Death and Taxes

Happy April 18!  Celebrate this special day with three 1898 death and taxes combinations: taxes paid by an embalming fluid company, a casket company, and on a transfer deed for a cemetery plot.  Also included, a special added bonus from James D. Gill, the Collector of Internal Revenue in 1898, clarifying just what sort of death certificates require a tax stamp.

DURFEE EMBALMING FLUID CO.

NOV

19

1898

*

Crate that once held Durfee Embalming Fluid

NATIONAL

JUL 8   1899

CASKET CO.

National Casket Company Factory, Oneida, New York

APR 28 1899

The Evergreen Cemetery

ELIZABETH, N. J. 

The Red Badge of Courage novelist Stephen Crane is buried near Evergreen Cemetery's main gate.

Still in use in 2023.

Deed for cemetary plot at the Evergreen Cemetery:

From The Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, November 3, 1898, now the New England Journal of Medicine.  Apparently, official death certificates for use of the state did not require tax stamps.  Those for personal use did require a stamp:

Another $3 R183 On-Document Usage

We're pleased to welcome a new contributor to 1898 Revenues.  Reader Charley Kemp has answered our census call by reporting another on-document usage of R183, the $3 Lake Commerce issue of 1900.    

As noted in our prior blog about usages of R183, I had been looking for one on document for more than 35 years.   Now our census count for R183 is up to three!

Notarized Signature Certification Page from a

Property Conveyance in Mobile County, Alabama

December 8, 1900
Charley Kemp scan

 

Regrettably, the conveyance itself is gone so we don't know exactly what property was conveyed, although it presumably was located in Mobile County, Alabama.  It is interesting to note that there were two separate notarized certifications for this conveyance.   First the standard affirmation by the sellers, in this case Frank P. and Mary Alice Andrews, that they understand the contents of the then attached conveyance and had voluntarily signed it. 

 

Then, below the stamps, there is what I take to be a separate notarized renunciation of dower statement by Mary Alice that reads, 

 

     "I Clara M. Stokes, a Notary Public in and for said State and County, do hereby certify that on the 8th day of December, 1900, came before me the within named Mary Alice Andrews, known to me to be the wife of the within named Frank P. Andrews, who, being examined separate and apart from from the husband touching her signature to the within deed, acknowledged that she signed the same of her own free will and accord, and without fear, constraints or threats on the part of the husband." 

 

      "In witness thereof , I hereto set my hand this 8th day of December, 1900."

Signed Clara M. Stokes  

Notary Public, Mobile County, Ala.

 

detail of stamps and pencancel:

Dec 8 / 1900

F P & M A A
Charley Kemp scan

 

 

That four dollars in tax are attached, an R184 $1 gray overprint Commerce Issue in additon to the $3 Lake Commerce stamp, suggests a property value of more than $3,500 up to $4,000.

Frank P(aul) Andrews, was born in St. Augustine Florida January 26, 1841.  The 1860 census shows him living in a boarding house in Paducah, Kentucky, occupation, day laborer with an "estate" valued at $200.  From that rather humble start he progressed through a number of jobs and by 1884 was listed as a grain dealer, F. P. Andrews & Company in Mobile, Alabama.  He must have become rather substantial because the 1912 directory shows him as the Commissioner of Revenue and Roads for Mobile County.  Andrews also was a Confederate veteran.  The Alabama census of Confederate soldiers lists him as enlisting as a private into Company B of the 1st Kentucky Infantry Battalion around May 1861.  He spent four years in the service being discharged May 10, 1865 in Columbus, Mississippi. He moved to Mobile in 1869 and died there in 1913.    

Thanks, Charley, for submitting this nice usage.  Charley also sent along a list of some other interesting 1898 era taxed documents, so we can look forward to seeing more from his collection in future blogs.      

Ouch! Ouch! A Deed Taxed Twice!

I like documents that bear combination usages; the more stamps the better! This one came in a job lot of stamped deeds purchased on eBay and actually it wasn't the main reason I bought the lot.  Happily though, it was included as it demonstrates a fine point about the 1898 tax law.

$400 Deed for Property in Deer Lodge, Montana

May 8, 1899 



It wasn't until I was sorting through the lot that I noticed that this deed seemed to be taxed incorrectly.  As I've explained in prior blogs, the tax on conveyances was 50 cents for property valued from $100 to $500, and 50 cents for each additional $500 in value.  As this deed bore a total of $1.00 in tax stamps one would have expected the property being conveyed to have a value of between $500 and $1, 000, but instead the sale price was just $400.   At $400 it should only have been taxed 50 cents, not $1.00.

