It was a sunny day in Sonoma, California, on April 6, 1940, and
census taker Alice Davis was off on her rounds enumerating the
people of Sonoma, California, for the permanent record of the
1940 U.S. census. Little did she know that she was about to
become “the first census-taker casualty in northern California.”
As this old news article reports: “The enumerator was attacked
by three large Airedale dogs when she attempted to take the tab
at the Sonoma home of Carl Bergfried, retired San Francisco
merchant. “Bergfried, who was not at home at the time, returned
to find Mrs. Davis battling valiantly against the enraged
animals. He took her to Ferndale sanatorium where 50 stitches
were required to close her wounds.” Published in the San Diego
Union (San Diego, California), 7 April 1940, page 11. The
determined Alice completed the enumeration, and Carl Bergfried
and his wife Ida were recorded in the 1940 census. But the
formal, dry federal census pages do not tell us of the sacrifice
that Alice Davis made that day.