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THE FIRST TAX LIST

     The list bears the date of 1839 and it being the first one prepared for the county and not being very voluminous it is well worth preservation because it shows who the first tax-payers were, the rate of levy and the available revenues of the county:

The following pages have been scanned and placed as images to view, click on the thumbnails to view full size.

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362       363     these are fairly large files.

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     By examination of this list it will be seen that but fifty-nine persons paid a tax amounting to one dollar; fourteen paid a tax amounting to two dollars or over, and but three persons paid three dollars or over. John Brier seems to have been the capitalist of those days, as he had property estimated at $795, and was assessed a tax of $3.92 1/2; this was the highest tax paid by any one in the county.
     Next follows Daniel Powers, whose property was valued at $708, and his tax amounted to $3.54, and who had the honor of being the next to the heaviest tax payer in the county.
     Out of this list of over two hundred and fifty names, but twenty-five are marked paid, or less than ten per cent. It is safe to presume that the remainder of the tax was allowed to become delinquent, and was collected as the delinquent tax is now collected.
     In addition to this, there was the same year levied a poll-tax of seventy-five cents, amounting in all to $141, consequently the entire revenues of the county for the first year after its organization, arising from taxation, amounted to $281.14 1/2; provided the tax levy was all collected, which is very

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improbable, since people in those days were even more migratory than now, and it is safe to presume that many left without rendering to Caesar his dues.
     To illustrate how the revenues increased, the fact is again referred to, that in 1841 there was collected for taxes the sum of $388.65.
     It would be an interesting study to examine the gradual and continued increase of revenue by taxation from the first to the present time, and by comparing this increase with the increase of population, determine how the one has kept pace with the other. In doing this we should doubtless be surprised to find that while the increase in population from one year to another has been almost unparalleled, nevertheless those who did levy taxes and those who did appropriate them fully, kept pace with the onward march of events.
     In 1870 the total valuation of all property in the county was $4,885,989; the total tax levy was $188,821.91, and of this levy $97,544.18 was for railroads.
     In 1875 the total valuation was $5,455,819; the total levy was $125,365.81, a reduction of some $63,000, owing to the fact that the levy for railroad bonds was but $43,733.70, against $97,544.18 in the year 1870, or a reduction in this item alone of some $50,000.
     In 1878 the total valuation was $5,505,922; the levy was $135,131.20, an increase of some $10,000, while the levy for railroads was but $34,931.20, or some $10,000 less than in the year 1875.
     The levy for a number of yers has been about ten mills for the usual and inevitable county and state expenses, seldom, if ever, any less, and usuall a trifle more. For the years 1878 and 1879 it was as follows:

     The amount raised by taxation, in the county, during the past four years, was the very respectable sum of five hundred and forty thousand, five hundred and twenty-one dollars and sixty-two cents ($540,521.62), or about ten per cent of the total valuation of 1879. The specific purposes to which this money was appropriated during this time were as follows: [see image 361 thru 365]

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