USA > Wisconsin > Vernon County > History of Vernon County, Wisconsin, together with sketches of its towns, villages and townships, educational, civil, military and political history; portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens > Part 105
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tors by appearing before the board of registra- tion of his election district and establishing his right to be registered, or, instead of personal appearance, he may make his application to be registered to the board in writing. Such appli- cation shall state the name and period of con- tinnous residence in the election district and place of residence therein, giving the number and street of the applicant, and, in case the person making the application is of foreign birth, he shall state when he came to the United States and the State of Wisconsin, and the time and place of declaring his intention to become a citizen of the United States, and that he is entitled to vote at the election. Upon receiving such application, the board of registration shall register the name of such applicant, if it appears to the board that the applicant is, by his statement, entitled to vote. Such state- ment shall be made under oath, and shall be preserved by the board and be filed in the office of the village or city clerk, as the case may be. All city and village elerks shall keep blanks for making the application for registration, as pro- vided by this section. The form shall be pre- scribed by the secretary of State. Every man named in this section shall be subject to the same punishment for any false statement or other offense in respect thereto as is provided in case of such false statement or other offense by an elector offering to vote at an election. After such registry shall have been fully com- pleted on the day above mentioned, no name shall be added thereto by any person or upon any pretense. Within three days after the second meeting the said board shall cause four copies of the registry to be made, each of which shall be certified by them to be a correet regis- try of the electors of their district, one of which shall be kept by each inspector for use on election day, and one shall forthwith be filed in the office of the proper town, city or village clerk. All registry shall at all times be open to public inspection where deposited, without charge.
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HISTORY OF VERNON COUNTY.
SECTION 24. On election day the inspectors shall designate two of their number at the opening of the polls who shall check the names of every elector voting in such district whose name is on the registry. No vote shall be received at any general election, of any ward or election district defined in section 20, if the name of the person offering to vote be not on said registry, made at the second meet- ing as aforesaid, except as hercinafter provided; but in case any one shall, after the last day for completing such registry, and before such elec- tion, become a qualified voter of the district, he shall have the same right to vote therein at such election as if his name had been duly registered, provided he shall, at the time he offers to vote, deliver to the inspectors his affi- davit in which he shall state the facts, showing that he has, since the completion of such regis- try, become a qualified elector of such district, and facts showing that he was not such elector on the day such registry was completed, and shall also deliver to such inspectors the affi- davit of two freeholders, electors in such elec- tion district, corroborating all material state- ments in his affidavit. In case any person who was a voter at the last previous general election shall not be registered, such person shall be entitled to vote on making affidavit that he was entitled to vote at the previous election, and that he has not become disqualified by reason of removal from the election district or other- wise, since that election, which affidavit shall also be corroborated by the affidavit of two freeholders, as is provided for other non-regis- tered voters. No one freeholder shall be com- petent to make at any one election corrobora- ting affidavits for more than three voters. AII of said affidavits shall be sworn to before some officer authorized by the laws of this State to take depositions. The inspectors shall keep a list of the names and residence of the electors voting whose names are not on said completed registry, and attach said list to the registry and return it, together with such affidavits, to the
proper town, city or village clerk. No com- pensation shall be paid or received for taking or certifying any such affidavits. On the day following the election, one of said poll list and one copy of the registry so kept and checked shall be attached together and filed in the office of the proper town, and the other of said poll lists and copy of the registry so kept shall be returned to the county clerk with the returns of the election. Such inspectors shall give notice by advertisement in a newspaper printed in the city, village or town where such registra- tion was made, of the registry, and shall in- elude in such notice all additions to and omis- sions from the preliminary list, and shall also state where the election is to be held. In case there be no newspaper printed in such city, village or town, such notice shall be given by posting copies thereof in three or more public places in each ward or election district in such city, village or town. For publication of such notice in any such newspaper the publisher thereof shall be entitled to the same compen- sation per folio as is prescribed for publishing other legal notices
COMMON SCHOOLS.
SECTION 413. The information of any school district shall be by written order of the town board, describing the territory embraced in the same to be filed with the town clerk within twen- ty days after the making thereof. The supervi - sors shall deliver to a taxable inhabitant their notice thereof in writing, describing its bound- aries and appointing a time and place for the first district meeting, and shall therein direct such inhabitants to notify every qualified voter of the district, either personally or by leaving a written notice at his place of residence, of the time and place of such meeting at least five days before the time appointed therefor, and said inhabitant shall notify the voters of such district accordingly and endorse thereon a return, containing the names of all persons thus notified, and said notice and re-
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HISTORY OF VERNON COUNTY.
turns shall be recorded as a part of the record of the first meeting in such district.
