USA > Ohio > Coshocton County > Centennial history of Coshocton County, Ohio, Vol. I > Part 18
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An investigation into Coshocton County's taxing machinery re- veals the mass of multifarious detail and horse-blanket sheets of fig- ures in the work of the county auditor. From access to the records by courtesy of Auditor Randles, and from the experience and knowl- edge of Newton Speckman in his service as auditor, the workings of our tax system are outlined herewith.
As already indicated the land is the particular object of taxation under the existing arrangement, and to insure getting every dollar that can be taxed out of real estate, equitably of course, farm values are looked over twice, and city property three times. First, there are the land appraisers who report every tenth year on land values in their townships. Then the county commissioners, auditor and sur- veyor, as a board of equalization, review the figures; and for city valuations their work in turn is examined by the board of review ap- pointed by the State auditor. Reductions or additions which the State board may make on city valuations are reported to the county auditor, and the figures go on the auditor's tax duplicate, to stand for the next ten years. If buildings are erected after the property has been ap- praised, the personal property assessors place a value upon the same, and the personal equation is a mighty factor in this proceeding, as men have discovered who find themselves paying more tax than a neighbor with a costlier building. The belief is prevalent that build- ings should be valued on the tax duplicate at sixty per cent of the cost, but Mr. Speckman points out that buildings should be listed at what they add to the value of the property. He continues:
"If a person is on the tax duplicate at a too high valuation, appli- cation can be made to the board of equalization at the annual meeting, and if the valuation is found to be too high it may be reduced, but the amount of the reduction must be added to other property that is
248
HISTORY OF COSHOCTON COUNTY
valued too low. The grand tax duplicate of real estate cannot be reduced below what it was the preceding year."
The assessors report personal property in the various townships, including buildings and other property except land. The county auditor and commissioners go over these returns, and may reduce or increase the valuations.
Referring to the appraisement of railroads by the county auditor Mr. Speckman attests that the method is not altogether satisfactory. The railroad company, he states, submits its figures to the county auditor, and the auditor has no means of knowing much about the valuation submitted. In Indiana it is cited that they do things dif- ferently, where a State board makes a thorough investigation into railroad property, putting the P., C., C. & St. L. on the tax duplicate for about twice as much a mile as in Ohio. In some States the ap- praisement is based upon the gross earnings of railroads.
Merchants and manufacturers are required to report their average monthly business. In the case of banks three items are reported to the county auditor on which tax valuations are fixed: The amount of capital stock paid in, undivided profits, and surplus. The tax valu- ation in Coshocton County has been fixed at 66 2-3 per cent of these amounts. It has been increased at times, but the State Board of Appraisers has reduced it in each case.
Telegraph, express and telephone companies make their returns direct to the State Board of Appraisers. The State Board fixes the valuation for taxation and returns the amounts so fixed to the county auditor.
Building and Loan Association stockholders are required to report individually their stock to the assessor for taxation, instead of the Association being called upon to report as in the case of a bank. A few years ago a bill was introduced in the Legislature requiring the Association to pay the taxes. The bill was defeated. An inquiry was made at that time regarding the amount reported for taxation in Coshocton County. It was found that about five per cent of the amount of stock found its way upon the tax duplicate.
In the county's present taxation of coal lands the purpose of the appraisers is the separation of surface value and mineral value. The coal operator pays tax on one-third of the valuation of the land. The
249
HISTORY OF COSHOCTON COUNTY
present tax paid on coal lands is $2 per workable acre. The output of coal has never been taxed.
Insurance companies have never paid local taxes here. They re- port to the State.
What Coshocton County taxpayers paid in 1883 and what they paid in 1908 is an interesting comparison showing the changes in the last quarter century.
Acres of land
Land valuation
$ 8,131,510
$ 6,317,380
City and village real estate valuation
949,160
2,938,890
Chattel or personal valuation
4,341,470
5,648,100
Total valuation
$13,422,140
$14,904,370
1883
1908
Total State taxes
$ 38,924.19
$ 20,036.22
County fund
18,790.98
43,222.33
Poor fund
5,368.85
11,923.40
Bridge fund
32,213.12
32,789.36
Building tax
2,980.85
Road tax
8,053.04
40,060,01
Township road tax to be worked out
15,658.29
None
Township tax
19,046.48
52,015.20
School
50,257.07
132,426.26
Indigent soldier
2,980.85
Special
1,910.95
16,079.13
City or village
9,997.66
42,602.54
Dog
2,605.00
3.736.00
1883 352,249
1908
352,398
Total County and Local Tax less dog . $161,299.44 $377,079.93 In accounting for the falling off in land valuation, that of 1883 was from the decennial appraisement of 1880 when land prices here had been going up steadily. The 1908 valuation was from the ap- praisement of 1900 when the country had not fully recovered from the decline in prices attending the general business depression.
