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Who let the dogs out? That question was on many minds as town committeemen met at the Globe Hotel in Shrewsbury Township, N.J., in 1887. Minutes of that meeting show that the township would be paying out less money in damages during 1887 to owners whose livestock had been killed or injured by neighborhood dogs than it did in 1886.
The law that required the township to reimburse individuals for livestock killed or injured by dogs also endowed it with the authority to levy a tax on dog owners. The tax was 40 cents per dog. Originally, only people whose sheep had been killed by dogs were eligible to make a claim. But eventually the law was expanded to include all farm animals and poultry.
To place a claim, the farmer had to get two reputable landowners to swear that the amount of the loss was in keeping with market prices.
At the 1887 meeting, Orlando Warden, who had 22 turkeys killed by dogs, was awarded $24. John Mack lost two sheep. He valued them at $10 apiece. W.W. Walling had three sheep killed and 16 wounded. He got $5 each for the dead ones and $1.50 each for those injured.
While Shrewsbury collected taxes to offset the claims it had to pay, city fathers in Manchester, Md., established a dog tax in 1840 merely to line the city coffers. Forty-one dogs lived in Manchester at the time, so $10.25 was added to the town treasury since owners were taxed at a rate of 25 cents per dog.
On occasion, a dog tax was implemented for other civic purposes. At the dedication of Goff Memorial Hall on May 10, 1886, in Rehoboth Township in Bristol County, Mass., guest speaker Rev. E.G. Porter suggested that the town government implement a dog tax to fund a library. The city of Lexington had done just that in 1868, Porter said.
Monies from a dog tax were used to establish a library in 1872 in Provincetown, Maine. Flush with revenue from three years of dog tax refunds from Barnstable County, city leaders appropriated an additional $25 and used the $191.45 as a grubstake to get the library project off the ground.
The 1855 property tax list which reveals that Thor Lorothis paid an annual dog tax of 30 cents in St. Augustine also discloses that Mrs. John Michel paid an identical amount on a town lot valued at $150.
In Yates County, N.Y., and Franklin County, Pa., however, dog tax lists were kept separately from regular property tax rolls. Originally levied in the 1800s, Yates County's dog tax ended in 1916.
Property assessment rolls contain different information, depending on the year and the city, town or county levying the taxes. Local governments derive their ability to provide services from their power to tax real and personal property, consumables, etc., so taxes may come and go. And they often appear on separate lists.
Property tax records date back into the 1700s in some colonial states. Copies of tax rolls may be found in municipal, county and state archives, state libraries and historical societies.
Not only can you use these records to track your ancestor's movements between the censuses, but such specific details about his or her life.
- Read past Donna Murray Allen columns online at www.sptimes.com Type "Donna Murray Allen" in the search box. You can write to Allen c/o Floridian, St. Petersburg Times, P.O. Box 1121, St. Petersburg, FL 33731, or e-mail her at rootscolumn@yahoo.com Her Web site: www.rootsdetective.com which includes information on classes and lectures.