Chuck Cecil is a former Brookings Register columnist and a current member of the Brookings County Historical Society.

It’s gone now, repealed in 1978, but South Dakota had a liar’s tax on the books for years.

 Of course, it wasn’t officially a liar’s tax.

It was officially a personal property tax. You paid taxes on all property you owned. That’s what was supposed to happen.

Recently I came across an Aurora Township assessment book at the Brookings County Museum. The book was sort of a faded window into the 1895 financial condition on that township’s 36 square miles east of Brookings.

I’m not suggesting the book’s figures were untrue., but it reminded me of that infamous liar’s tax.

In 1895 and for many decades, county residents annually reported to their township assessor the property they owned.

That taxing system grew so that by the 1950s, residents had to report ownership of all types of items, like wedding rings, sets of china, radios, guns, golf clubs and carts and all sorts of other personal property.

It was self-reported, and that made it something of a liar’s tax because of the strong possibility of “forgetting” to report something stored in the attic or basement.

A friend remembered the time the county assessor came to their house to check on personal property. His dad had hidden the family radio under the bed. The assessor inquired if the family had a radio.

The father said no, but his 4-year-old daughter chimed in: “Yes, we do Daddy. It’s under the bed.” The father confessed: “Well, ya, but it doesn’t work.” 

“Yes, it does Daddy,” his helpful daughter volunteered.

In 1895, there were no golf carts or radios in Aurora Township or in any township, but one Aurora Township family did have a piano, then called a pianoforte. S. W. Stone reported it, and he put a value of $60 on it. That’s about what you’d pay in Aurora Township in those days to buy four good mules (although no mules were listed as existing in Aurora Township in 1895).

While Mr. Stone had the only pianoforte in the township, there were several melodeons and pump organs whose combined value was $212.

Aurora Township had 328 three-year-old horses in 1895, plus 82 one-year-olds and 53 colts, all of which had a combined assessed value of $6,405.

Surprisingly, farms in the township then had more horses than cattle. Farmers in those 36 square miles owned a total of 67 calves, 20 cattle over age two, and 219 cattle three years old or older. The Aurora combined cattle herd had a taxable value of $2,195. Incidentally, all that livestock was matched up against the township’s four bulls.

The township also had 106 pigs worth $187, and 78 sheep valued at $78. There were no oxen in that township in 1895.

There were, however, 98 wagons or sleighs valued at $187; 44 carriages worth an estimated $423; and various sewing machines, clocks and household furniture and provisions. All of that lumped together was valued at just $1,525.

Somewhat surprising was the total value placed on all of the farmers’ agricultural tools and equipment. That came to just $1,758, probably most of it invested in walking plows.

The town of Aurora had only 19 property owners.

S. Ricker had a town home in of Aurora that he valued at $568.

But despite living in what was then luxury, Mr. Ricker didn’t have one of those fancy pianofortes.