The great bulk of the increase in city and village real estate valu- ation came with the increase in the city of Coshocton.
250
HISTORY OF COSHOCTON COUNTY
The increase of more than a million dollars in the valuation of personal property came largely with the Wheeling & Lake Erie, the Toledo, Walhonding Valley & Ohio, and the Cleveland, Akron & Columbus railroads, built since 1883. There was a considerable in- crease in manufacturing establishments.
Fewer moneys and credits were returned in 1908 than twenty-five years ago. A large amount of Coshocton County money has been invested in non-taxable securities within the last ten years, including county, township, municipal and school bonds.
With all these changes there has been an increase of only $1,582,230 in the valuation on the duplicate in twenty-five years.
In 1883 there was a total State levy of 29 cents on every $100, taking $38,924.19 from the county. In 1908 the State levy was a fraction more than 13 cents a hundred dollars, less than half the rate of 1883, and the county paid the State $20,036.22. Several years ago the Legislature passed the bills imposing excise taxes on corporations, whereby the State levy was reduced. There are those who have ad- vocated collecting all State taxes from corporations, but the real benefit to the county would be to levy its own tax on the local business of corporations, which would increase the receipts enough to easily pay the State and lighten the burden of other taxpayers in the county.
The fund raised for county purposes, including election expenses, salaries, supplies, etc., was much less in 1883 even though it also em- braced the building and judicial funds which are now separate expense accounts on the auditor's books.
The increase in the Poor fund has accompanied the sending of our children to the Tuscarawas County Home, and caring for the blind, which was not done twenty-five years ago.
Since the enactment of the law for the collection in money of the road tax, instead of citizens working it out on the road, there has been much dissatisfaction in Coshocton County. Under the law the road tax paid by the townships is returned by the county to the township trustees and road superintendents to expend in improving the roads. But there are districts where road improvement is not seen, at least no one notices it, and the taxpayers of that district bump along while their money is making good roads in other parts of the township. The
251
HISTORY OF COSHOCTON COUNTY
demand has risen for a restoration of the district road-making system, and with effective methods to insure the building of good highways we may yet see all over the county such fine roads as have been built by Commissioners McConnell, Marshall, Abbott and others.
In connection with the home-rule sentiment favoring road-building by each district is the demand to restore the management of schools to district directors. The township school board method is opposed because the people of a district consider they understand their local conditions better than a township board, and are therefore qualified to select their own teacher. Furthermore, on this subject of teachers, a reform for which there is imperative need is to abolish the appoint- ment by the probate judge of the county board of teachers' examiners. For years these appointments have been a political asset of the probate office. There have been probate judges who held out the examiner plum to whoever delivered the most votes. The office has been cor- rupted by probate judges arranging with examiners to issue teachers' certificates as political favors to applicants not qualified to pass an honest examination.
There is a noticeably large increase in the school tax over that of twenty-five years ago. While in 1883 there were the Bedford Special; the West Carlisle Special, Roscoe Union, West Lafayette Special. New Castle Special and Coshocton Union school districts, today the county includes the Coshocton City school districts, West Lafayette Village, Warsaw Village, Plainfield Village, Nellie Village, Roscoe Village, Walhonding Special, New Castle Special, West Bedford Spe- cial, West Carlisle Special, Tiverton Special, Conesville Special. In 1883 young Coshocton went to school in the Sycamore and the Walnut Street buildings; now, besides these two, there are the High School, the Bancroft and the South Lawn schools.
The dog tax has paid claims for killed sheep and left a balance to transfer to the school fund. The law that made the dog tax a lien upon the real estate has been declared unconstitutional, and it is an- ticipated here that there will be less dog tax collected in the future unless legislative provision be made along that line.
The rate paid by taxpayers on every hundred dollars in each town- ship twenty-five years ago and in 1908 is compared as follows:
252
HISTORY OF COSHOCTON COUNTY
WHOLE RATES OF TAXATION PER ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS
Covering State, County, Township and School Levies
Townships and Districts.
