Relatively Speaking Blog

As in I had done previously in 2016 and 2017, April’s post includes some extracts from early tax rolls, this time featuring Columbia County, PA.  Since April 15^th is the deadline to file tax forms for individual earned income, April is considered by many to be “Tax Month”.  Besides earned income, citizens must also pay taxes to their county municipalities for real or personal property they own.  The records below capture Real Estate (R), Personal (P), and Other (O) taxes for the listed individuals.

1828 Tax List Fishing Creek Township, Columbia County, PA
					Taxes
Occupant	Acres	Prices	Horses	Cattle	Real	P	O	Total
Brown, Philip							10	.10
Carnes, John	250	3	2	3	188	35	10	2.38
Carnes, Daniel				1		5	10	.15
Carnes, Peter  single							50	.50
Eveland, Daniel	50	2	2	1	25	25	10	.60
German, John	160	10	1	2	400	20	10	4.30
Hildebrand, William	200	1		1	50	5	10	.65
Hildebrand, David	400	1/2			150		10	.10
1828 Tax List Hemlock Township, Columbia County, PA
					Taxes
Occupant	Acres	Prices	Horses	Cattle	Real	P	O	Total
Rees, Abraham	100	6	2	1	150	25	10	1.85
Reeser, Gabriel	150	9	2	3	338	35	10	3.85
Shane, George	126	16	3	4	524	50	10	5.84
	20	4
Shoemaker, Abraham	100	5	2	2	125	30	10	1.65
Snyder, Daniel	13	4			13			.13
Shane, Thomas				1		5	15	.20
Swenk, Solomon							10	.10

For several years, the tax records provide additional information that expanded the number of columns.  For the extracts below, I have arranged the information to better fit the space of the page.  The handwriting of the tax collector was not always legible; items that were not clearly discernable are italicized and those that could not be read are entered as ?????.   In the column for buildings, letter codes were used; I believe that L was for lot, and h was for house.  Philip Brown did appear in the 1829 tax rolls for Fishing Creek Township, but the quality of the photocopy I have was not clear enough to transcribe.

1829 Tax List Fishing Creek Township, Columbia County, PA
Occupant Names	Owners	Buildings	Adjoining	Occupation	Valuation
Hildebrand, William	JK Coyen	L h	?????	Laborer
Taxables		(R)  acres	200	2	400	100
		(P)  cattle	1			5
		(O)			2	10
		Total				1.15
Hildebrand, David				Laborer
Taxables		(P)  cattle	1			5
		(O)				10
		Total				.15
1838 Tax List Fishing Creek Township, Columbia County, PA
Occupant Names	Owners	Buildings	Adjoining	Occupation	Valuation
Brown, Philip	Montgomery	L h	Lagouth	Laborer
Taxables		(R)  acres	2 1/2	15	37 1/2	.09
		(P)  cattle				5
		(O)			1	10
		Total				.15
Hildebrand, William	his own	L h	C W Henry	Laborer
Taxables		(R)  acres	10	6	60	15
		(P)  cattle				10
		(O)			2	10
		Total				.35
Hildebrand, David				Laborer
Taxables		(P)				5
		(O)			1	10
		Total				.15