USA > Wisconsin > Sauk County > The history of Sauk County, Wisconsin, containing an account of settlement, growth, development and resources biographical sketches the whole preceded by a history of Wisconsin > Part 40
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SEC. 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 in 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 meeting as aforesaid, except as hereinafter provided ; but in case any one shall, after the last day for completing such registry, and before such election, 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 the facts showing that he was not such elector on the day such registry was completed, and shall also deliver to such Inspectors the affi- davits of two freeholders, electors in such election district, corroborating all the 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 enti- tled to vote at the previous election, and that he has not become disqualified by reason of removal
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from the election district or otherwise, since that election, which affidavit shall also be corrobo- rated by the affidavits of two freeholders, as is provided for other non-registered voters. No one freeholder shall be competent to make at any one election corroborating affidavits for more than three voters. All 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 all such affidavits, to the proper town, city or village clerk. No compensation shall be paid or received for taking or certifying any such affidavits. On the day following the election, one of said poll-lists and one copy of the registry so kept and checked shall be attached together and filed in the office of the proper town, city or village clerk, and the other of said poll-lists and copy of the registry so kept and checked 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 registration was made, of the registry, and shall include in such notice all additions to and omissions 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 compensation per folio as is prescribed for publishing other legal notices.
COMMON SCHOOLS.
SEC. 413. The formation 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 twenty days after the making thereof. The Supervisors shall deliver to a taxable inhabitant of the district their notice thereof in writing, describing its boundaries, and appointing a time and place for the first district meeting, and shall therein direct such inhabitant to notify every quali- fied voter of the district, either personally or by leaving a written notice at his place of resi- dence, 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 indorse thereon a return containing the names of all persons thus notified, and said notice and return shall be recorded as a part of the record of the first meeting in such district.
SEC. 414. In case such notice shall not be given, or the inhabitants of a district shall ncg- lect or refuse to assemble and form a district meeting when so notified, or in case any school dis- trict having been formed or organized shall afterward be disorganized, so that no competent authority shall exist therein to call a special district meeting, in the manner hereinafter pro- vided, notice shall be given by the Town Board, and served in the manner prescribed in the pre- ceding section. Whenever a district meeting shall be called as prescribed in this and the preceding section, it shall be the duty of the electors of the district to assemble at the time and place so directed.
SEC. 415. Whenever it shall be necessary to form a district from two or more adjoining towns, the Town Boards of such towns shall meet together and form such districts by their writ- ten order, describing the territory embraced in such district, signed by at least two of the Super- visors 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 such district, and cause the same to be served and returned in the time and manner hereinbefore prescribed ; and any such district may be altered only by the joint action of the Town Boards of such towns in the same manner that. other districts are altered.
SEC. 416. Every school district shall be deemed duly organized when any two of the offi- cers elected at the first legal meeting thereof shall have consented to serve in the offices to which they have been respectively elected, by a written acceptance thereof filed with the clerk of the first meeting, and recorded in the minutes thereof; and every school district shall be considered
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as duly organized after it shall have exercised the franchises and privileges of a district for the term of two years.
SEC. 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 September, in each year. The hour of such meeting shall be seven o'clock in the afternoon, unless otherwise provided by a vote of the district, duly 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 district shall be held on the last Monday of August instead of the last Monday 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 schoolhouse of such district is situated, and to remain in force until rescinded by a like vote of the electors of such district.
SEC. 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 schoolhouse, if there be one in the district, and he shall give like notices for every adjourned district meeting when such meeting shall have been adjourned for more than one month ; but no annual meeting shall be deemed illegal for want of due notice, unless it shall appear that the omission to give such notice was willful and fraudulent.
SEC. 427. Special district meetings may be called by the Clerk, or, in his absence, by the Directors or Treasurer, on 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 1 .. eting, shall have power to transact the same business as at the first and each annual meeting, except the election of officers. The business to 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 meeting, unless three-fourths of the legal voters shall have been notified, either personally or by a written notice left at their places of residence, 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.
SEC. 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 such school district.
ASSESSMENT AND COLLECTION OF DISTRICT TAXES.
SEC. 469. All school district taxes, unless otherwise specially provided by law, shall be assessed on the same kinds 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.
