Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1891-02-06
! SINGLE TAX DEPARTMENT.
THE STORY OF A CORNER.

| braced between the following street
in the city of st. Louis: Fourth street
jefferson avenue (Which is now TWEEN
| ty-fourth street,. Market street and st
l;iaarles. This bit Of ground is invent,
blocks long and five wide. 1t is til,
heart of st. Louis. Mr.. Lucas paid fo
it $i1.36-i in hard money OF the 'nitct
States Up to the tune of his pur
chases. shaved dcerslins at two ant
one-half pounds to- the dollar had bee,
the medium of exchange. ''Haro
money was preferred and was no,
plentiful. Tho purchasing power of {;
lizard dollar" is difficult of comparison
with the money of to-day: but it was
80 fifty per cent. more than the dolla,
cf 1890. Accepting the latter Mr.. Lu-
cass land cost S2.0lG.
In 1916 Nj. Lucas added by deed a
strip of ground. five by five block, to the
town, but if was some years before The
limits of the town extended to INCLUDE,
this addition. | think il was about lSsii
:rhen tho western limit WAS moved from
Fourth street tn Seventh street. and
about 1913 when it went west 10 Twelfth
street. Ii | am right about the last
date. and ] think | am. the southeast
corner of block 1S%. which is bounded
on one size by Chestnut street and OIL
another by Seventh street, was not
within the city limits when. il. 1888.
James Brotherton bought It from j. H.
c. Lucas for Sl.:,9G hard money Of the
United States.
This little bit of GROUND! was just l-40o
OF the ground Mr.. Lucas had bought be-
tween nineteen and twenty-eiph, years.
Before for sl.3G4.
Mr.. Brothcrton conveyed this quarter
block to- his sister. Mrs. Matilda, Settle.
for So. III 1914. and her husband several
years later built upon it . row OF five
brick houses fronting Oh Chestnut street
and two frame houses fronting on Sew
cnth street In 1874 the twO frame,
were renting for $500 per year The
corner brick house {usrl as a saIoonl
returned S1.00G per year, and the othc,
four houses in the roM returned 5000
per year each. That was NOT less than
twenty-five years after The Lenses had
been built. They had dcterioratcd
through age and u.se but the loss in
these directions had hce,, made UP by
the growth Of the city about them
How many wears they had been earning
~, 400 ] do not know. but it is rcasona-
bic to suppose they never earned much
less.
in 1866 the quarter block. with all OF
'ts improvements. was assessed for tax
atlon at s26,230, and paid State. county.
school and military tax amounting to
sS19.GS.
George Il. Settle inherited this prop
erty from his parents. and in 1870. when
a commission was looking for a site for
:. custom house in st. Louis, he offered
This for $4,000. The commission agreed
70 buy, but changed it's decision and
tsaught a block two blocks away. IN
1874 Mr. Settle sold the property to
henry Corwith of Chicago for 500, 900
= was assessed that year at $50, $50, the
taxes amount to- S1OO.1l. and the income
was. as have said, 81: 400 per year.
MIR. Corwith spent little for repairs,
but the city required SlGa.3s in special
taxes for the improvement of the two
adjoining alleys. and $2.34414 for the
paving of the streets on two sides of the
with granite blocks. The as
sessment fell off to S3s,05O in 1881 from
$50. $50 in 1874; but the tax rate had been
and while in the earlier year
The amount was 500, it was now nearly
81, 0O0 In 1884 the assessment had adj
vanced to $50, 400. and the taxes to ST.
sS5.20. In 1856 the assessment fell $500
and the taxes $500.
Jay Goul d bought the property in 1857
for $4,000. The buildings on it were
very poor, but We're still renting for be-
tween $4,000 and $1,000. Mr.. Gould was
then asking favors of the municipal as
sembly for his railroads. and to concili-
ate st. Louisans he caused an announce
ment to be made that he intended to
build a ten-story structure on this
ground. To give color to this he caused
the old, unsightly buildings to be re-
moved.
In 1888. when the assessment was
made, the quarter block was bare. save
tor some worthless foundation stone.
and had no more value, apart from it's
nearncss to large numbers of men and
to centers of trade, than it had when
Pierre and Joseph Bccq,1ette, Louis
Ride, Rene Kiercerau, Louis Bissonet
and Joseph Gamache cultivated that
Ind adjacent land in the fear OF Indians
and sight of the fort. However. the
assessors, probably taking into consid-
sration the fact that MIR. Gould had
paid $4,000 for the property. assessed
y at SGO.030. and the tax bill that wear
vas Sl,3So.Go. The land yielded Mr..
iould nothing. He would have paid
Inc same amount of tax in 1889. but be-
ore the taxes for that year became
Tue he sold the property to Daniel Cat
in for 100000. He had held the prop
'rty seventeen months and had a gross
'rot1t OF $1,000 out Of it. If you charge
gainst that the S1,3s0.69 taxes YOU leave |
5.6l931. which is equal to seven per
ent. on Mr.. Gould's investment.
Mr.. Catlin did even better. He paid
he tax bills of 1889 and 1s9O-tlle latter
mounting to 81. $50. 1G on an assessment
4 700, 7sO-tholgh on May 90, 1890, he
ad sold the property to Mrs. Catherine
}. wainwright for $l21.4Oo. He had
I oss profit of Ss37, 400, and & next profit
leaving out of the calculation agents
ommissions-of ss4, 4s4.15, in eight