Jasper County Democrat, Volume 14, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 May 1911 — CONSCIENTIOUS CITIZEN. [ARTICLE]

CONSCIENTIOUS CITIZEN.

Aged Father of W. R. Brown of Rensselaer Pays Taxes On $200,000. Last Thursday, Township Assessor G. W. Ritter and A. Haywood, who is assisting Mr. Ritter in the work of taking the assessment in Camargo township, called at the home of John Brown, who lives seven and one-half miles southeast of here, says the Villa Grove News. Mr. Brown is 89 years of age and quite feeble, but he greeted the assessors cheerfully and soon they got down to the business of lisUng the venerable gentleman’s. property for taxation. First he gave in 740 acres of land which he declared was worth *2OO per acre, or *148.000. Then came his personal property, such as horses, cattle, hogs and other live stock, hay, grain and farming implements, etc., which added *B,OOO or *IO,OOO to his list of taxables.

Then he gave the assessors a surprise by announcing that he had on deposit in the various banks of Douglas county the suns o's $43,000 in cash, which brought the total value of his holdings in the county up to $200,000. Mr. Brown remarked that his health was failing rapidly and that he had not long to remain on earth and Chose to keep the money on deposit in the banks instead of investing it so it would be easier to divide among his three sons and two daughters, who are the only heirs to his big estate. Last year when Mr. Hayward assessed him. Mr. Brown overlooked one deposit of $5,000 and when he remembered it he was so worried that he could not sleep that night and early next , morning he called Mr. Hayward up by telephone and had the correction made. Mr. Brown is one of the early pioneers of the county, having moved to the Camargo neighborhood almost seventy-five years ago. There were many Indianas in that part of the county In those days and he remembers them distinctly. There is on his farm an old log barn, built in pioneer days, probably threequarters of a century ago. It has been surrounded on all sides by frame buildings which completely protect it from the weather, even its roof being sheltered from the rain, snow and sleet by another roof which towers above it. The doors of the old barn are hung on hinges constructed of wooden pins driven into the logs. The building is visited by hundreds of people Annuallywho travel many miles to gaze upon the old land-mark of pioneer days—Tuscola (Ill.) ReviewJudge Brown is the father of „\Y. R. Brown of Rensselaer, and his action in calling the attention of the taxing officers to the omission of one item of $5,000 from his assessment sheet is a most Unusual thing, though worthy of emulation by other wealthy tax*payers.