SEC. 474. Whenever, upon any unusual exigency, any school district shall, before the annual meeting, vote a special tax to be collected with the next levy, the district may, by vote, author- ize the District Board to borrow for a period not exceeding one year a suin not exceeding 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 and on such terms and exe- cute and deliver to the lender such obligation 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.
SEC. 498. Every District Clerk who shall willfully neglect to make the annual report for his district as required by law shall be liable to pay the whole amount of money lost by such
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district in consequence of his neglect, which shall be recovered in an action in the name of and for the use of the district.
SEC. 499. Every Town Clerk who shall neglect or refuse to make and deliver to the County Superintendent his annual report, as required 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 neglect 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 in an action prosecuted by the Town Treasurer in the name of the town.
SEC. 503. Every member of a district board in any school district in this State in which a list of text-books has been adopted according to law, who shall, within three years from the date of such adoption, or thereafter, without the consent of the State Superintendent, order a change of text-books in such district, shall forfeit the sum of fifty dollars.
SEC. 513. Every woman of twenty-one years of age and upward may be elected or appointed as director, treasurer or clerk of a school district, director or secretary of a town board under the township system ; member of a board of education in cities, or county superintendent.
SEC. 560. In reckoning school months, twenty days shall constitute a month and one hun- dred days five months.
ASSESSMENT OF TAXES.
SEC. 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.
SEC. 1036. The term " personal property," as used in this title, shall be construed to mean and include toll-bridges, saw-logs, timber and lumber, either upon land or afloat, steamboats, ships and other vessels, whether at home or abroad ; buildings upon leased lands, if such build- ings have not been included in the assessment of the land on which they are erected ; ferry-boats, including the franchise for running the same; all debts due from solvent debtors, whether on account, note, contract, bond, mortgage or other security, or whether such debts are due or to become due ; and all goods, wares, merchandise, chattels, moneys and effects of any nature or description having any real or marketable value and not included in the term "real property," as above defined.
SEC. 1037. The improvements on all lands situated in this State, which shall have been entered under the provisions of the act of Congress entitled " An act to secure homesteads to act- ual settlers on the public domain," approved May twentieth, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, and which shall be actually occupied and improved by the person so entering the same, or his heirs, shall be subject to taxation, and such improvements shall be assessed as personal property. All taxes levied thereon shall be collected out of the personal property of the occu- pant of such lands, and in no other manner.
SEC. 1038. The property in this section described is exempt from taxation, to wit:
1. That owned exclusively by the United States or by this State, but no lands contracted to be sold by the State shall be exempt.
2. That owned exclusively by any county, city, village, town or school district ; but lands purchased by counties at tax sales shall be exempt only in the cases provided in Sec- tion Eleven Hundred and Ninety-one.
3. Personal property owned by any religious, scientific, literary or benevolent association, used exclusively for the purposes of such association, and the real property, if not leased, or not otherwise used for pecuniary profit, necessary for the location and con- venience of the buildings of such association, and embracing the same not exceeding
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ten acres ; and the lands reserved for grounds of a chartered college 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 and used exclusively by the State or any county agricultural society, and the lands owned and used by any such society exclusively 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 purposes.
6. The property of Indians who are not citizens, except lands held by them by purchase.
7. Lands used exclusively as 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 which is required to pay taxes upon its property in the same manner as individuals.
10. So much of the debts due or to become due to any person 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 insurance companies that now are or shall be organized 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 any railroad in this State belonging to any railroad company, including pontoon, pile and pontoon 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 subdivision 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 exceeding one lot in amount, is exempted, so long as the same shall continue to be used as such home.
17. All property of any corporation or association formed under the laws of this State for the encouragement of industry by agricultural and industrial fairs and exhibitions, which shall be necessary for fair grounds, while used exclusively for such fairs and exhibitions, provided the quantity of land 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.
SEC. 1191. Real property, upon which the county holds any certificates of tax sale, shall continue liable to taxation and to sale for unpaid 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. Noth- ing in this section shall be so construed as to apply to lands owned by minors, married women, widowed women, idiots or insane persons.
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COLLECTION OF TAXES.
SEC. 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 towns, that the tax- roll for such town is in his hands for collection, and that the taxes charged therein are subject. to payment at his office at any time prior to the first day of January in such year; and after the said first day of January he shall proceed to collect the taxes charged in such roll and remaining 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 taxes charged to him on such roll.