Hmmm!  That incongruity made me look more closely at both the deed and the stamps.  I noticed almost immediately that the upper two R169 25 cent battleships were a joined pair with the bottom single 25 cent stamp slightly overlapping them.  And the twelve R164 2 cent stamps plus the 1-cent I.R. overprint issue add up to another 25 cents.

$1.00 tax paid by

three 25-cent, twelve 2-cent, and one 1-cent stamps

all initialed 

8/99

K H

After reading the deed, it all began to make sense.  One Kate Hartlee is selling two lots in Deer Lodge Montana to C.G. Glass and J.H. Meyers.  I'll skip the boilerplate and go straight to the description:

    "Lots numbered nineteen (19) and twenty (20) in Block numbered twenty (20) of the original townsite of Deer Lodge Montana according to the official plat and survey on file in the office of Clerk and Recorder of said Deer Lodge County, Montana.

      It is understood by and between the parties to this instrument and deed, that the grantor hereby conveys unto each of said grantees an undivided one-half interest (my emphasis) in and to the said Lots 19 & 20 in Block 20 in the town and county of Deer Lodge Montana."

I can almost hear the justice of the peace before whom Kate Hartlee appeared to both sign and affirm the document: 

"...Ah, well, hmmm, you know Kate , the way you have written up this here deed you've got two separate transactions going on and...well...ah... I think to be completely legal we have to tax each of them as separate transactions"    

I may have unfairly put words in the mouth of the JP, but all of this does serve to illustrates the fine point that the documentary War Taxes were not levied against actual documents, but rather the transactions represented by or within those documents.  While there was but one deed, it represented two separate conveyances, each of which was subject to tax.  And the appropriate tax for two sales of property at $200 each would have been $1.00.

Back to the stamps.  I'm guessing the pair of 25-cent R169 battleships originally was affixed with the expectation that only 50 cents was going to be required, but when it instead was discovered that an additional 50 cents was required, and only one additional 25 cent stamp was at hand the parties scrounged up more commonly available 2 cent and 1 cent stamps to pay the remaining balance due.  Regardless of exactly how it all came about, it's an interesting document and a welcome addition to my collection.                  

A Conveyance Taxed $1,100 - Sale of the Parsons Paper Company

Yesterday we blogged about a bill of sale for the conveyance of some Indian Territory property that was sold for just $15 and taxed just 10 cents.

Today we consider the 1899 sale of the Parsons Paper Company, Holyoke, Massachusetts, the conveyance tax on which totaled a whopping $1,100!  Given that the tax on conveyances was 50 cents for property valued from $100 to $500 and an additional 50 cents for each additional $500 in value infers the Parsons company and property were valued at $1.1 million, although the sale price on the deed is given as "...in consideration of One Dollar and other valuable considerations..."  

Even if property was given away, as with a quit-claim deed, the transaction, i.e. the conveyance of the property, was taxed at the property's real value.     

Deed to the Parsons Paper Company

Holyoke, Massachusetts

June 26, 1899

The deed was not recorded by the Hampden County Register of Deeds until a month later on July 26, 1899, a week after Aaron and Edward Bagg personally appeared before a justice of the peace on July 19 to have the document and their signatures certified. 

The $100 R179 and the pair of $500 R180 tax stamps are dated July 25, 1899.  The purchaser, the American Writing Paper Company, a newly incorporated price-controlling trust coalition of thirty-two paper mills located in five states, paid the conveyance tax as each of the stamps bears a rubber handstamp cancel with the initials, Am. W. P. Co., plus the month and an abbreviated year date, JULY '99, prefixed with the exact July date, 25, in pen.  Usually, high value stamps also have cut-cancels, as an added security measure to prevent their reuse, but these stamps are all uncut. 

This document brings to five, the number of on-document usages of the $500 Alexander Hamilton Portrait Documentary issue, this being the sole reported usage of a pair.       

Am. W. P. Co.

25 JULY '99



Conveyances are of particular interest because the tax levied upon them was based upon the value of the transaction rather than a flat fee as was the case for many transactions such as for checks, bills of lading, and numerous other taxed transactions.  So we see conveyance transactions taxed from ten cents to more than $1,000.  And deeds are fairly common as they were kept as important estate documents, not generally disposed of as were many other documents whose relevance or value did not continue beyond the completion of the transaction.

Parsons Paper Mill #2 @ 1899

The Parsons Paper was founded in Holyoke, Massachusetts in 1853 by Joseph Clark Parsons.  Within a decade Parsons was the largest writing paper and envelope company in the country and Holyoke had become "The Paper City."  To read a brief history of the company visit this link to the Holyoke Public Library's online exhibit gallery.  The firm closed in 2005 and facility destroyed by an arson fire in 2008.

