The 1850 Federal Census includes a table of churches and church property. The actual number of members for each church is not listed, but the number of each kind of church along with the number of seats and the total value of church property is recorded by county.

Here are the numbers for Washington county:

The first number is the number of churches, the second is the aggregate accomodations (seats), and the third is the total dollar value of the church property.

Baptist:     17     7,425     39,000
Christian:
Congregational:     1     250     1,700
Dutch Reformed:     3     1,550     12,000
Episcopal:     5     1,300     8,100
Free:
Friends:     4     2,200     3,300
German Reformed:
Jewish:
Lutheran:
Mennonite:
Methodist:     23     9,855     44,100
Moravian:     1     300     2,000
Presbyterian:     25     12,880     128,256
Roman Catholic:     2     700     6,300
Swededborgian:
Union:      2     450     1,500
Unitarian:
Universalist:     1     300     1,500
Minor Sects:
Total:     113     55,270     327,400

Presbyterians, Methodists, and Baptists were clearly the largest.
As far as I know, no earlier federal censuses recorded this information.

Rachel Rubin
Researcher
Encyclopedia of New York State

>>> [log in to unmask] 02/02/02 02:24PM >>>
I would very much appreciate it if someone could advise me about what the
religious demographics of Washington County may have been around 1825-1850.
What proportions of the population were members of which kinds of churches?
And, secondarily, if the ministers in that area during that era were
theological seminary-trained, which seminaries might they have attended.

Thanks,

Linda Crannell