February 04, 2008
Taxes a pain today just as in 1860s
By O.C. Stonestreet
You have probably just received your W-2 form from your employer, so it will soon be time again to help Uncle Sam with a donation from you and me.
And speaking of taxes (see how effortlessly I did that?), a taxation form of an earlier day recently came into my hands.
The date: January 1865. The recipient of tax was not Uncle Sam in Washington, D.C., United States of America, but Uncle Jeff Davis in Richmond, Virginia, Confederate States of America.
J.H. Stevenson, assessor, figured the taxes for 1864 for J.F. Stevenson of Iredell County on Form 2, Estimate and Assessment of Agricultural Products, Tax in Kind. Whether the two Messrs. Stevenson were related, I have no clue.
Mr. Stevenson attested that he had produced 205 bushels of corn and that he was allowed a 65 bushel deduction. The Confederate government was entitled to a tithe, or a tenth of the remaining amount, which would be 14 bushels, with an estimated value of 140 Confederate dollars.
The next item was 800 pounds of cured fodder, the government to get 80 pounds, bringing Mr. Stevenson’s total tax valuation for the year to 144 Confederate dollars.
It must be remembered that during this time, the war was going badly for the Confeder-ates, and Confederate money was basically an IOU from their government with little of value to back it, so as Confed-erate military success waned, so did the value of Confederate money.
Mr. Stevenson further estimated that he planned to “raise and fatten for pork and not to be sold on the hoof” eight hogs, and that to fatten them the above mentioned 65 bushels of corn would be used.
Now just think how easy it would be to figure your taxes with this system. Take the product (money for you and me) subtract deductions and then send a tenth of what is left to the government. This would certainly put the tax preparers out of work.
Two similar documents surfaced in 1913, and their finding was written about in the old Landmark of March 28, 1913, under the title, “Report of the Tithe Gatherer.”
It seems that Tom Bailey was moving from Iredell’s Sharpesburg township to Stony Point and, as frequently happens, took the opportunity provided by the move to get rid of some “stuff.”
Deputy Sheriff C.E. Jones was at the sale and bought a load of old books and papers, in which the Confederate tax records were discovered.
Jones brought the papers in to share with The Landmark and its readers.
The 1913 article noted that “at the bottom is a certificate which the farmer had to sign, making oath before the assessor that he had given in the full amount of his crop; also a blank for the ‘post quartermaster’ to sign, he being the individual who receipted the assessor or tithe-gatherer for the tithes collected and turned in.”
These two documents were both Form 4 (the one I saw was a Form 2) for a Mr. R.M. Grant and the other for a Mr. David Scroggs for their 1863 crops.
Scroggs, who lived south of Statesville, will be given first.
To quote from the 1913 Landmark, “Mr. Scroggs returned 46 bushels of wheat, 15 of rye, 12 of buckwheat and 400 pounds of cured fodder. From this small store the government took 4 and 4/10 bushels of wheat, valued at $26.40; 1 and ½ bushels of rye valued at $3; 1 and 2/10 bushels of buckwheat valued at $6; and 40 pounds of fodder, valued at 80 cents.
“L.V. Campbell (Leonidas), who lived in north Iredell signed the certificate as assessor. On the back of the blank is a memorandum written in ink, which shows that in addition to the above amount, Mr. Scroggs turned in 36 pounds of bacon and 16 bushels of corn. This memorandum is signed by C.M. Howell, who lived in the Olin community, and who seems to have been a quartermaster or something of that sort who received the tithes from Assessor Campbell.”
“The other blank, (an0 exact duplicate of the first, bears the return of R.M. Grant, who lived in north Iredell. Mr. Grant returned as his crop in 1863 — both returns dated Oct.24 — 25 bushels of wheat, 160 bushels of corn, 40 bushels of oats, 12 bushels of rye, 800 pounds cured hay, 650 pounds cured fodder and seven pounds of wool.
“From Mr. Grant the assessor took as toll 2 and 3/10 bushels of wheat, valued at $13.80; four bushels of oats, valued at $8; 1 and 2/10 bushels of buckwheat, valued at $6; 80 pounds of hay, valued at $1.60; 65 pounds of fodder, valued at $1.30; and 7/10 of a pound of the small supply of wool, valued at $2.10. The tithe of Mr. Grant’s corn isn’t clear but it seems for some reason he was only assessed on 60 bushels instead of 160, the government taking six bushels, which it valued at $36; and in Quartermaster Howell’s memorandum on the back of the blank Grant is credited with 40 pounds of bacon in addition to the above.”
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Besides giving us information on who lived in Iredell County during the Civil War, we also have a better understanding of what crops and what amounts of the crops were grown and their value.
If you read carefully, you’ll see that in Mr. Grant’s 1,863 valuation corn was valued at $6 a bushel (6 bushels at $36), while in the January 1865 valuation of Mr. Stevenson, a bushel of corn is valued at $10 a bushel (14 bushels at $140).
So too with the value of the cured fodder. In 1863, 65 pounds of fodder was worth $1.30 or 2 cents per pound; by 1865, its value had risen.
Now 80 pounds was worth $4, or 5 cents per pound.
Either its value had more than doubled, or the value of Confederate currency had more than halved.
These printed papers were as common then as the ubiquitous 1040-A of the Internal Revenue Service is today, but because of their scarcity and historic significance, collectors of Civil War memorabilia have been known to pay more than $100 today to have one of these documents of the past.
