Approximately 13,970 Westchester County Residents Lived in the Area Annexed by New York City in 1895

Please Visit the Historic Pelham Web Site
Located at http://www.historicpelham.com/.
Please Click Here for Index to All Blog Postings.

While researching other Pelham-related issues, I recently ran across a fascinating tidbit in a tiny reference published in the August 25, 1900 issue of the New-York Tribune. In a lengthy item detailing growth of the population of the Bronx, there is a brief reference to an estimate of the number of Westchester County residents (including Pelham residents) who lived within the area annexed by New York City at the time of annexation. I have excerpted the pertinent information from the material below.

"BRONX POPULATION INCREASE.

THAT BOROUGH SHOWS A GROWTH OF 127 PER CENT IN LAST DECADE.

To the Editor of The Tribune.

Sir: Herewith I send you a statement in regard to the population of New-York City, which I am ready to verify and which I think ought to be published in justice to the Borough of The Bronx, as showing the great increase in its population:

* * * * * * *

BOROUGH OF THE BRONX.

In 1890 the territory now known as the Borough of The Bronx consisted of the Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth wards of the city and county of New-York, and the town of West Chester, part of the town of East Chester and part of the town of Pelham of the county of Westchester. In 1890 the Eleventh Census showed the population of the Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth wards of the city and county of New-York to be 74,085, and that portion of Westcchester above mentioned, and which was annexed to the city and county of New-York in 1895 and made a part of the Borough of The Bronx in 1898, to be as nearly as can be approximated 13,970, making a total of 88,085 in the territory now known as the Borough of The Bronx. The census of 1900 gives the population of the Borough of The Bronx as 209,507. The numerical increase during the decade is 112,452, or 127.70 per cent.

* * * * * *

JAMES L. WELLS.
No. 141 Broadway, New-York, Aug. 21, 1900."

Source: Bronx Population Increase, New-York Tribune, Aug. 25, 1900, p. 12, col. 2.

Please Visit the Historic Pelham Web Site
Located at http://www.historicpelham.com/.
Please Click Here for Index to All Blog Postings.

Excerpt of 1917 Report to Board of Education Regarding Distribution of Student Population in Pelham

Please Visit the Historic Pelham Web Site
Located at http://www.historicpelham.com/.

Please Click Here for Index to All Blog Postings.

In 1918, Teachers' College, Columbia University, published a doctoral dissertation by N. L. Engelhardt entitled "A School Building Program For Cities". In it, the author quoted an interesting excerpt of a report on the geographical distribution of the student population within the Town of Pelham in 1917. The pertinent portion of the dissertation has been excerpted and transcribed below, followed by a citation to its source.

"3. GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF POPULATION

Dot maps illustrating densities of total population and of school population show frequently no conformity in the distributions. In other words, density of child population does not shift with density of total population. This was borne out clearly in the school building program as laid out by Strayer and Trabue for the community [Page 32 / Page 33 and Part of Page 34 Contain Unrelated Table / Page 34] of Pelham, N. Y., in May, 1917. The following is an excerpt from their report 15 [Footnote 15 Reads: "15 Unpublished."] to the Board of Education.

During the five-year period between the federal census of 1910 and the state census of 1915, the population of the town of Pelham increased from 2,998 persons to 3,782 -- an increase of twenty-six per cent. That section of the town lying north of the New Haven Railroad, known as the village of North Pelham, increased during this period from 1,311 to 1,874 persons -- an increase of forty-three per cent. The Pelham Heights section had a sixteen per cent increase during this five-year period, while the Pelham Manor section increased only eleven per cent. The best estimate we have been able to make of the present distribution of population indicates that there are very nearly 4,000 persons now living in the town, half of them living north and half of them living south of the New Haven Railroad. It may reasonably be expected that the town of Pelham will contain 6,000 persons by the year 1925. Under normal circumstances this would mean that school accommodations would be necessary for at least 1,200 pupils by that time.

From information furnished by the pupils who attended the school on Monday, May 14, we find that the afverage family supplying children for the schools from the Pelham Manor and Pelham Heights sections, contains 4.7 persons. The average school family in that section of North Pelham, known as Pelhamwood, contains 3.9 persons, while the average family supplying the schools from the remainder of North Pelham contains 5.5 persons. The average [Page 34 / Page 35] family in general throughout New York State and the United States as a whole, was composed in 1910 of about 4.5 persons. The small size of the Pelhamwood families is partly due to the fact that this section is being developed just now, and that the great majority of those who are building homes here are young people whose families may be expected to reach the normal size during the next ten years. The problem of elementary school accommodations for the children of Pelhamwood will probably become most urgent in about five years."

Source: Engelhardt, N. L., A School Building Program for Cities, pp. 32-36 (NY, NY: Teachers' College, Columbia University 1918) (Ph.D. dissertation published as part of series: "Teachers College, Columbia University Contributions to Education, No. 96).

Please Visit the Historic Pelham Web Site
Located at http://www.historicpelham.com/.
Please Click Here for Index to All Blog Postings.