1883
1908
Adams
$1.581/2
$2.32
Bedford
1.32
2.00
Bedford Special
1.361/2
2.32
Bethlehem
1.29
1.94
Clark
1.481/2 2.32
Crawford
1.6I
2.62
Baltic Special
1.92
Franklin
1.28
2.14
Conesville Special
2.02
Jackson
1.54
2.24
Roscoe Corporation
2.84
Roscoe Union
1.76
2.54
Jefferson
1.34
2.36
Mohawk Special
2.38
Nellie Special
2.23
Nellie Corporation
2.18
Warsaw Corporation
1.59
3.08
Warsaw School District
2.38
Keene
1.25
2.06
Lafayette
1.4I
1.84
Lafayette Special
1.51
2.44
West Lafayette Corporation
2.60
Linton
1.70
2.61
Plainfield Special
2.94
Plainfield Corporation
3.10
Millcreek
1.14
1.81
Monroe
1.77
2.32
New Castle
1.51
2.68
New Castle Special
1.57
2.28
Walhonding Special
2.18
Oxford
1.231/2
1.80
Pike
1.16
2.00
West Carlisle
1.36
2.16
253
HISTORY OF COSHOCTON COUNTY
Perry
1.16
2.10
New Guilford Special
2.24
Tiverton
1.52
2.38
Tiverton Special
2.58
Tuscarawas
1.48
2.54
Coshocton Union
1.50
2.76
Coshocton City
2.04
3.48
Virginia
1.45
2.62
Adams Mills Special
1.82
Washington
1.301/2
2.00
White Eyes
1.431/2
2.18
Entirely separate from the county tax was the liquor tax of $1,000 collected from each saloon. When the county voted in 1908 to close the saloons, $26,000 in tax receipts were cut off. During the collec- tion of the liquor tax the auditor got three per cent of the first $20,000, and one and a half per cent of the balance, while the treasurer got a half per cent. There remained about $25,000, of which the half went to the city, two-tenths to the county infirmary, and three-tenths to the State.
About $150 a year is collected from the $15 cigarette tax. The auditor and treasurer get the same percentage of fees as in the liquor tax, and the fund is then apportioned as follows: City, one-fourth; County infirmary, one-fourth; State, one-half.
There is an auctioneer's license ; and peddlers are taxed $28 a year for a two-horse wagon, $18 for one-horse wagon, $12 horseback or on foot. A circus is taxed $40 a day. The treasurer's fee is six per cent.
In 1907 the county defeated at the polls the proposition to build the Main Street bridge from Coshocton to Roscoe, and the Twelfth ยท Street bridge. In every flood of the Coshocton rivers much of the county has been cut off from the city. When the bridges lost in the 1907 election Representative Lybarger fathered a bill in the Legis- lature in 1908 providing for a special election on the petition of a hundred voters. The same month the election was held and both bridges carried. In June, 1908, the first tax for these bridges was levied-ten cents on a hundred dollars. At this writing a remon- strance has been started on the ground that the cost of the bridges was understated when the election was held, and that the figures will
254
HISTORY OF COSHOCTON COUNTY
go as high as half a million dollars by the time damage claims of prop- erty owners along the bridge approaches are settled.
The question of building the bridges to carry electric cars is in- volved in the discussion, some contending that the proposed trolley line should bear a proportion of the cost. For years the county has waited for an electric railroad. The latest projected route parallels the Pennsylvania Lines from Newcomerstown to Coshocton and strikes southwesterly across the county through Virginia Township coal fields.
CHAPTER XVI
ECCLESIASTICAL AND EDUCATIONAL -FRATERNAL AND SOCIAL-THE MINISTER IN POLITICS-THE TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT FROM THE CRUSADERS TO THE ROSE LAW.
Within the secular scope of these chronicles, having more par- ticular reference to temporal rather than spiritual or religious affairs, it is not feasible to go into the story of each church in every township. To do that means a chapter for every one, and in this year of our Lord, nineteen hundred nine, the church has grown to so great an institution over what it was in the county's early days that a separate volume would be required to record denominational and congregational progress.
In the pages on the pioneer life are related the first efforts here in organized religious work. Today there are a hundred congrega- tions in Coshocton County.
