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1834 Jackson County Land and Chattel Tax List on Sale!! (on CD)
Chapter members $22.50, Non-members $25.00
plus $2.50 for shipping and handling. Click Here to order

Example PDF image from the CD version

1834 Jackson county land and chattel tax list! We hope that you will find the data useful in your family research. The proceeds from the sale of this CD go towards funding important projects that will help the JCOGS preserve and enhance our local heritage.

In 1833-34, the townships of Clinton, Harrison and Richland were in Jackson county but that changed in 1850 when they were given up as part of the newly-formed Vinton county. So if you are interested in land locations, cemeteries, etc for an ancestor whose name appears on the tax lists for those 3 townships in Jackson county, you might need to acquire information for Vinton county as well.

The names in this tax list include a literal who's who of many of the most prominent pioneer settlers and founders of the county. Among them are a number of then still-surviving Revolutionary War soldiers, George Crookham - an early mentor to John Wesley Powell, Thomas Woodson - the purported son of President Thomas Jefferson, John James - one of earliest settlers of the Northwest Territory who arrived at Marietta in 1788 or 1789, and just as importantly perhaps an ancestor of yours.

The pages of this tax book have been scanned and converted to Adobe PDF format. Adobe Reader is required to view the contents and, if not already installed on your computer, can be downloaded at no charge from Adobe's website.

Because of the size of the original tax book, the pages had to be digitized one at a time. However, the data overlaps from one page of names on the left page to numerical and comment data on the right or succeeding page. So, if you want to view both pages simultaneously after opening the document, just go to page one of the Bloomfield township list (page 6 of the Adobe file). At the top of the pull-down menu in Adobe Reader, click on "view", then choose "page display" and click on "two-up continuous". The pages will then display side-by-side if you'd rather view them that way.

This tax list is potentially crucial for several reasons because of the data contained in it:

• The list was compiled between the Federal census of 1830 and 1840. It is possible you may have had an ancestor who is shown in Jackson county in the 1830 but for some reason wasn't by the 1840 census and vice-versa. When did they move, etc? This 1834 tax list may give you some clues when they left (or came) to the county.

• The list is two-fold. It is not only a land tax list applicable to landowners only. It is also a chattel list which applied anyone age of 18 or older who owned horses or cattle

• The land tax list shows the number of acres owned and the range, township, section and (if applicable) subsection location of the land. This info, used in conjunction with a readily available plat map can, in most cases, give the precise location of the "old homestead" of the landowner.

• The chattel tax list is important because not everyone was a landowner. But if you owned at least a horse or a cow, you were taxed on it. Many people whose names are not on the land tax list show up on the chattel list.

• The number of acres owned or number of horses/cows owned can give you an idea of the affluence (or lack thereof) of a person. 

Local Calendar of Events

August 19th - The Jackson Historical Association will meet at 6 p.m., at the Comfort Inn in Jackson Ohio. Visitors and members are welcome. Contact Mike Stroth multicominc@verizon.net for more information. www.jacksonhistoricalsociety.org

September 7th - The Wellston Historical Association will meet at 7 p.m., at the WHA office on Ohio Avenue in Wellston Ohio. Visitors and members are welcome. www.wellstonhistory.com

September 11th - The Jackson County Chapter of the Ohio Genealogical Society will meet at 10:30 a.m., at the Jackson City Library (Potter Room) in Jackson Ohio. Visitors and members are welcome.