SECTION 414. In case such notice shall not be given, or the inhabitants of a district neglect or refuse to assemble and form a district when so notified, or in case any school district hav- ing been formed or organized or afterwards be disorganized, so that no competent authority shall exist therein to call a special district meeting, in the manner hereinafter provided, notice shall be given by the town board and served in the manner prescribed in the preced- ing section. Whenever a district meeting shall be called as prescribed in this and the preced- ing section, it shall be the duty of the electors of the district to assemble at the time and place so directed.
SECTION 415. Whenever it is necessary to form a district from two or more adjoining towns, the town boards of such towns shall meet together and form such district by their written order, describing the territory embraced in such district, signed by at least two of the supervisors of each town, and shall file one such order with the town clerk of each town and deliver the notice of formation to a taxable inhabitant of each district, and cause the same to be served and returned in the time and man- ner hereinbefore described; and any such dis- trict may be altered only by the joint actions of the town boards of such towns in the same manner that other districts are altered.
SECTION 416. Every school district shall be deemed duly organized when any two of the of- ficers elected at the first legal meeting thereof shall have consented to serve in the office to which they have been respectively elected by a written acceptance thereof filed with the elerk of the first meeting and recorded in the minutes thereof; and every school district shall be con- sidered as duly organized after it shall have ex- ercised the franchises and privileges of a dis- trict for the term of two years.
SECTION 425. The annual meeting of all school districts in which graded schools of two
or more departments are taught, shall be held on the second Monday of July, and of all other school districts on the last Monday of Septem- ber in the year. The hour of such meeting shall be 7 o'clock in the afternoon, unless otherwise provided by a vote of the district, du- ly recorded at the last previous annual meeting; but at any annual meeting a majority of the electors present may determine that the annual meeting of such districts shall be held on the last Monday of August instead of the last Mon- day of September. Said determination to take effect when a copy of the proceedings of said annual meeting in reference to such change shall have been filed with the town clerk in which the school house of such district is sit- nated and to remain in force until rescinded by a like vote of the electors of such district.
SECTION 426. The clerk shall give at least six days' previous notice of every annual district meeting, by posting notices thereof in four or more public places in the district, one of which shall be affixed to the outer door of the school house, if there be one in the district, and he shall give like notices for every adjourned dis- trict meeting when such meeting shall have been adjourned for more than one month ; but no annual meeting shall be deemed legal for want of due notice, unless it shall appear that the omission to give such notice was willful and fraudulent.
SECTION 427. Special district meeting may be called by the clerk, or, in his absence, by the directors or treasurer, or written request of five legal voters of the district, in the manner prescribed for calling an annual meeting ; and the electors when lawfully assembled at a special meeting, shall have power to transact the same business as at the first and each annual meeting, except the election of officers. The businessto be transacted at any special meeting shall be particularly specified in the notices calling the same, and said notices shall be posted six full days prior to the meeting. No tax or loan or debt shall be voted at a special
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HISTORY OF VERNON COUNTY.
meeting, unless three-fourths of the legal voters shall have been notified, either personally or by written notice left at their place of business, stating the time and place and objects of the meeting, and specifying the amount proposed to be voted, at least six days before the time appointed therefor.
SECTION 428. Every person shall be entitled to vote in any school district meeting who is qualified to vote at a general election, for State and county officers, and who is a resident of sneh school district.
ASSESSMENT AND COLLECTION OF DISTRICT TAXES.
SECTION 469. All school district taxes, unless otherwise specially provided by law, shall be assessed on the same kind of property as taxes for town and county purposes ; and all personal property which, on account of its location or the residence of its owner, is taxable in the town, shall, if such locality or residence be in the school district, be likewise taxable for school district purposes.
BORROWING MONEY.
SECTION 474. Whenever, upon any unnsunt exigency, any school district shall, before the annual meeting, vote a special tax to be col- lected with the next levy, the district may, by vote, authorize the district board to borrow for a period not exceeding one year, a sum not ex- eeeding the amount of such tax, and by such vote set apart such tax when collected to repay such loan, and thereupon the district board may borrow such money of any person on such terms, and execute and deliver to the lender sneh obligations therefor and such security for the repayment, including a mortgage or pledge of any real or personal property of the district, subject to the directions contained in the vote of the district as may be agreed upon and not prohibited by law.
SECTION 498. Every district clerk who shall willfully neglect to make the annual report for his district as required by law, shall be required to pay the whole amount of money lost by such district in consequence of his neglect, which
shall be recovered in an action in the name of and for the use of the district.
SECTION 499. Every town clerk who shall neglect or refuse to make and deliver to the county superintendent his annual report, as re- quired in this chapter within the time limited therefor, shall be liable, on his official bond, to pay the town the amount which such town or any school district therein shall lose by such negleet or refusal, with interest thereon; and every county superintendent who shall neglect or refuse to make the report required of him by this chapter to the State superintendent shall be liable to pay to each town the.amount which such town or any school district therein shall lose by such neglect or refusal, with interest thereon, to be recovered in either case by an ac- tion prosecuted by the town treasurer in the name of the town.