The Methodist membership is especially large. There are thirty- four MI. E. church buildings in the county, and every township is in- cluded in that list of houses of worship except Tiverton. Almost every town here has its Methodist church. The following places are represented, the congregations not in towns being listed in townships: Coshocton Franklin
Walhonding
Canal Lewisville
Roscoe
Orange
Adams Township (2) Warsaw
Perry Township (2)
Bakersville
Mohawk Village New Guilford
Bedford Township Keene
West Carlisle
West Bedford
West Lafayette
Virginia Township (2)
Bethlehem Township Bloomfield
Linton Township
New Moscow
Washington Township
Chili
Plainfield Millcreek Township
Fresno
Franklin Township
Spring Mountain New Castle
Conesville
255
256
HISTORY OF COSHOCTON COUNTY
Nine Presbyterian congregations in Coshocton County have church buildings, the largest of which is the Coshocton edifice of white stone, among the most beautiful examples of ecclesiastical architecture in this section of the State. The other churches are in the northern and eastern parts of the county, also in Jefferson Township in the west. In the southern portion Virginia Township is well represented in the church at Adams Mills on the county line. Following is the lo- cation of Presbyterian congregations, all in towns except two:
Coshocton Jefferson Township West Lafayette
Bakersville Warsaw
Clark Township Keene
West Carlisle Adams Mills
Since the days of the courthouse services eighty years ago the Methodist Protestant membership has grown here to the extent of eleven congregations. About half the townships of the county have M. P. churches. The Rev. Stokely S. Fisher, present pastor in Co- shocton, is known in literary work as a contributor of magazine poetry. The M. P. churches are located as follows :
Coshocton Franklin Township Plainfield
Bethlehem Township (2) Roscoe
Monroe Township
Blissfield Oxford Township
West Lafayette
New Castle Township
Among the earliest churches established in the county is the Bap- tist, whose strength today is represented by fourteen congregations. Early in the nineteenth century the meetings at Coshocton were held in Wilson McGowan's tavern, and later in the courthouse. Services are now held in Baptist churches at the following places :
Coshocton West Lafayette Oxford Township
Canal Lewisville Linton Township Perry Township
Clark Township Monroe Township (2) Tiverton Township Jackson Township New Castle Township Virginia Township Wakatomika
Among the churches established in this county in later years is the Disciple, which now numbers five congregations holding services in their own houses of worship. Formerly, in Coshocton, meetings were held in City Hall, then in the modest frame building in Eleventh Street, which has been succeeded by the Main Street church edifice. The Disciple churches of the county at present include :
257
HISTORY OF COSHOCTON COUNTY
Coshocton Walhonding Tiverton
Spring Mountain
Isleta
There are five Lutheran churches within our county borders at this writing. For years there was no work of organization in Co- shocton where a considerable number of Lutherans came to live, and finding no church of their faith they gradually affiliated with other denominations. The Lutheran churches are located in
Coshocton Chili Franklin Township
Adams Township New Bedford
Four German Evangelical churches are in the county, principally in northern townships in regions populated mainly by descendants of early German settlers. The churches are situated in
Coshocton
Chili New Castle Township
Tiverton Township
Eight congregations of the Evangelical Association church are organized in Coshocton County. All are in the country north of the county seat, and largely in the northern tier of townships. Following are the places having Evangelical churches :
Blissfield
Jefferson Township
Clark Township Nellie
Millcreek Township Monroe Township (2)
Tiverton
The growth of the Catholic church is a feature in ecclesiastical history of the county. Even since the comparatively recent days of Father Jacquet, who as a missionary priest attended Chattanooga and Little Rock, there has been such advance that besides the new building of Sacred Heart church in Coshocton, a school has been erected during Father Synan's charge. The school contains four rooms. There are 125 pupils taught by five Dominican sisters. All grades are taught in- cluding a high school course. The advent of the French marked the beginning of the Catholic church in Franklin Township, more than half a century ago, and prominent among the organizers was Anthony Wimmer, Sr. At the same time a congregation met in the Killbuck log church, Monroe Township, and descendants of the early organizers are represented in today's church at Spring Mountain whose trustees include Joseph Krownapple, W. J. Krownapple and Joseph Haverick. In 1886 the Catholic congregations. of Linton and Franklin townships consolidated, and a new church building, Our Lady of Lourdes, was erected in the southwestern part of Linton Township.
258
HISTORY OF COSHOCTON COUNTY
The United Brethren church of Coshocton advanced from meetings in City Hall fifteen years ago to the house of worship in Park Avenue. The membership grew to two hundred during the pastorate of the Rev. A. E. Fair. The church recently lost an earnest worker in the death of Charles W. Smith.
