RECORDS OF THE UNION COUNTY TREASURER

ABSTRACTS OF HOUSE TRAILER TAX (1951-1971)

1 Volume
Arranged Chronologically, therein Alphabetically by Taxing District

Shows trailer registration number, owner, address, court or park, tax and penalty, manufacturer, model, serial number, and date paid.

DAILY CASH RECORD (1902-1911)

2 Volumes
Arranged Chronologically

Contains a daily record of treasurer’s transactions, showing cash balances, receipts, and disbursements made during the day.

JOURNAL OF WARRANTS REDEEMED (1889-1904)

4 Volumes
Arranged Chronologically by Payment

Contains a record of the redemption of auditor’s warrants by the treasurer showing for each: payee, date issued, number, amount and purpose of warrant, account or fund charged, and date paid.

RATES OF TAXATION (1902-1978)

1 Volume
Arranged Chronologically, therein Alphabetically by Taxing District

Contains lists of the taxing districts and the rate of taxation levied in each district for the given tax year.

RECORDS OF OFFICIALS’ BONDS (1821-1979)

8 Volumes
Arranged Chronologically by Filing

Contains a copy of surety bonds filed by county officials showing office holder, office, sureties, amounts and conditions of bonds, date approved, and date filed.

SETTLEMENTS (1876-1908)

2 Volumes
Arranged Chronologically, therein Alphabetically by Taxing District

Records of treasurer’s semi-annual settlements with taxing districts showing real and personal taxes collected and credited, collections from other sources, and amount debited.

TAX COLLECTION REGISTERS (1884-1916)

2 Volumes
Arranged Chronologically

Contains treasurer’s daily record of tax collections showing date, total collected, and for each payment: taxpayer, taxing district, amount paid, and kind of tax.

TAX DUPLICATES – DELINQUENT (1853-1986)

12 Volumes
Arranged Chronologically, therein alphabetically by Taxing District and Taxpayer

DELINQUENT PERSONAL (CHATTEL) (1853-1954) – Contains lists of persons owing delinquent personal property taxes showing for each: years, name and address of property owner, tax and penalties, total due, and date paid.  See the Auditor’s section for further Delinquent Personal .

DELINQUENT REAL ESTATE (1853-1986) – Contains lists of delinquent taxes assessed against real property within the county, showing property owner, survey number, original quantity, original proprietor, acreage, value, delinquent tax, penalty, and total amount due.  See the Auditor’s section for further Delinquent Real Estate .

TAX DUPLICATES – DITCH (1880-1880)

1 Volume
Arranged Chronologically, therein Alphabetically by Taxing District and Property Owners

Contains a record of special assessment for improved ditches showing year, property owner, taxing district, value, amount of tax and date paid.  See the Auditor’s section for Ditch Tax Lists from 1883 to 1931.

TAX DUPLICATES – DOG (1878-1878)

1 Volume
Arranged Chronologically, therein Alphabetically by Taxing District and Taxpayer

Contains lists of persons owing special dog tax showing for each: owners’ name, number of dogs, value, special tax valuation, and total tax.

TAX DUPLICATES – FREE TURNPIKE AND ROAD (1867-1884)

7 Volumes
Arranged Chronologically, therein alphabetically by Taxing District and Taxpayer

Contains a record of taxes levied for the maintenance of free turnpikes and public roads showing number of road or turnpike, property owners, property value, tax rate, assessment, penalties, total due, and date paid.  See the Auditor’s section for Gravel Road Duplicates post 1873.

TAX DUPLICATES – HOUSE TRAILER (1982-1989)

8 Volumes
Arranged Chronologically, therein Alphabetically by Taxing District and Taxpayer

Contains a record of taxes paid on manufactured homes showing for each: owner, address, year made, assessed value, tax, penalty and date paid.

TAX DUPLICATES – LIQUOR (1884-1930)

2 Volumes
Arranged Chronologically, therein Alphabetically by Taxing District and Taxpayer

Contains lists of property assessed liquor sales tax showing property owner, description of tract, name and location of dealer, date commencing business, amount assessed, and date paid.

In the 1870s and 1880s the temperance movement progressively became a more and more important social reform program in Ohio.  These pressures led to the Ohio General Assembly passing the “Pond Law” in March 1882, which placed a tax on saloons.  In order to sell liquor a saloon had to pay a tax of $100 to $300 a year, based on the population of the community.  In addition, the law required each saloon to pay a bond of $1,000 to guarantee payment of the tax.  Two months after the law’s passage the Ohio Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional based on the fact that the tax was a license.

