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XXII. THE TITLE TO REAL ESTATE BY DESCENT.

Succession to the estate of an ancestor deceding intestate, is now the custom of all civilized nations. Hereditary descent, if not the design of Providence, is clearly a dictate of humanity. It induces both paternal care and filial loyalty and regard.

The Jews had a rule upon the subject that was general throughout their nation. The example was imitated by the Athenians, who expounded and liberalized the doctrine. Insinuating itself among the continental nations, it finally became a part of the common law, which afterwards found its way across the Atlantic, where it intermingled with the economical regulations of the several colonies. It is not uniform, however, in this country. The people of the United States have no general law of descents. Each State has adopted for herself such a rule upon the subject as her Legislature has deemed politic and wise. The rule adopted in this State, was indicated in the ordinance of 1787 for the government of the territory northwest of the river Ohio. As enacted by the Legislature, it is substantially the same as that in the State of Indiana. [See Indiana.]

XXIII. LAND TAXES IN OHIO.

All real property within this State, except churches and school houses, and the grounds not exceeding twenty acres upon which they are situate, cemeteries, grave yards, buildings belonging to scientific, literary or benevolent societies, together with the land occupied by them, land belonging to the State or United States, or sold by the latter within five years, court houses and other county buildings, with not exceeding ten acres of land upon which they are situate, market houses, public squares, township houses, and fire engine houses, is subject to taxation.

In the assessments preparatory to the levy of taxes, the

statute requires "each separate parcel of real property to be valued at its true value in money, including the value of crops growing thereon; but the price for which such real estate would sell at auction, or at a forced sale, shall not be taken as the criterion of such true value." [Act of March 2, 1846, Sec. 12.]

On the third Monday of March, eighteen hundred and forty-six, (and once in six years thereafter) the said act required the County Commissioners of each county to meet at the office of the County Auditor, and when so met, to divide their county into at least two and not more than four districts, except the county of Hamilton, which may be divided into not less than six, nor more than twelve, and to appoint some well qualified citizen of such county as Assessor for each district. [Id., Sec. 20.]

The Assessors respectively, after having first given a bond in the penalty of two thousand dollars, and taken an oath, for the faithful performance of their duties, are required to make out from the maps and descriptions furnished them by the County Auditor, and from such other sources of information as shall be in their power, a correct and pertinent description of each parcel of real property in their district; and when thereunto necessary, they may require the owner or occupant of any parcel of land to furnish them any title papers or other documents relating to the description, in his possession or under his control, and in case of refusal, they may employ a surveyor to survey the same and make a description therefrom at the expense of the owner, to be charged in the tax; and having determined the value thereof according to the best of their judgment, they shall each return the list for their respective districts to the County Auditor, under oath, on or before the tenth day of July following. Intervening the six years, Township Assessors, whilst annually taking an account of personal property in each town or ward, are required to enter upon their lists all real property in

their township or ward that shall have become subject to taxation since the last listing, with the value thereof, and all new buildings exceeding in value one hundred dollars, and to return the same to the County Auditor, who enters all returns in books to be provided for that purpose. On the first Monday of August next, after the District Assessors shall have made their returns, the County Commissioners, District Assessors, County Surveyor and County Auditor, or a majority of them, are required to convene at the county seat and organize themselves as a "County Board of Equalization." The County Auditor having laid before them the returns made to him by the Assessors, they are required to proceed to equalize such valuation, so that each parcel shall be entered on the tax list at its true value. In doing so, they are required to raise the valuation of such parcels as have been returned below, and to reduce the valuation of such as have been returned above, but seeing to it that they do not reduce the aggregate below the valuation of the county as fixed by the State Board of Equalization. The State Board consists of one person from each Senatorial District, appointed by joint ballot of the Senate and House of Representatives, and meets at Columbus on the fourth Monday of October. The result of their labors in the equalization of real property among the counties, is transmitted by the Auditor of the State to the several County Auditors; and on or before the fifteenth day of July annually, the State Auditor determines the aggregate per centum to be levied on the whole taxable property of the State for defraying the ordinary expenses of the government and its public institutions, for the support of schools, and to pay such interest on the public debt as the revenues from the public works shall not furnish, and transmits the same to County Auditors, who after ascertaining the amount in addition to be raised for local purposes authorized by law, are required to proceed forthwith "to determine the sum or sums to be levied upon each parcel of

real property (and upon the amount of personal property moneys and credits) listed in their county, in the name of each person, company or corporation, which shall be assessed and set down in three or more columns, in such manner and form as the Auditor of the State shall prescribe: Provided, that all taxes levied for State purposes, and all taxes levied for county purposes, shall each be set down in a separate column; and provided also, that each County Auditor, in determining the per centum to be levied for any purpose or purposes, on any property entered in his books for taxation, (when the amount so levied is to be set down in one column,) shall assume such per centum not containing any fractions of less than one fifth of a mill as will produce a gross sum nearest the amount which he is required to levy for such purposes, and in extending the sum levied on any parcel or amount of property, money, or credits, he shall carry out no fraction of a cent, but in any case where such fraction is greater than half a cent it shall be carried out one cent." [Act of March 2, 1846, Sec. 52.] "For every purpose for which he is required to assess taxes, the County Auditor shall assess an equal per centum of tax on all real and personal property agreeably to the value thereof." [Id., Sec. 24.] The amount of money to be raised in the several counties respectively for roads, bridges, public buildings, the support of the poor, and other county purposes, is determined by the County Commissioners, and by them reported to the County Auditor; and the Trustees of Towns, in like manner, ascertain the amount to be raised for town purposes, and report the same to him. [Id., Sec. 55 and 56.] The taxes being levied, as aforesaid, are receivable by the Treasurer at the county seat in each county from the fifteenth day of September, until the first Monday in January in each year, that officer being furnished a duplicate of the levy.

The Revised Statutes provide, "that the County Auditor shall attend at his office on the first Monday in January,

annually, to make settlement with the Treasurer of his county, and ascertain the amount of taxes with which such Treasurer is to stand charged; and the Auditor shall then take from the duplicate previously put into the hands of the Treasurer for collection, a list of all such taxes as such Treasurer shall have been unable to collect thereon, describing the property on which such delinquent taxes are charged, as the same is described on such duplicate, and shall note thereon in a marginal column the several reasons assigned by such Treasurer, why such taxes could not be collected, and such list shall be signed by the Treasurer, who shall testify to the correctness thereof under oath or affirmation, to be administered by the Auditor. [Id., Sec. 27.] Lands delinquent for taxes are then returned to the Auditor of the State, at Columbus, where the taxes may be paid until the first day of March without penalty, from the first day of March to the first day of May with a penalty of ten per cent, and after that with a penalty of twenty-five per cent. Six per cent interest is added, in making up the duplicate for the next year.

If the same land is again returned as delinquent, it is the duty of the Auditors of the several counties to "cause the list of lands delinquent in the respective counties to be published at least four weeks, between the third Monday of November and the first Monday in January, in some newspaper printed in the respective counties, if any be printed therein, and if none be printed therein, then in some newspaper having general circulation in such county, to which list there shall be attached a notice that the whole of the several tracts, or town lots in said list coutained, or so much thereof as will be necessary to pay the taxes, interest and penalty charged thereon, will be sold at the court house in such county, on the second Monday in January next thereafter, by the County Treasurer, unless such taxes, interest and penalty be paid before that time." If payment be not made, the sale is required to be made on that day, at and after ten o'clock, and

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