigration and in greater measure to the large birth-rate which is still mamtained among the French Americans, it having been scientifically established that the French Cana- dians — at least in Canada — double their numbers by natural increase every twenty-six years. Taking into consideration the increase (42.3 per cent) shown by the enumerations in New England over the figures given by the National Census, and also bearing in mind the fact that the figures quoted above do not include the French from France (reported as being 265,441 by the census of 1900) and the French-speak- ing Belgians, scattered throughout other States than those of New England, we may conclude that the French Americans in the United States to-day number