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The List of persons, copartnerships and corporations assessed in the
County Tax, ordered by the County Commissioners of Allegany County, Maryland,
for the year 1872 includes taxes to be paid on real estate and personal
property. The rate of taxation for individuals was 82 cents on each $100 of
real estate value or personal property owned. In addition, a payment to
Maryland of 17 cents per $100 was added. Corporations were taxed at 19 cents on
each $100 of stock value.
The tax assessment was carried out for 1872, the year the division of the
western portion of Allegany into a separate county, Garrett, was to be voted
on. So that there would be no uncertainty as to who was to receive the taxes,
the Maryland General Assembly stipulated:
…That when said new county shall have been so created, the inhabitants thereof
shall cease to have any claim to or interest in the county buildings and other
public property of every description belonging to said county of Allegany, and
shall be liable for their proportionate share of the then existing debts and
obligations of the said county of Allegany according to the last assessment in
said county, to be ascertained and apportioned by the County Commissioners of
said Allegany county, and the inhabitants of said new county shall also pay the
county taxes levied upon them, at the time of the creation of such new county,
as if such new county had not been created. Proceedings and Acts of the
General Assembly, 1872 (190: 2892). In November 1872 the new county was
accepted by the voters of Western Maryland but the money collected from this
particular assessment benefited only Allegany County.
Topographical atlas of Maryland, 1873
In 1872 there were 17 districts, the oldest being Altamont, also known as the
Glades, which came into being in 1799, and the most recently added was
Lonaconing in 1860. Three districts include Cumberland in their title.
There are a significant number of women on the list, many of whom were widows.
Tax payments ranged from the 25 cents owed by Theresa Smithman of Oakland to
the $157 Mrs H.T. Weld of Mount Savage owed on her real estate valued at
$12,000 and personal property of $3,900. Walsh and McKaig of Cumberland City
had real estate holdings worth $87500 and a tax bill of $866 and James Jones of
Cumberland, owner of the Wills Creek Tannery, owed $1,183. William Cornish of
Cumberland owed $4.46 and James Dorsey of Sang Run owed $3.21, among the small
number of African Americans owing taxes on property. The Duchess of Leeds, the
Marchioness of Wellesley and Lady Stafford, granddaughters of Charles Carroll,
the Maryland signer of the Declaration of Independence, owned land in Orleans
district and are included in the tax rolls.
The final page of the text records the assessed value of companies incorporated
in Allegany County. The company with the highest assessed value of their
capitol stocks was Consolidation Coal Company of Md with a value of $2,940,000
and a tax bill of $24,108. The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company owed $98.40
Western Maryland Regional Library is grateful for
the loan of the 1872 Tax List from the Ruth Enlow Library, Garrett County. The
text is available at the Oakland library.
The map is from the Western Maryland Room of the Washington County Free
Library.
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