SEC. 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 5-per-cent collection fees, except so much thereof as he is authorized by law to have for his fees upon taxes so paid.
SEC. 1091. Town orders shall be receivable for taxes in the town where issued, and shall be allowed the Town Treasurer on settlement of town taxes; and county orders and jurors' cer- tificates shall be receivable for taxes in the county where issued, and shall be allowed such Treas- urer 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' certifi- cates to a greater amount than the county tax included therein.
SEC. 1097. In case any person shall refuse or neglect to pay the tax imposed upon him, the Town Treasurer shall levy the same by distress and sale of any goods and chattels belong- ing 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 dis- tress and sale of the goods and chattels belonging to such person, wherever the same may be found in the county or in any adjoining counties.
SEC. 1098. The Town Treasurer shall give public notice of the time and place of such sale, at least six days previous thereto, by advertisement, containing a description of the prop- erty 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 public auction, in the daytime, and the property sold shall be present ; such property may be released by the payment of the taxes 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 purchase-money, and recover the same with costs and 10-per-centum damages.
SEC. 1099. If the property so levied upon 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 statement 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.
SEC. 1223. The Supervisors of the several 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 highways and bridges within their respective towns, and cause to be removed all obstructions therefrom.
2. To cause such of the roads used as highways as have been laid out but not sufficiently described, and such as have been lawfully laid out and used as such up to the then present time, but not fully and sufficiently recorded, to be ascertained, described and entered of record in the Town Clerk's office.
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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 districts such of the inhabitants liable to pay taxes on highways as they think proper, having regard to the nearness of residence as much as practicable.
6. To require the Overseers of Highways from time to time, and as often as they shall deem necessary, to perform any of the duties required of them by law.
7. To assess the highway taxes in their respective towns in each year, as provided by law.
8. To lay out and establish upon actual surveys, as hereinafter provided, such new roads in their respective towns as they may deem necessary and proper; to discontinue such roads as shall appear to them to have become unnecessary, and to widen or alter such roads when they shall deem necessary for public convenience, and perform all other duties respecting highways and bridges directed by this chapter.
INTOXICATING LIQUORS.
SEC. 1548. The Town Boards, Village Boards and Common Councils of the respective towns, villages and cities may grant license to such persons as they may deem proper, to keep groceries, saloons or other places, within their respective towns, villages or cities, for the sale in quantities less than one gallon of strong, spirituous, malt, ardent or intoxicating liquors, to be drank on the premises ; and in like manner may grant licenses for the sale in any quantity of such liquors not to be drank on the premises. The sum to be paid for such license for the sale of such liquor to be drank on the premises shall not be less than twenty-five nor more than one hundred and fifty dollars ; and for the sale of such liquors not to be drank on the premises shall be not less than ten nor more than forty dollars.
SEC. 1549. Every applicant for such license shall, before delivery thereof, file with such town, village or city clerk a bond to the State in the sum of five hundred dollars, with at least two sureties, to be approved by the authorities granting the license, who shall each justify in double its amount over and above their debts and liabilities and exemptions, and be freehold- ers and residents of the county, conditioned that the applicant, during the continuance of his license will keep and maintain an orderly and well-regulated house; that he will permit no gambling with cards, dice or any device or implement for that purpose, within his premises or any out-house, yard or shed appertaining thereto; that he will not sell or give away any intoxi- cating liquor to any minor, having good reason to believe him to be such, unless upon the writ- ten order of the parents or guardian of such minor, or to persons intoxicated or bordering upon intoxication, or to habitual drunkards ; and that he will pay all damages that may be recovered by any person, and that he will observe and obey all orders of such Supervisors, Trustees or Aldermen, or any of them, made pursuant to law. In case of the breach of the condition of any such bond, an action may be brought thereon in the name of the State of Wisconsin, and judgment shall be entered against the principals and sureties therein named for the full penalty thereof; and execution may issue thereupon by order of the court therefor, to satisfy any judgment that may have been recovered against the principal named in said bond, by reason of any breach in the conditions thereof, or for any penalties of forfeitures incurred under this chap- ter. If more than one judgment shall have been recovered, the court, in its discretion, may apply the proceeds of said bond toward the satisfaction of said several judgments, in whole or in part, in such manner as it may see fit.
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