A Conveyance Taxed Just 10 Cents

The War Revenue Law prescribed a 50 cent tax on the conveyance of property valued from $100 to $500 plus 50 cents for each additional $500 in value.  So how was property valued at less than $100 treated?

 Bill of Sale

For Land Parcel Valued at $15 in

Westville, Cherokee Nation, Northern District, Indian Territory

May 3, 1900
 

Although the 1898 Law act did not specifically address the sale or conveyance of property valued at less than $100, as illustrated by this bill of sale documenting the sale of Lot 6 in Block 42 in the town of Westville, Indian Territory, such conveyances were taxed 10 cents under the Law's catchall provision that required any legal certificate, not otherwise specified in the Act, to be taxed a flat 10 cents.
 

Bill of Sale

Mary E. Nummy to E. K. Manning

stamps initialed

E. K. M.

5/3/1900

The property located in Westville, and bordered by Cherokee, Railroad, Locust, and Delaware streets, was sold for $15 via a bill of sale and the 10 cent tax paid with five copies of the 2 cent, R164 documentary issue.  The form is pre-printed, so these property bills of sale must have been common transactions in the town of Westville and presumably elsewhere.  And while termed a Bill of Sale, it reads like a Deed, i.e. "...do hereby give, grant, bargain, sell, convey, and quit-claim....." 

It appears the intent of the Law was to require all conveyances of property be taxed, but to restrict the higher rate to property valued at a minimum of $100 and to limit the tax on property valued at less than $100.

A google satellite view shows that today, the lot appears to accommodate three residences plus some outbuildings.