Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 April 1878 — Massachusetts Wives and Mothers. [ARTICLE]

Massachusetts Wives and Mothers.

The statistician of Massachusetts is nothing if not curious and thorough, and, therefore, it is not strange to find in the ninth annual report of the Bureau of Statistics some curious facts as to the conjugal condition of mothers, the percentage of married woman with and without children, and the ages of married women and mothers. The total number of women in Massachusetts who are or have been married is 398,750, and the number who have become mothers is 309,520. The statistics show that there are in the State 440 single mothers, 325 native and 115 foreign born ; 247,662 married, 152,299 native and 95,363 foreign born ; 60,485 widowed, 37,106 native, and 23,379 foreign born ; 1,160 divorced, 1,040 native and 129 foreign born. A total of 309,756 mothers ; 190,770 native and 118,756 foreign born. The number of native-born married women is 154,531, and the number of foreign born 144,228. The whole number that have become mothers is 309,759, of which 190,663 are native and 119,096 are foreign born. The total number of married women not mothers is 89,000, of which 63,869 are native bom and 25,132 are of foreign birth. The heat with which the claim fever is raging this session in Congress is illustrated by a bill which Congressman Goode, of Virginia, has introduced to pay the heirs of ex-President James Monroe a few hundred dollars alleged to be due him for services as Lieutenant Colonel of Virginia militia in 1779, during the Revolutionary war, also half pay from the time he left the army until his death in 1831.