In the News
Old tax books cast light on land values, payments about Bernards Twp, Bernardsville, and Far Hills
By W. JACOB PERRY, Staff Writer
Published Bernardsville Newspaper: Friday, June 27, 2008 7:18 AM EDT
BERNARDS TWP. – It was a different time and a different world, when a township resident might have owned 30 acres and paid a yearly tax bill of less than $10. But it all comes to life in elaborately bound tax books with pages of hand-written names and numbers inscribed more than a century ago. More than 100 tax and cashbooks spanning the years from 1892 to 1970 will soon head from storage in the town hall basement on Collyer Lane to the township library on South Maple Avenue.
In keeping with state law, the records from all the books were preserved on microfilm some years ago. The paper records could legally be destroyed, but Township Clerk Denise Szabo didn’t want to go that route.
“They’re the history of Bernards Township,” Szabo said. “Why would we want to get rid of something that’s such a wonderful record of our history?”
Township Tax Collector Peggy Warren agreed. “They’re in remarkably good shape,” she said. “You can still make out names, amounts and assessed values. They’re quite interesting to look at.” Most of the books are roughly a foot high and two feet wide, with the color and style changing every few years depending on the bookbinding company.
The editions just before World War I, bound by Matthias Plum Blank Book Manufacturer of Newark, are particularly handsome and could share a shelf with the works of Shakespeare. Early editions were fairly thick, as Bernards Township included Far Hills until 1921 and Bernardsville until 1924. A majority of its population was lost when Bernardsville seceded, and the book for 1925 is only a third as thick as its predecessors.
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, property owners were listed alphabetically, not by lot and block, and the records were written by hand, not typed. That may seem crude by today’s standards, but it wasn’t sloppy. “I loved the handwriting,” said Warren. “The hand-writing is just beautiful.” The tax book for 1892 listed names without any addresses. Following each name was a listing of the person’s property holdings, the assessed values, and the total tax.
Livestock
The listed property had one category for real estate and another for “personal” possessions. The latter category included items like livestock and wagons, all of which were counted toward the taxable value, according to Warren. “It’s been quite awhile since they’ve done away with that,” she said. Conversely, there was also a category for “debt,” with any listed amount being deducted from the taxable value. Also listed, as a supplement to the tax bill, was a “dog tax” of 50 cents per dog – an amount that was fairly substantial in those days.
Familiar Names
The 1892 book is filled with family names that are now synonymous with local streets – Allen, Childs, Cross, Dayton, Haas, Schley and Whitenack, to name a few. A fairly typical taxpayer was Josiah Allen, who lived on a 23-acre Allen Road farm that later became the home of the late Irwin Richardt. Allen had property and personal items assessed at $500 and $100, respectively, for a total value of $600. His property tax for the year was $3.80, including a dog tax of 50 cents.
N.C.J. English owned 56-acre and 67-acre farms in Liberty Corner that the English family still owns today. He was assessed $3,700 for the smaller farm and $1,000 for the larger one, with a deduction for debts giving him a total value of $3,100. He paid a tax of $17.55.
There was also William Van Dorn, who owned a mill assessed at $6,100, and 45 acres including a grain storage shed – now the Grain House Restaurant – that was assessed at $1,800. His total holdings were valued at $8,800, and his tax was $35.70.
Probably the wealthiest landowner in Basking Ridge was Dr. Horatio Gates Whitnall, chief surgeon for the Union Army in the Civil War, who lived in the South Finley Avenue house now occupied by Bank of America. The property totaled 106 acres, including the present campus of Oak Street School. Whitnall was assessed $6,500 for the land and $5,000 for the house, with his total holdings valued at $13,600. He paid a tax of $71.22.
Biggest Taxpayers
But the biggest taxpayers, by far, were residents on the Bernardsville mountain. Frederick P. Olcott (1841-1909), president of the Central Trust Company in New York, had property valued at $61,500. That included a 20-acre estate valued at $25,000, 345 acres of land – much of it now owned by the Somerset Hills Country Club – valued at $16,500, and $20,000 in personal items. He paid a tax of $270.60.
George S. Post (1837-1913), a famed architect who designed the New York Stock Exchange building, had property valued at $84,000. That included a 15-acre estate valued at $35,000, other homes and farmland valued at $41,000 and $8,000 in personal items. He paid a tax of $336. The biggest taxpayer of all was apparently George I. Seney (1826-1893), a president of New York’s Metropolitan Bank. He built and still owned the Somerset Inn, a massive hotel that attracted the rich and famous before it was destroyed in a 1908 fire. Seney’s property had a total assessed value of $171,600, including $40,000 for the hotel, $25,000 for his 20-acre residence, “The Maples,” $12,000 for a cottage, $7,000 for three other homes, $57,600 for 960 acres of farmlands, and $30,000 in personal items. His tax for 1892 was a whopping $755.04. The book listed the township’s portion of tax collections for the year at $7,683. The township’s total valuation was put at $1,920,920.
By comparison, the combined 2006 valuation for the township, Bernardsville and Far Hills was $10.21 billion. “It’s a vital part of Bernards Township history, and it’s a wonderful idea to move them to a safer location so people can look at them,” Warren said of the books.“It’s not only for the good of Bernards Township but also for some of the area towns.”