A state institution
until the Tiemann Administration. (1959??)
For a short time we had no state tax. A ballot issue
eliminated personal property taxes in November and the
Unicameral did not meet until January to address the
issue of a sales tax. Real estate property taxes are
local.
Property tax
records from 1870s
Books which can be read from the back as well as the
front not a new idea.
Cedar Township 1877
Real Estate: James M Treichler, 160 acres, valued
at $120
Union Pacific Railroad, 640 acres, valued at $640
Personal Property:
14 residents with personal property valued from
31-532.50
Horses 3/60, 2/75, 3/100, 2/50, 2/70, 2/80
20, 37.5, 33,
25, 35, 40 (range 20-40)
(No oxen)
Mules 2/125 62.5
Cattle 14/200, 5/70, 20/80, 10/125, 1/20, 3/40, 1/20, 4/40,
8/90, 10/180
14.28 14 4
12.5 20 13.33 20 10 11 18 (range 4-20)
Swine ½, 3/2, ½, 2/4, 2/3, 2/2, 2/23
2 .66 2 2
1.50 1 11.50 (range .66 to 11.50)
Sheep 31/38 - 1.22
Carriages 30, 25, 35, 20, 20, 25, 10, 20, 40 (range 10-40)
Furniture15, 100, 150,
Other 197, 194.5, 58, 128, 17, 98.5, 90, 432.5, 192, 113.75,
31, 43, 125.75, 80.25
Range l7 432.5
Dogs 9 of 14 residents
(Personal property 31
other, no animals, no carriages, not even a dog. He left
1878)
Buffalo County
Communities
Majors never was a town or even a village, rather
it was a community of people in Cedar Township southwest
of Ravenna. There was a church and cemetery located in
the northeast quarter of Section 15, a school, and a
post office all in the area but not all grouped together
in one location.
The church (Presbyterian) was moved away long ago but
the cemetery remains. In fact, thats all that remains.
Both the school (Dist 20) and the post office have
closed.
Poole is located south of Ravenna, three miles
north and one east of the Majors cemetery. It was once
incorporated as a village, but has dropped that
incorporation. It also went by the name Poole Siding
because a branch of the railroad passed through there
and a lot of cattle were shipped to market from there.
Today a few houses remain that, with the surrounding
farms, make up the Poole community. The railroad is
gone, as is the post office. The school district has
consolidated with Ravenna although the school building
still stands.
Sartoria, up in the northwest corner of the
county, near the Sherman County line, is another town
that did not develop because the railroad never got
there. The tracks had been laid as far as Pleasanton
from Ravenna and the roadbed was graded from Pleasanton
to Sartoria, but the tracks were never laid. The town
had a post office, school, several professional offices
and retail businesses including a general store. There
was even a newspaper. While the village continued to
exist and serve the community until the 1920s, it did
not grow and with the coming of the automobile, it just
faded away.
Armada and Stanley moved when the Kearney
and Black Hills Railroad was built to become Miller and
Amherst. Kearney, of course, was founded because
of the railroad.