SECTION 503. Every member of a district board in any school district in this State in which a list of text books have been adopted ae- cording to law, who shall, within three years from the date of such adoption or thereafter, withont the consent of the State superintendent, order a change of text books in such district, shall forfeit the sum of fifty dollars.
SECTION 513. Every woman twenty-one years of age and upward may be elected or appointed as director, treasurer or clerk of the school dis- trict, director or secretary of the town board under the township system, member of the board of education in cities, or county superin- tendent.
SECTION 560. In reckoning school months twenty days shall constitute a month and one hundred days five months.
ASSESSMENT OF TAXES.
SECTION 1035. The terms "real property," "real estate" and "land," when used in this title, shall include not only the land itself, but all buildings, fixtures, improvements, rights and privileges appertaining thereto.
SECTION 1036. The term "personal proper- ty," as used in this title, shall be construed to
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HISTORY OF VERNON COUNTY.
mean and include toll-bridges, saw-logs, timber and lumber, either npon land or afloat, steam- boats, ships and other vessels, whether at home or abroad, buildings upon leased lands, if such buildings have not been included in the assess- ment of the land on which they are erected; ferry boats, including the franchise for running the same; all debts due from insolvent debtors, whether an account, note, contract, bond, mort- gage or other security, or whether such debts are due or to become due, and all goods, wares, merchandise, chattels, money and effects of any nature or description having any real or market- able value and not included in the term "real property," as above defined.
SECTION 1037. The improvements of all land situated in this State, which shall have been en- tered under the provision of the act of Congress entitled "An act to secure homesteads to actual settlers on the public domain," approved May 20, 1862, and which shall be actually occupied a d improved by the person so entering the same, or his heirs, shall be subject to taxation and such improvement shall be assessed as personal property. All taxes levied thereon shall be collected out of the personal property of the occupants of such land and in no other manner.
SECTION 1038. The property in this described is exempt from taxation, to-wit :
1. That owned exclusively by the United States or by this State, but no loans contracted to be sold by the State shall be exempt.
2. That owned exclusively by any county, eity, village, town or school ; but lands pur- chased by counties at tax sales shall be exempt only in the cases provided in section 1191.
3. Personal property owned by any religious, scientific, literary or benevolent association used exclusively for the purpose of such as- sociation, and the real property if not leased or not otherwise used for pecuniary profit, necessary for the location and convenience of the buildings of such association, embracing the same, not exceeding ten aeres ; and the
lands reserved for grounds of a chartered col- lege or university not exceeding forty acres, and parsonages, whether of local churches or districts, and whether occupied by the pastor permanently or rented for his benefit. The occasional leasing of such buildings for schools, public lectures or concerts or the leasing of such parsonages shall not render them liable to taxation.
4. Personal property owned exclusively by the State or any county agricultural society, and the lands used by any such society exclu- sively for fair grounds.
5. Fire engines and other implements used for extinguishing fires, owned or used by any organized fire company, and the buildings and necessary grounds connected therewith, owned by such company and used exclusively for its proper purpose.
6. The property of Indians who are not citi- zens, except lands held by them for purchasers.
7. Lands used exclusively for public burial grounds, and tombs and monuments to the dead therein.
8. Pensions receivable from the United States.
9. Stock in any corporation in this State required to pay tax upon its property in the same manner as individuals.
10. So much of the debts due or to become due to any persons as shall equal the amount of bona fide and unconditional debts by him owing.
11. Wearing apparel, family portraits and libraries, kitchen furniture and growing crops. 12. Provisions and fuel provided by the head of a family to sustain its members for six months ; but no person paying board shall be deemed a member of a family.
13. All the personal property of all in- surance companies that now or shall be organ- ized or doing business in this State.
14. The track, right of way, depot grounds, buildings, machine shops, rolling stock and other property necessarily used in operating
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HISTORY OF VERNON COUNTY.
any railroad in this State belonging to any rail- road company, including pontoon, pile and pon- toon railroads, and shall henceforth remain exempt from taxation for any purpose, except that the same shall be subject to special assessments for local improvements in cities and villages, and all lands owned or claimed by such railroad company, not adjoining the track of such company, shall be subject to all taxes. The provision of this sub-division shall not apply to any railroad that now is or shall be operated by horse power, whether now or hereafter constructed in any village or city.
15. The property, except real estate, of all companies which are or shall be engaged in the business of telegraphing in this State.