The United Presbyterian church appears in the earliest records of organized religious work in Coshocton County. Robert Boyd, pioneer member, assembled meetings in Keene Township when the county was only half a dozen years organized. Today the United Presbyterian congregations meet in Amity church in Keene Township, and in the Fresno church.
The home of the Christian Church in Coshocton was erected in 1905. Virginia Township also has a Christian Church.
The Christian Union Church in Coshocton advanced to the present building in 1904 through the constant labor of the Rev. I. B. Dillin, pastor.
The Episcopalian church service was among the oldest held in this region, as previously recorded herein. There is an Episcopal church at "The Knob," not far from Keene. The Episcopal congregation in Coshocton, now holding services in Carnegie Library, is arranging for the erection of a church building in Main Street.
The Seventh Day Adventists have organized in recent years in the city, and are holding services in the Selby building.
The Christian Scientists are represented in Coshocton. Services are held in the Gray building.
Spiritualistic meetings have been held in homes of Coshocton for years.
The congregation of the Colored Baptist Church meets in the G. A. R. hall.
For five years the local corps of Salvation Army workers have held street services in Coshocton.
In the care of her two cemeteries-Oak Ridge and South Lawn- Coshocton is fortunate in having the services of Superintendent Thomas Page whose work of beautifying our last resting place justifies all commendation.
In the educational work of the county the young teacher has been largely in evidence in the last quarter century. Young men and misses
259
HISTORY OF COSHOCTON COUNTY
in their teens hold certificates to teach geography, history, physiology and other studies unheard of years ago.
The country school is still at a disadvantage in having all pupils from the A-B-C tot to the sixth-reader class mixed in one room under the one teacher's charge; and this condition may never be improved unless an economical system be devised for the transportation of pupils from country homes to graded schools, giving them the same ad- vantages now enjoyed by town pupils. Thorough work has produced results highly creditable to the teaching profession of Coshocton County.
A tendency toward crowding new studies upon pupils who are not sufficiently drilled in fundamental acquirements of correct every-day speech, creditable letter writing, and a general knowledge of business and government is the serious defect of modern educational methods in some local quarters. There is also a question regarding the wisdom of the Coshocton High School curriculum conforming to university entrance requirements. Under that system the study of dead lan- guages is a preparatory course for the two per cent of our high school graduates who go to college, but for the ninety-eight per cent it is regarded a waste of time which were much better utilized along the line of broad, general education. The present educational unrest in the nation may yet abolish the dead languages from the universities, when they will no longer be retained in a high-school course out of dubious regard for antiquated prestige. Any change in the direction of specialization, however, is subject to criticism: for which reason the expansion of manual training is viewed with disfavor. Valuable school hours consumed by boys in planing boards, and by girls in sew- ing on buttons, are needed for more important work in such limited pe- riod of mental training. The use of the hanumner and saw and needle is something that may be learned in their place out of school just as much as the use of any implement-miner's pick, farmer's plow, potter's wheel, or any other. And when we discard a dead language it is not necessary to consume the student's time with furniture-making. That accomplishment may enable him to undertake light house-keeping with home-made chairs and tables, but the same school hours devoted to a study of life-problems would benefit him much more in the days of exercising his vote to effect needed improvements in economic condi- tions, as, for instance, our taxing system. There is vital need for the
260
HISTORY OF COSHOCTON COUNTY
voters of tomorrow learning more of citizenship, its powers and its duties. The political unrest in the country is strikingly shown in the increase in the Socialist vote of Coshocton.
Within the last year a night school has been supported by the tax- payers of the Coshocton Union School district. Eighty pupils, repre- senting both sexes and ranging in age from fourteen to forty-five, came to the four teachers to be taught in fundamental studies, the general value of which was proved to these pupils by experience in the world of bread-winning.
Socially the city of Coshocton is free from elements of exclusive- ness which open the door only to the golden key or the ancestral knocker. Were W. D. Howells to rise superior to his Fifth Avenue surroundings which give him an exaggerated idea of the influence of riches, and come instead into the greater world of the American com- moner he would see the worker an honored member of society; he would find in Coshocton that the worker is not excluded from fash- ionable functions, the dance, the reception, the card party, and other diversions of society. Literary and historical clubs and lectures are popular, while roller polo, the theatre and moving-picture shows are the amuements of the hour, with baseball, football and basketball in season.
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