HISTORY: Chapter 12, History of Cayuga Co., NY 1879; Cayuga co., NY submitted by W. David Samuelsen *********************************************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ny/nyfiles.htm *********************************************************************** 1789 - History of Cayuga County, New York, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers, by Elliot G. Storke, assisted by Jas. H. Smith. Pub. by D. Mason & Co., Syracuse, N.Y. 1879 CHAPTER XII VALUATION AND TAXATION VALUATION FROM 1800 TO 1877 - STUDY OF THE TABLE - COMPARATIVE VALUATION OF FARM LANDS - OF REAL AND PERSONAL PROPERTY - COMPARATIVE TAXATION - SUPPORT OF THE POOR - LUNATICS - COUNTY POOR HOUSE. EARLY SUPERVISORS. The Supervisors of the County of Cayuga in 1818 were the following: William Allen, Scipio; William Clark, Genoa; Nehemiah Wisner, Aurelius; James Leonard, Mentz; Charles Chamberlain, Locke; William Satterlee, Sempronius; Elijah Devoe, Owasco; Rufus Sheldon, Brutus; Augustus F. Ferris, Cato; John McFadden, Sterling, representing ten towns. The town of Auburn was first represented in the Board of Supervisors in 1824, Elijah Miller being the first Supervisor from that town. There were then eighteen Supervisors, as follows: Auburn, Elijah Miller; Aurelius, Robert Cook; Brutus, Sylvester Sheldon; Cato, John Jackway; Conquest, William Crowell ; Fleming, Lyman Loomis; Ira, William H. Noble Genoa, William Wilber; Locke, Silas Bowker; Ledyard, Ephraim C. Marsh; Mentz, James Leonard; Owasco, Geo. R. Brinkerhoff; Springport, Asa W. Burnham; Scipio, John Daniels; Sempronius, William Satterlee; Venice, John Beardsley ; Victory, Roswell Enos. The fact is disclosed by the proceedings of our early Supervisors that the principal sources of local taxation were damages paid to land owners for new roads laid through their lands ; bridging streams, for the support of the poor, and for bounties paid for the destruction of wild beasts. PAUPERISM. Contrary to the common belief, we have had the poor with us always. The early settlers were not all self-supporting. The hard-ships and privations of the early emigrants caused much sickness amongst them ; many heads of families died, leaving sick and dependent members who required temporary support from the more favored. There were not then many chronic paupers, but the aggregate assistance required was relatively large. Before the erection of the County Poor House, in 1825, the amount paid by the towns for the support of the poor, was nearly equal to all the other town expenses. Aside from the maintenance of the paupers and the expenses incident to opening new roads, the other town expenses were very light. The town of Aurelius, which in 1818 included the village of Auburn, paid in the four years from 1818 to 1821 inclusive, for all local purposes $3,244.04, of which sum $2,354, or more than two-thirds, went for the support of the poor, and a similar expense, for the same purpose, was imposed upon the other towns of the County. We, therefore, had indigence and pauperism sixty years ago, relatively to the numbers of the people, nearly as great as at the present time. In 1823 the town of Auburn was formed and in 1824 the entire town expenses were but $302.21, or excluding damages incurred for laying new roads, it amounted only to about one hundred dollars. In 1825 the town paid $200 to improve highways and the same amount for the support of the poor, and for all other local expenses $47.36. In 1827 it was still less. We append the items as found in the records of the Supervisors proceedings of that year. Asa Munger, com. of schools three years, $11.25 Hackaliah Burt, com. " two " 7.50 John Patty, com. " one " 3.75 Samuel Dill, com. of highways, 1.00 Collector's commission, 1.59 Total, $25.09 It is quite apparent from the early records of the bills audited by the Board of Supervisors of the County, that official incumbents did not then depend upon office for their support. In further demonstration of the poor expenses, before the erection of the County Poor House, we append the following : The town charges of Scipio in 1824 were $380.41, of which sum $250 was for the support of the poor ; Ledyard 5288.68, of which $250 was "poor money"; Owasco, $182.37, of which $100 was "poor money"; Locke, $212, of which $150 was "poor money"; Sempronius, $447, of which $250 was appropriated for the support of the poor, and so on through the list of towns and the records of years. These heavy expenses for the support of the poor, led the Supervisors at their session in 1825 to take measures for the erection of a County Poor House, a site for which, comprising seventy-nine acres, was procured on the farm of Thomas Stevenson, then in the town of Brutus. George Casey, Daniel Sennett, Henry Polhemus and Salmon Tyler were appointed superintendents for the erection of the building and superintending the general object of County pauperism. Two thousand dollars were appropriated in 1825 to this object, and three thousand dollars in 1826. The building was completed in the latter year, during which fifty-two paupers were received, and in 1827 the number had risen to one hundred and fifty, a number of inmates exceeding the present average. The first lunatics were sent to the Insane Asylum from this County in 1843, when four were taken to Utica by Dr. J. D. Button. The present number of insane maintained by the County in the two asylums of Utica and Willard is seventy,-fifty-two at the latter who are considered incurables, and eighteen at the former many of whom are considered as curable cases. The whole number of insane persons in the County in 1875, was 157, an increase in this unfortunate class within twenty-five years of about three-fold, and nearly equaling the aggregate number of the blind, idiotic and deaf and dumb in the County. The cost to the County of maintaining the insane in the asylums, exclusive of clothing, is four dollars per week at Utica, and two dollars and sixty cents at Willard, thus imposing in the support of these unfortunates, an annual tax exceeding $12,000. Sylvester Willard, M. D., was the first physician to the poor house. Dr. Boyce has held that position for the past seventeen years, receiving a salary of $250. In 1843 the cost of maintaining the poor of the County outside of the poor-house was $7,24.55, and at the poor house $3,707.62, a total cost of $10,932.17. In 1877, at the poor house the cost amounted to $7,741.94 and outside of it $31,407.21, an aggregate cost for the maintenance. of the poor of $39,149. 13, nearly four times the aggregate of 1843. The present average weekly cost of the maintenance of the paupers at the County Poor House is one dollar and fifty-six cents, independently of the annual products of the farm. E. L. Phelps held the position of Keeper of the Poor House for seventeen years, and Morris M, Olmstead that of Superintendent of the Poor for twenty, and is the present incumbent of that office.