16. The real estate of the Home of the Friendless in the city of Milwaukee, not exceed- ing one lot in amount, is exempt so long as the same shall continue to be used as such home.
17. All property of any corporation or asso- ciation formed under the laws of this State for the encouragement of industry by agricultural and industrial fairs, by exhibitions, which shall be necessary for fair grounds, while used ex- clusively for such fairs and exhibitions, pro- vided the quantity of lands so exempt shall not exceed forty acres.
18. Such tree-belts as are or may be planted and maintained in compliance with chapter sixty-six of one of these statutes.
SECTION 1191. Real property, upon which the county holds any certificates of tax sale, shall continue liable to taxation and to sale for in- paid taxes, and the county shall be the exclusive purchaser at the sale; but when a tax deed shall be issued to the county, and it shall hold tax certificates of sale unredeemed on the same property for two successive years subsequent to the date of the sale on which such deed shall issue, including certificates of sale made prior to the passage of these statutes, such property shall thereafter be exempt from taxation until the same is sold by the county. The county clerk shall annually, before the first day of
June, furnish to the assessors of each town a list of the lands in such town exempt under this section. Nothing in this section shall be so construed as to apply to lands owned by mi- nors, married women, widowed women, idiots or insane persons.
COLLECTION OF TAXES.
SECTION 1089. The town treasurer of each town, on the receipt of the tax roll for the cur- rent year, shall forthwith post notices in three or four public places in such town that the tax roll for such town is in his hands for collection, and that the taxes charged them therein are subject to payment at his office at any time prior to the first day of January in such year; and af- ter the said first day of January he shall proceed to collect the tax charged in such roll and re- maining unpaid, and for that purpose shall call at least once on the person taxed or at any place of his usual residence, if within the town, and demand payment of the tax charged to him on such roll.
SECTION 1090. On all taxes paid or tendered at the office of such treasurer prior to said first day of January, he shall remit all of the five per cent. collection fees, except so much thereof as he is authorized by law to have for his fees upon taxes so paid.
SECTION 1091. Town orders shall be receiv- able for taxes in the town where issued, and shall be allowed the town treasurer on settle- ment of town taxes, and county orders and jurors' certificates shall be receivable for taxes in the county where issued and shall be allowed such treasurer on settlement of county taxes with the county treasurer, but no town treasurer shall receive town orders in payment for taxes to a larger amount than the town taxes included in his assessment roll exclusive of all taxes for school purposes, nor county orders and jurors' certificates to a greater amount than the county tax included therein.
SECTION 1097. In case any person shall re- fuse or neglect to pay the tax imposed upon him, the town treasurer shall levy the same by
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HISTORY OF VERNON COUNTY.
distress and sale of any goods and chattels be- longing to such person, wherever the same may be found within his town; and if a sufficient amount of such property cannot be found in such town, the town treasurer may levy the same by distress and sale of the goods and chat- tels belonging to such person, wherever the same may be found in the county or in any ad- joining counties.
SECTION 1098. The town treasurer shall give public notice of the time and place of such sale, at least six days previous thereto, by ad- vertisement, containing a description of the property to be sold, to be posted up in three public places in the town where the sale is to be made. The sale shall be at publie anetion in the day-time, and the property sold shall be present; such property may be released by the payment of the tax and charges for which the same is liable to be sold; if the purchase money on such sale shall not be paid at such time as the treasurer may require, he may again, in his discretion, expose such property for sale, or sue, in his name of office, the purchaser for the pur- chase money, and recover the same with costs and ten per centum damages.
SECTION 1099. If the property so levied up- on shall be sold for more than the amount of tax and costs, the surplus shall be returned to the owner thereof; and if it cannot be sold for want of bidders, the treasurer shall return a state- ment of the fact and return the property to the person from whose possession he took the same; and the tax, if unsatisfied, shall be collected in the same manner as if no levy had been made.
HIGHWAYS AND BRIDGES.
SECTION 1223. The supervisors of the sever- al towns shall have the care and supervision of the highways and bridges therein, and it shall be their duty:
1. To give directions for repairing the high- ways and bridges within their respective towns, and cause to be removed all obstacles there- from.
2. To cause such of the roads used as high- ways as have been laid out but not suf- ficiently described, and such as have been lawfully laid out and used as such up to the then present time, but not fully and sufficently recorded to be ascertained, described and en- tered of record in the town clerks office.
3. To cause bridges which are or may be erected over streams intersecting highways to be kept in repair.
4. To divide their respective towns into so many road districts as they shall judge conven- ient and specify every such division in writing under their hands, to be recorded in the office of the town clerk; but no such division shall be made within ten days next preceding the annual town meeting.
5. To assign to each of the said road dis- triets such of the inhabitants liable to pay tax on highways as they think proper, having re- gard to the nearness of residence as much as practicable.
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