property—and finish the and perhaps the , for he believes they can both be finish’d as well as not and for his part he is willing to leave all his property to finish these two houses. When the Legislature sits again will be there and , and perhaps they will have influence enough to get the Legislature to divide the and make this the County seat. The Government has ordered that no Taxes shall be collected in this till May and he has no doubt their object is to have us go away without a privileges of paying our taxes, so that our property can be sold for the Taxes and they obtain tax titles to all of it. The Catholics have failed to do any thing in regard to buying our property and it seems there is some manouvering among them; probably they want to grab our [p. [87]]
On 7 January, according to the Warsaw Signal,Jacob B. Backenstos, the county sheriff and tax collector, was served an injunction issued by Illinois Supreme Court justice Norman H. Purple, who presided over the circuit court in Hancock County, prohibiting him “from collecting any taxes until after the May Term of the Circuit Court.” A few months later, the Signal indicated what it saw as the motivation for the order (which extended only to Hancock County, not the entire state): “The old settlers of Hancock have paid nearly all the taxes, for several years, which have been received into the County treasury, and they have been squandered by Mormon Commissioners. It is therefore time that they should resist the payment of any more taxes until the Mormon Dynasty is entirely extinct.” In the months following this 11 January meeting, Backenstos attempted to have the injunction overturned and to collect taxes. In May 1846 the circuit court apparently ruled that taxes paid during the injunction and acknowledged by a receipt from the tax collector would be considered valid. Under Illinois law, if property was sold for taxes, the owner had up to two years to redeem it for “double the amount for which the same was sold, and all taxes accruing after such sale.” (“Injunction on the Tax Collector,” Warsaw [IL] Signal, Extra, 8 Jan. 1846, [1], italics in original; “Injunction on the Tax Collector,” Warsaw Signal, 14 Jan. 1846, [2]; Revenue [3 Mar. 1845], Revised Statutes of the State of Illinois [1844–1845], chap. 89, secs. 27, 69, pp. 441, 447; “Collection of Taxes,” Warsaw Signal, 1 Apr. 1846, [2]; “Commissioner’s Court,” Warsaw Signal, 11 Mar. 1846, [1]; “Taxes,” Warsaw Signal, 25 Mar. 1846, [2]; “The Circuit Court,” Warsaw Signal, 27 May 1846, [2].)
Warsaw Signal. Warsaw, IL. 1841–1853.
Revised Statutes of the State of Illinois, Adopted by the General Assembly of Said State, at Its Regular Session, Held in the Years, A. D., 1844–’5. Springfield, IL: William Walters, 1845.