  

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.



What Are The Odds? Not One, But Two $3 R183 On-Document Usages

Between us, my good friend J. W. Palmer and I have been searching for an on-document usage of the $3 Lake Commerce Issue of 1900 for more than 50 years.  I know several other 1898 tax era document collectors who also have been searching for such a usage.  Happily the quest is over, at least for Palmer and me, as we BOTH found usage examples on eBay within a month of each other last Fall.  To date they are the only reported on-document usages of this stamp.

The lake-colored $3 R183 by itself is not an inexpensive stamp.  In Scott's U.S. Specialized Catalogue it lists for $275 in mint condition and $52.50 in used condition.  For Palmer and me to find on-document usage examples -- what's the word they use in those Visa commercials -- PRICELESS! 



  $3,500 Warranty Deed

Property in Indianapolis, Indiana

February 25, 1901
 

My find came first, in a job lot of 11 deeds, only two of which bore stamps.  I almost went by it as I scrolled through some search listings.  In the small photo I could see one deed just had a 50-cent R171 battleship stamp on it and I figured the red stamp on this deed was probably just the more common $1 carmine R182 Commerce Issue.  Luckily, after scrolling through a few more listings, I decided I should go back and take a closer look.  Boy, was I ever glad I did! When I saw it was a $3 stamp, I recall jerking forward to within inches of my computer screen in shocked disbelief  to take a closer look to make sure it really was a $3 stamp!  Wow, yes, it was!  And the week long wait to see if anyone else had found it seemed an eternity.
 

The tax on deed transfers at this time was 50 cents for property valued from $100 to $500 and 50 cents for each additional $500 in value.  So the proper tax on a deed documenting the sale of a $3,500 property was $3.50, paid here with the $3 R183 and a 50 cent R171.  Usually collectors try to avoid stamps with cut cancels, but I'm happy these have them as the pen cancels don't "tie" them to the document, but the cut cancels, which extend through the document itself, do so.

pencancel on both stamps reads:

P.(auline) E.(dgarton)

2/25/01

double-click image to enlarge

Amazingly Palmer found another R183 usage example, again on eBay, just a couple of weeks later!  

$3,000 Warranty Deed

Property in Hyde Park, Kansas City, Missouri

March 14, 1901

J. W. Palmer scan

pencancel reads:

H.(ugh) J. M.(cGowan)

Mrh. 14,

1901.

Palmer's find also appears on a warranty deed, in this instance a nice single stamp usage properly paying the $3 tax on a property that sold for $3,000.  Like me, he almost missed this lot as the seller had cropped the listing photo to zoom in on just the stamp, so anyone scrolling rapidly through listing results could easily have mistaken it as just a listing of a used stamp.  I missed it for that reason, but Palmer, either with more patience or better eyesight, or both, caught a glimpse of paper around the stamp as he scrolled through his search listings.  He though had missed the listing I had found.  

J. W. and I periodically check what each other has bought on eBay.  When I noted he too had been fortunate to find this R183 usage, I called to congratulate him as it was a significant find; I also wanted to let him know I had recently found one too.  "Yeah", he said, "I saw you had found one and was going to call, just hadn't gotten around to it."  We chatted about how easy it is to miss items because of how sellers choose to picture, describe, and list items; we both have been lucky to find 1898 revenue material in obscure eBay categories, or that has otherwise been poorly described or pictured.

Both Palmer and I periodically exhibit our 1898 material at stampshows. We laughed about how unassuming and vanilla-looking these deeds appear.  Neither document is ornate like an engraved stock certificate, nor do they include an unusual mixture of stamps, or bear colorful cancels.  Quite frankly, they look pretty bland on exhibit pages, just as they do in this blog.

We discussed the difficulty of highlighting their significance in an exhibit; especially how hard it is, even with carefully worded title pages and exhibit synopses, to convey their importance to exhibit judges who, to be fair, could just as easily overlook them as they scroll across one's exhibit pages, as we each did when reviewing eBay listings.   Yes, one can stategically place an item within an exhibit frame and include a note like, "One of two known" on the page, but they are just common deeds after all, albeit with uncommon usages of an uncommon stamp.  

We talked about how long we each had been looking for such a usage knowing that none of the major revenue dealers had ever handled one.  We simply were amazed that we each had been fortunate to find one within a month of each other.  What are the odds, indeed? Yup, that was a pun.

We're beginning to do usage censuses for some of the lesser known 1898 tax era on-document stamp usages and for some lesser known types of documents, like ocean passage tickets, so if anyone can report another R183 on-document usage please contact us, with scans if possible, at 1898revenues@gmail.com

We'll discuss some other interesting deeds in upcoming blogs.