Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1873-01-07
! SUPERVISORS, COURT.
RARpEH'sii ''FEaaY, Dec. 24..1S7

II. @. Entler were present -.
The Committeeappointed at a former meet
ing of the Board TO settle with the B. It 0.
r. r. Co., for back taxes due the county sub
mtted the following report:
To the Boardof Supervisors 6f'J.ferson
County Your cdmmttee, appointed by the
Resolution of thee Boardszof the sd day of
December, 1879 grespcctiullyreport that, ac-
companied by their COUNSEL Messrs. Green &
Lucas, with the CLERK of the Board, they went
to Baltimore on Tuesday the 10Th day of De-
cember, and returned on Thursday the 18th
instant; during the trip they had an inter.
view with the Railroad authorities and SUBJ
mitted to thea& DIE demand Of the Board, for
the taxes due our county, and the several
townships in the county; they took time to
consider the subject, and to visit Baltimore
again on the 2OttTnstant, with the counsel of
the Board; to rstkn on the 22d instant, hav
ing assented to resoverfSl0, 600 for the taxes
due the county, up to the present time, with
the interest thereof. That you may under
stand fully the:grd uuds efthe settlement and
our reasons for. assnting thereto, we would
respectfully presedt them to you for your con-
sderatiop. The afigfnal claim presented by
us to the Company On our first visit to Balti-
more, amounted to about SSl, 900 and was
calculated on the assessment at this time, of
the property. real and personal of the b. e.
o. Railroad Company, in this county. nclud>
ing the Winchester & Potomac Railroad
This assessment was S5S8, 092 and the S31.-
600 including all taxes county and township
together, with the interest thereon to this
time. On our second trip to Baltimore, we
surrendered every claim to township taxes,
being advised by counsel. thus all the
township taxes laid in this county have been
laid in violation of the Constitution. and could
not be collected. These Township taxes
amounted to about 81 900, and reduced our
claim to about S24, 000 Wefurther absolved
nearly one-fourth of the tax of 1872, being
advised by our counsel, that the law expressly
provides that one Railroad should not be re-
quired to pay tax to build another, and
nearly one fourth of our taxes this year being
withheld to aid in building the Shenandoah
Valley Railroad. This reduction amounted
to some 81 400, reducing our demand to about
So, 600. Again it seemed proper to allow as
a credit on this amount. the taxes which would
have been levied on Winchester & Potomac
Railroad, in 1870. That this Company had
a larger amount of property destroyed by the
flood, in the Shenandoah. of that year, than
their taxes of this year, this abatement
amounted to some SIG, 000 reducing our
ciaim't 90 some S2l 200. This was again sub
ject to further small deduction on account
Of Il partial failure in some years to assess the
personal property of the Railroad. This could
not now be corrected through the total failure
for number of years to assess the real estate.
would under the law be now corrected
Again if it should be held that the Winches.
ter Il Potomac Railroad is now at this time
liable to taxation, point not far from doubt.
this would make further abatement Of ST.
600. and reduce our claim to $4,000. and
their liability to even this or to any tax is
denied by the Railroad Company, our counsel
advised US however, that they we're decidedly
of opinion that under the most adverse deci~
sions of the court that could he anticipated
we would recover at least Sl4, eco; we there
fore demanded $4,000, but finding that we
could not obtain more than SIC, 900. and be-
lieving that the true intent of the courts
would be promoted by an acceptance of the
$40, 600 we finally assented thereto. and subs
NIT our action to you, hoping it will meet
your approval.
Respectfully submitted.
J. II. HAINES,
President of Court
j. j. KERN,
A. NJ. SPONSEELER,
II. G. ENTLEK
December 81, 1872
Upon motion of W. II. Kabse, the report
of the Committee was accepted and uuau-
mouSly approved.
The foregoing report having been unani-
mously approved, it is ordered by the Super.
vlsors OF the Comfy of Jefferson, w Va,
that they settle with the Baltimore & Ohio r.
X. Co.. and the Winchester & Potomac r. R.
Co., for back taxes, whether assessed or unas.
sessed, due or in arrears, to the County Of
Jefferson and the Townships of Harpers
Ferry, Bolivar, Chapliue, Shepherd, Averill,
Charlestown, Osbourn, Grant, Potomac and
Middleway, in said County, of whatever kind
or nature previous to and including the taxes
for the year 1872, from the said companies or
either of them for the sum of ten thousand
dollars $50, 000) and it is further ordered
that the Sheriff of Jefferson County be di>
rected to receive said money and report the
payment thereof, to execute ali proper ac-
qulttances and releases Of the said taxes
The suit enjoining the collection of said taxes
now pending in the United States Circuit
Court is to be dismissed at the cost of the b.
& 0. r. r. Co.
On motion it was ordered that the Clerk of
this Board issue to J ohm i. Erwin. (Assessor1
the orders for his salary as fixed by the pre-
vious Board.
[Salary 3 per cent. of county lcvey $780,
OO0)-S2, 400, for work which an intelligent.
gentleman AYERS that he would do for S25.
Messrs. Green Il Lucas, Attorneys for the
Board. submitted the following report. which
upon motion, was received and ordered to be
placed upon the minutes of the Board:
To tie favorable Board OF Supervisors of
jefferson Having been employed by your
honorable body as counsel in various matters
of public interest, we desire to report briefly
to you, now that your Board is about to give
way to different system of local administra-
ton, the results Of the various matters in
which we have been your counsel.
In February 1869 we were employed by
you to reduce the tariff Of trnvel and trans