Radio Script #612

Little Talks on Common Things

April 26, 1964

Several times on this program we have had a glimpse of taxes and the way they were collected in Maine towns 150 years ago. Let us add now a little to that information by an examination of the Waterville tax returns for the year 1814, when this community had been incorporated as a separate town for only twelve years.

As I have previously pointed out, there was then not a single tax collection, but several one was for town expenses except schools and highways; another was for schools alone; a third was for highways; a fourth for the county tax; and a fifth for the state tax. By 1814 the tOwn and county taxes had been combined in a single assessment, but the others were still collected separately.

The Waterville tax list for 1814 shows that the portion of the poll tax assigned to town and county was 76 cents. All the rest came from two kinds of property, real and personal. In very few instances did the tax on any Waterville man’s personal estate exceed that on his real estate, but there were a few exceptions. The largest tax, $51.23, was paid by Nathaniel Gilman, with $16.95 of it on his real estate and $34.42 on his personal property. Second largest taxpayer was James Stackpole, with $14.03 on his real estate and $17.02 on personal possessions. Since both Gilman and Stackpole were merchants operating stores, much of their personal property taxable was in the form of stocks of goods. On the other hand, Asa Redington, founder of Waterville’s prominent Redington family, had most of his property in land and buildings, on which he paid a tax of $20.73, while his personal tax was only $1.42.

In 1814 Timothy Boutelle, who next to Nathaniel Gilman, would soon be Waterville’s richest man, had just come to town. He was taxed only $8.13 for real estate and $5.93 for personal property.

Some of the tax bills were very small indeed. James Crommett, founder of that family name in what is now Oakland was taxed $1.91 for his farm, and 40 cents for personal property. Another prominent family was that of Thomas Bates, who paid a total tax of only $7.65. Lemuel Dunbar, an early citizen who held many town offices, was taxed less than Bates, only $3.95. The big,~enney, family, through its patriarch Salathi€l Penney, paid a mere $2.96. Simeon Mathews, who was a storekeeper that at one time operated stores in six towns of central Maine, was just getting his feet placed in 1814. His total tax came to only $6.92. Jediah Morrill, who accumulated a fortune in Waterville business, was also new at the game in 1814. His tax was a petty $7.74. And so it was with many another man who by mid-century had achieved fame and fortune: Reuben Kidder, Moses Picher, Elnathan Sherwin, Lot Sturtevant, Jonathan Coombs, Hiram Crowell, Nehemiah Getchell and John Cool.

In that same year of 1814 the state tax was much less than the town and county tax. Again Gilman led the list with $6.05; Boutelle paid $1.77, and Stackpole $3.96, but more than half the taxpayers paid less than one dollar. It is interesting to note some of the charges against non-resident taxpayers on those tax lists of 1814. Nathaniel Digley’s charge of $5.01 was described as “on the Gulliver farm on the Plains”. The heirs of Sturgis Nye were ‘taxed $2.96 for land in the Ten Lots division. Jonathan Pullen was put down for 55 cents on one quarter of a sawmill.

Written in the flyleaf of the old tax book are two interesting notations. The first says: “This is a list of assessments made upon polls and estates of the inhabitants of the Town of Waterville for the year 1814, each one his respective proportion of the sum of $1.294.12, that being a county tax of $233.41 and a town tax of $1,060.71.”

The second notation says: “On the right hand pages is contained the state tax of $148.31. to be paid to John L. Apthorp, Treasurer of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.”

That list of 1814 is solely a tax list and does not state the valuation of the property taxed, and we cannot compute that valuation because we do not know the tax rate. But in the first year that Waterville became a separate town, 1802, the valuations were recorded, and the book containing them is still preserved.

Some of the real estate then owned by men who later had substantial property in Waterville lands and buildings was unbelievably small. Dr. Moses Appleton’s total real estate was valued at only $20. Jediah Morrill’s was set at $36 and more than half the names on the list had real property valued at less than $100.

Who were the big property owners when Waterville first became a town? The largest real estate owner was Manoah Crowell, whose land and buildings were valued at $934. John Cool was second with $797. Asa Redington’s real property was set at $779, Nehemiah Parker’s at $675, Nehemiah Getchell’s at $650, and George Clarke’s at $635. The Moor family was already prominent. Herbert Moor had real estate worth $702; Daniel Moor’s was $150, Samuel Moor’s $212, and Asa Moor’s $212. James Stackpole’s real estate was worth $572. The sons of the old surveyor and builder of Waterville’s first mill, John McKechnie, still held much of their father’s extensive property. Alexander and Joseph McKechnie were each taxed on $475 of real estate, and their brother William on $370. Abijah Smith, whose wife was one of the heirs of the pioneer settlers, Dr. Obadiah Williams, had his real estate set at $485.