The legislature responded to this by passing the “Scott Law” on April 17, 1883.  This law assessed a flat tax of $200 a year on saloons selling whisky and a tax of $100 a year on those selling only beer and wine.  The law also placed a lien on the property where the liquor was sold to ensure payment of the tax.  The law was initially ruled constitutional, but after the election to the bench of a “pro-liquor” justice the law was ruled unconstitutional in October 1884 by a 3-2 vote.  The court’s reasoning being the same as before that the law “is in effect a license law”.

On May 14, 1886, the Ohio General Assembly passed an act “providing against the evils resulting from the traffic in intoxicating liquors”.  The ruling against the “Scott Law” was “never accepted as sound law”, so the General Assembly “substantially re-enacted the law” in new form.  This law was known as the “Dow Law”.  The differences being that the law provided a “local option clause” for municipalities and closed the saloons on Sundays.  On December 17, 1886, in a 3-2 vote the Ohio Supreme Court held the law to be constitutional.  All other judicial attempts to overturn the law were subsequently defeated.  In 1888, the tax was raised to $250 for those establishments selling whiskey, while those selling only beer and wine was raised to $125.  The tax was raised to $350 in 1896 and did away with the different rate structure between whiskey, wine and beer.  It stated in revised statutes section 4364:

upon the business of trafficking in spirituous, vinous, malt, or any intoxicating liquors, there shall be assessed, yearly, and shall be paid into the county treasury, as herein after provided, by every person, corporation, or co-partnership engaged therein, and for each place where such business is carried on by or for such person, corporation or co-partnership, the sum of three hundred and fifty dollars.

In 1906, the tax rate was raised to $1,000 per year.

United State Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall in the famous case McCulloch v. Maryland wrote “the power to tax involves the power to destroy” and, so it was with the tax on saloons.  In 1886, when the “Scott Law” was passed the first tax assessment in Union County found 30 liquor establishments in the county all of which sold only beer and wine; a number that held steady until the tax was raised to $1,000 per year.  Then it began to drop precipitously until by 1908 there were only 17 left in the county.

It was in that year on March 5, that the General Assembly granted the power of “local option in counties” when “thirty-five per cent. of the qualified electors” petitioned “the county commissioners or any common pleas judge” in the county.  On September 9, 1908, 3,413 citizens of Union County presented a petition to Union County Common Pleas Court Judge John M. Brodrick to “order a special election…to ascertain the will of the voters of said County whether the sale of intoxicating liquors as a beverage shall be prohibited”.  The Judge accepted the petition and on Monday, October 5, 1908, the special election was held in Union County.  With a vote of 3,736 to 1,937, Union County went dry.  The saloons all closed for business by November 4 of that year.

Ohio voters in 1914 approved a constitutional amendment granting home rule to municipalities on “intoxicating liquors”.  Subsequently, both Marysville and Richwood allowed the reestablishment of saloons in both communities.  Richwood voted on the issue on January 12, 1915, and in a vote of 269 to 268 the “drys” won the election.  This result was challenged by former saloon owner Carl Allgower.  The Union County Probate Court, hearing the appeal, adjusted the vote total to 267 to 263 still giving the “drys” the victory.  The Common Pleas Court affirmed the Probate Court decision.  The Court of Appeals reversed the two lower court decisions and corrected the results to 267 for the “drys” and 268 for the “wets”, allowing liquor to be sold once again in Richwood.  On January 30, 1917, the Ohio Supreme Court reversed the Court of Appeals and affirmed the decisions of the Probate and Common Pleas Courts, once again making Richwood a dry community.

Ohio voters were asked in 1914, 1915 and 1917 to approve Ohio constitutional amendments to prohibit “intoxicating liquors”, but all three measurers were defeated.  Finally, on November 5, 1918, Ohio voters approved state-wide prohibition.  This was followed by the approval of national prohibition on January 16, 1919, with the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.  The 8 remaining liquor establishments in Marysville all closed shortly thereafter and remained so until the repeal of the prohibition on December 5, 1933, when the Twenty-First Amendment was ratified.

TAX DUPLICATES – PERSONAL (1854-1991)

26 Volumes
Arranged Chronologically, therein Alphabetically by Taxing District and Taxpayer

Contains lists of persons owing personal property tax showing for each year: property value, assessment, penalty and tax due, and date paid.  Tax lists not specifically enumerated here can be found with the real estate tax lists – i.e. personal property lists prior to 1854 and post 1873; also see the Auditor’s Personal Tax List .

TAX DUPLICATES – REAL ESTATE (1827-1988)

927 Volumes
Arranged Chronologically, therein Alphabetically by Taxing District and Taxpayer

Contains lists of taxes assessed against real property within the county showing property owner, township, water course, original proprietor and quantity, acreage, parcel number, value of property, tax, delinquency, and date paid.  Also contains record of special assessments showing nature of public improvement, assessment, and record of exempted real property.  See the Auditor’s Real Estate Tax List from further tax duplicates.