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Le Roy Barnett | Assessing the Value of Two Tax-Related Michigan Records | The Michigan Historical Review, 33.1 | The History Cooperative
33.1  
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Spring, 2007
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Assessing the Value of Two Tax-Related Michigan Records

by
Le Roy Barnett


      On the shelves of most major libraries in Michigan sit two sets of state-government publications that are seldom (if ever) used by historians. This is unfortunate, as these volumes have something to contribute to practitioners of our craft. 1
      The oldest of these overlooked serials is the Proceedings of the State Board of Equalization of Michigan, which ran from 1871 to 1965.1 At first blush, these volumes simply contain a large number of statistics on the assessed and equalized value of real and personal property across our two peninsulas at the ward, township, and county levels. Although such figures are rarely employed by those individuals who study or write about Michigan's past, there is grist for the historian's mill amid all those numbers. For example, the Proceedings for 1919 contains a special census (pp. 92–97) of the number and value of cattle, horses, swine, and sheep in our state down to the county level that was prepared by the livestock faculty at what we know today as Michigan State University. 2
      Perhaps of even greater value are the mostly annual statements to the board made by county representatives describing the economic and commercial situations in their respective jurisdictions. Theoretically these summaries could give a researcher regular overviews about business conditions at the local level over an approximately seventy-year time period (this part of the series tends to disappear at about the midpoint of World War II). . . .
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