MADISON PARISH TAX ROLLS 1885 and 1890

NOTE - The following data is registered (TX 4-779-262) at the United States Copyright Office and is the property of Richard P. Sevier (dicksevier@gmail.com). It is intended for informational use only and may not be reproduced by ANY means whatsoever without written permission from the author.

Tax rolls, especially early ones, have traditionally contained a wealth of data for genealogists. Since in those days nearly all families paid some sort of property tax, almost every family was represented on the tax rolls, whether they were land or household owners or not. In addition to land and homes, taxes were levied on horses, mules, cattle, sheep, hogs, goats, carriages, boats, guns, pistols and almost any other type of property imaginable. The 1890 tax roll is especially significant since it can be used as the only available replacement for the 1890 U. S. census which was lost in a fire.

All of the data contained herein was gathered from records in the Clerk of Court’s office at the Madison Parish courthouse in Tallulah during the months of March and April 1998. Many thanks are due Carolyn Caldwell, Madison Parish Clerk of Court. Madison Parish’s older tax records are stored away from the courthouse in an annex building; are not readily accessible to the general public and are rapidly deteriorating. A separate book was maintained for each tax year, and the records were recorded alphabetically by the first letter of the last name usually with landowners and homeowners first, followed by other taxpayers. The data contained herein is sorted first by year, then by last name and first name.

The names of all of the resident taxpayers listed in 1885 and 1890 are included in this publication. Also listed are: for landowners and homeowners, the plantation or property name and/or location (usually Township and Range) of the property, the number of acres and assessed land values. The 1885 & 1890 tax rolls differ from the 1879 & 1881 tax rolls in that in 1885 & 1890 all taxable property (not just land and household property) as well as the Ward in which the taxpayer lived were listed.

Every effort has been made to preserve accuracy, especially in the spelling of names. Although there are some exceptions, in most instances the handwriting was fairly legible. Unfortunately, many times the same name was spelled differently by the recorder for a different year or even within the same year. Because of this and to maintain consistency, the name spelling of the more legible (or most logical) entry was selected for both years. Personal knowledge was also taken into consideration. For example, if an1885 entry showed “John Bonks”. but the legibility was poor, and an 1890 entry showed a legible “John Banks” (and they appeared to be the same person), then “John Banks” was used for both years. In addition, some Ward numbers may have been recorded erroneously and are subject to question

Also, in order for this report to achieve some sort of plantation or farm name uniformity, all farms that contained sufficient acreage and were not named for the owners or former-owners were listed as ‘plantations”. Those that were smaller or had an obvious surname were called “places”. Note that names are listed twice when two individuals were named on the same line. For instance, “Carter and Ziegler” would be listed again as “Ziegler and Carter”. To make 1890 listings more identifiable, they are shown in Bold Print.

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SORTED BY SURNAMES: A-D E-J K-R S-Z

SORTED BY PLANTATION NAME OR LOCATION (WHERE AVAILABLE) A-C

SORTED BY PLANTATION NAME OR LOCATION (WHERE AVAILABLE) D-H

SORTED BY PLANTATION NAME OR LOCATION (WHERE AVAILABLE) I-O

SORTED BY PLANTATION NAME OR LOCATION (WHERE AVAILABLE) P-Z