By Sandy Vasko

I am old enough to remember a man coming to my parents’ house to assess their personal property. He would go through the house counting not only rooms, but what was in them.

He counted the clocks, the piano, the radio, the sewing machines and the appliances. Outside, he counted the chickens, the rabbits, the ducks, the hogs and the dogs.

He did not count the cats; I suppose that was too hard even for a professional counter. Later, they would receive a personal property tax bill for all of it. Note: When the assessor was there, they sent me to the neighbors with the dogs.

Today, I will be looking at the personal property tax record for 1878, comparing townships to give an insight into the differences.

Our first category is horses. Of course, Joliet Township came in with the most at 1,221, but the average value of a horse was only $31.39 ($1,066). This was because most horses in the city were used for pulling wagons and buggies.

Custer had much fewer at 240, but their average value was $34.40 ($1,168). The horses in Custer were mainly plow horses, a much bigger and more valuable breed. The lowest average value of a horse was in Plainfield, where it was only $17.58 ($597).

DuPage Township had the most cattle at 22,771, but they were only worth $8.34 ($283) each, the lowest of any township. Frankfort Township had 1,416, but they were worth $13.19 ($448) each. This was because most of the cattle in DuPage were really milk cows, while the ones in Frankfort were beef cattle, much more valuable.

In the category of steam engines Joliet, with its iron mills had more than all other townships put together at 64. Reed Township had a respectable 24 because of the coal mining there. Wilmington had 6, mostly at the paper mill, while Wesley and Crete had just one. Custer, Channahon, Jackson, Manhattan, New Lenox, Wilton, Will and Washington had none.

In the category of fire and burglar proof safes, of course Joliet had the most at 3,520 with an average value of $320 ($10,867) each. Wilmington had 420 safes, but they were worth only $20 ($679) each. Custer, Wesley, Reed, Troy and Wilton had no safes at all.

When it came to billiard tables, Joliet clocked in at 16, but Reed, which included Braidwood, was right behind at 15. Those lonely miners had to do something with their time, didn’t they? Wilmington had 6 tables and again Custer, Wesley, Will, Washington and Wilton had none.

Watches and clocks are next on the list. Joliet had 423, but right behind them was Wilmington at 396. In both places the average value was only about $3.80 ($129). Weirdly, Lockport had only 96 but the average value was $11 ($374). Perhaps the I & M Canal Supervisors and the rich merchants accounted for these expensive time pieces.

The only township in which there was a patent listed is Frankfort, and it was worth all of $10 ($340). Reed Township was the only one to list any pawnbrokers, with $710 ($24,111) worth in hock. Reed was also the only township to have railroad cars, worth $21,000 ($713, 151) and saloon property worth $405 ($13,754). Wilmington saloon property only came in at $280.

Apparently, many townships knew my father’s trick about the dogs. There were absolutely no dogs listed in DuPage, Homer, Lockport, Manhattan, Plainfield, Peotone, Reed, Wilmington, Wesley, Wilton and Washington townships. That was a lot of dog shifting, if I may say so. Florence admitted to having 70.

One of the weirdest statistics is the number of flutes. Custer had 3, Joliet had 24 and all the other townships had none.

All in all, counting all the personal property in Will County, Joliet of course ranked highest with a value of $1,358,748 ($46,142,541). Coming in second was Wilmington with a total personal property value of $233,794 ($7,939,551). Dead last was Wesley with only a value of $42,421 ($1,440,600).

Personal property tax on individuals in Illinois was eliminated in 1969.

Sandy Vasko is former director of the Will County Historical Museum & Research Center and now serves as collections and research manager.