It is amazing to note that in 1802 not a single taxpayer in Waterville had land and buildings valued at as much as $1,000.

As for personal property, the largest valuation was fixed upon Asa Redington – $448. Only slightly less was that of the heirs of Obadiah Williams – $444. Nathaniel Gilman’s personal property was set at $413, George Clarke’s at $412, Nehemiah Getchell’s at $307, and James Stackpole’s at $301. Isaac Temple, whose name does not appear at all in the tax list of 1814, had real estate in 1802 fixed at $520 and personal property at $100. David Pattee also was dead by 1814, but in 1802, in addition to property on the other side of the river, he held Waterville real estate of $196.

That first Waterville tax list of 1802 shows a total of 197 taxpayers in the town. Of that number, 25 paid only a poll tax; 20 more owned no real estate, but paid only poll and personal tax. There were just 152 people in Waterville who owned land and buildings. The valuation of all Waterville real estate was $26,977; all personal property was fixed at $16,539 — a total tax valuation for the whole town of only $43,517; and bear in mind that the town then included Oakland as well as the present Waterville.

The non-resident notations in 1802 were just as interesting as they were in 1814. Abial Wood was taxed for “store and lot by the brickyard”; Daniel Wyman for “part of a lot adjoining the Fairfield line”; Timothy Heald for Itt of a sawmill near Getchell’s”; and Thomas Avery for “a piece of land in Ticonic Village”. As for taxes paid on their property in 1802, the old tax book heads the list of individual assessments with the following general statement: “This is a list of assessments on the polls and estates of the inhabitants of the Town of Waterville for the year 1802, being the sum of $1,000 voted by the town to be raised for the purpose of defraying town charges, and $300 for the purpose of schooling, at the town meeting on Monday, August 9, which amount, including the overlaying, amounts to $1,302.85, a true copy of which we have committed to Asa Moor, the collector of the Town of Waterville, with a warrant in due form of law, to collect and pay the same to David Pattee, Treasurer of said town, on or before the first day of April next. Samuel Downing, Abijah Smith, Hugh Osborne, Assessors.”

In 1802 the County tax was not included with the town tax, as it was in 1814; so we can tell just how much each man paid toward that total town assessment of $1,302. The largest taxpayer was Nehemiah Getchell with $19.72. Then in order came George Clarke with $18.65, James Pullen $17.76, Asa Redington $15.45, Nathaniel man $13.77. and James Stackpole $13.70. The three McKechnie brothers each paid $6.85, the four Moors were down for a total of $23.22.

Of those early taxpayers it is interesting to note those for whom Waterville streets were later named. Asa Redington, Elnathan Sherwin, Isaac Temple, Nehemiah Getchell, Moses Appleton, John Cool, Jediah Morrill. The first Waterville highway tax of which we have definite record is for the year 1804. Its heading reads: “This list contains the highway tax for 1804, copies of which we have transmitted to the several highway supervisors, directing them to cause the respective sums contained in their lists to be laid out and expended upon the highways and town ways within the limits assigned, and to pay, as voted by the town at the last annual meeting, 17 cents an hour for a man, 12 cents for a pair of oxen, 8 cents for a plough, and 4 cents for a cart. One half to be laid out by July 1 next, and the remainder by October 1. Ebenezer Bacon, Abijah Smith, Assessors.”

Surprisingly that highway list shows a poll tax of $3.60 and very little on real and personal estate. For instance, as prominent a person as Daniel Moor paid only $3.17 on real and personal tax to go along with his $3.60 poll tax. Obadiah Cleveland Williams, son of the pioneer settler and phYSician, paid only $1.84 on real estate and nothing on personal property, probably because the estate of his father, who had died in 1798, had not yet been settled.

In 1805 there was a special tax to build a school house in Diitrict 11. The heading says: “This tax of $100 is the amount voted by the inhabitants of said district at a meeting on March 25, 1805, for defraying the expense of erecting a school house in and for the said district.” Although that total was only a hundred dollars, it was carefully apportioned to all taxpayers in the district, some of them paying only a few cents.

In 1806 a special school tax for District 10 came to even a smaller figure – $91.93. That amount, said the document, was assessed on the inhabitants of the district “to be disposed of as follows: $45 to purchase the old school house in the district, $45 to repair that old school house; and an overlay of $1.93.” That year Nathaniel Gilman was tax collector of Waterville, and he was charged with collecting that $91.93 and turning it over to Town Treasurer David Pattee.

Small as the taxes of the early years of the 19th century seem to us today, we may be sure that in those days of little property and low wages they hit our ancestors’ pocketbooks just as bad as modern taxes hit ours. Never in all history has there been a time when taxes were popular.

Year: 1964