The occupations included in the tax lists gives us a window into life in the mid 19th-century. It is just as interesting to see what occupations were not listed as which ones were. I have not yet found a complete list of all occupations to be taxed, but the Revenue Act of 1864 lists these principal occupations in this order:<\/p>\n
Bankers, Wholesale Dealers, Retail Dealers, Wholesale Liquor Dealers, Retail Liquor Dealers, Lottery Ticket Dealers, Horse Dealers, Livery Stable Keepers, Brokers, Pawnbrokers, Land-warrant Brokers, Cattle Brokers, Produce Brokers, Commercial Brokers, Custom-house Brokers, Distillers, Brewers, Rectifiers, Coal-Oil Distillers, Hotels, Inns and Taverns, Steamers and Vessels, Eating Houses, Confectioners, Claim Agents, Patent-Right Dealers, Real Estate Agents, Conveyancers, Intelligence Office Keepers, Insurance Agents, Foreign Insurance Agents, Auctioneers, Manufacturers, Peddlers, Apothecaries, Photographers, Tobacconists, Butchers, Theaters, Museums, and Concert Halls, Circuses, Jugglers, Bowling Alleys and Billiard Rooms, Gift Enterprises, Stallions and Jacks, Lawyers, Physicians, Surgeons and Dentists, Architects and Civil Engineers, Builders and Contractors, Plumbers and Gas Fitters, Assayers.<\/p>\n
Many of these occupations were not pursued in Hunterdon County in 1865. There were no Lottery Ticket Dealers, no Pawnbrokers or Land-warrant Brokers, no Custom-house Brokers (makes sense since Hunterdon had no port), no Intelligence Office Keepers or Foreign Insurance Agents, no Steamers or Vessels, no Rectifiers or Coal-Oil Distillers, no Plumbers or Gas Fitters or Assayers, no Real Estate Agents (odd), and no entertainment from Theaters, Museums, Concert Halls, Circuses, Jugglers, Bowling Alleys or Billiard Rooms. There were no \u201cGift Enterprises\u201d either.<\/p>\n
I tried to figure out what \u201cgift enterprises\u201d were from reading the legislation, but couldn\u2019t quite get the picture. They seem to be connected with lotteries or other mild forms of gambling. Here is the legislation regarding these activities:<\/p>\n
Proprietors of gift enterprises shall pay one hundred and fifty dollars. Every person, firm, or corporation who shall sell or offer for sale any real estate or article of merchandise of any description whatsoever, or any ticket of admission to any exhibition or performance, with a promise, express or implied, to give or bestow, or in any manner hold out the promise of gift or bestowal of any article or thing for and in consideration of the purchase by any person of any other article or thing, shall be regarded as a proprietor of a gift enterprise: Provided, That no such proprietor, in consequence of being thus taxed, shall be exempt from paying any other tax imposed by law, and the special tax herein required shall be in addition thereto.1<\/a><\/sup> Daily Enquirer, 7 Feb. 1866.<\/em><\/p>\n
Perhaps it is just as well that Hunterdon County had no \u2018gift enterprises.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Occupations to be Licensed The occupations included in the tax lists gives us a window into life in the mid 19th-century. It is just as interesting to see what occupations were not listed as which ones were. I have not yet found a complete list of all occupations to be taxed, but the Revenue Act […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[89,87],"class_list":["post-815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hunterdon-county","tag-civil-war","tag-taxes","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodspeedhistories.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodspeedhistories.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodspeedhistories.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodspeedhistories.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodspeedhistories.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=815"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/goodspeedhistories.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22658,"href":"https:\/\/goodspeedhistories.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815\/revisions\/22658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodspeedhistories.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodspeedhistories.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodspeedhistories.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}