The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1900-02-03
or INTEREST TO HOLDERS OF
LANDS UNDER LIQUIDATING
LEvEE BOARD TITLES.
CAPT. w. w. STONE, City:

ToquccI VI YOUR BOIL anu OIuOi ih"i
viduals, owners of lands whose ii
ties come through the Llquidatin!
Levee Board asking Tor a brie
history of these titles, and tn
claim of the Board of Mississippi
Levee Commissioners asserting
superior title thereto or claim fol
taxes thereon, l submit to you the
following. To intelllgently un
derstand this subject the various
acts of the legislature evolving
levee system must be severally
reviewed.
Commencing at the beginning,
the leyee system was at first car
r1ed on as county scheme and
the several counties acted indie
pendently of each other. The
Board of Police of the county APP
pointed commissioners for their
county who laid out the lines of
levee, let the contracts for the
work, supervised the construction,
paid for the work by orders on
their treasury or the issuance of
script there for as the case might
be. A tax for levee purposes was
levied by the Board of Police col
lected by the sheriff and paid in to
the hands of the treasurer select
ed by the Levee Commissioners.
This system prevailed in the
counties of Bolivar, Washington,
Issaquena prior to 1858, and each
of these counties up to that time
had large outstanding debts in the
shape of script issued for work
done and obligations to pay for
work contracted for. This method
proved unsatisfactory, and in 1858 |
new system was inaugurated;
the first Levee District was Gre
ated and the first Levee Board was
organized. The district was COM
posed of the counties of Bolivar,
Tunica, Coahoma, Washington
and Issaquena, part of DeSoto,
Pamela, Yazoo, Sunfower and Tai
lahatchie. The title of the board
was the "Levee Commissioners"
Under this act tax of ten cents
per acre was imposed, commenc-
ing from April 1859 and was to
last during and including April
1868. All the lands in the dis l
5rict were taxed except state land,
school lands, and the hill lands of
DeSoto, and lands in Pamela out t
tide of the overflow district. The c
Iheriffs of these counties collected t
his tax. For the first three years P
he sheriffs of Tunlca, Coahoma, n
Bolivar Washington and Issa- |
Iuena were required to pay the b
TX collected in these counties Il
yer to the local county levee I
uthorities who were TO use this Sc
AK in payment of the debts they Il
ad previously contracted for N
.vee work; after the expiration Of Of
ne three years the tax was to be W
aid into the treasury OF the levee IS
GARD organized under this act, &C
! the mean time the sheriffs of b
lie other counties paid their tax tn
Ito the treasury of the levee L.
oard. After June LIST 1859 the cl
Dunty levee authorities were ia
polished except for the purpose IN
7 receiving the three years taxes liz
,ove mentioned to be used bythem vi
II liquidating purposes, and at I'M
e expiration of these three years I'M
cir existence ceased and all debts OF
paid by them were assumed by ha
Q Levee Board organized under de
is act. me
Thus the law stood until 1860 att
len the tax imposed under the the
of 1858 was extended until Th
,r1l LIST 1865 and the board was the
powered to take up unsatisfed sus
unity Levee Script with the COT
'ipt of the board. Thus this the
ard took unto itself not only the is
ees built by these counties but act
outstanding Indebtedness there tur
1t had authority under the tax
act of 1858 to issue script to pun
extent of half million dollars bea
rabIe not later than January 1st thai
3. AS security for this script pleC
taxes collected and paid into bon
geaersl fund were pledged. In the
gust 1851 a special session of and
suspended the tax Of exel
cents per acre imposed by the take
of 1873 until the first MonJav oot