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From: "Carolyn Feroben" <>
Subject: [CA-RECORDS-L] MILITARY ROLLS AND MILITARY TAX-Part One
Date: Mon, 28 May 2001 09:22:50 -0700


I have posted this before- but for new listmembers , on this Memorial Day
holiday, I thought I would post again.

This information is taken from _County Archives of California_ by Owen Coy,
1919, and describes this particular record type. This is a general
description of the records-

Military Rolls and Military Tax.
An act concerning the organization of the militia, approved April 10, 1850,
provided that "all free white, able-bodied male citizens, between the ages
of eighteen and forty five years, residing in this State, and not exempt by
law, shall be subject to military duty." All who were not exempted by law,
and not members of any volunteer of independent company, were required to
pay to the county treasurer two dollars a year as a commutation for the
nonperformance of military duty. Provision was made for enforcing the
collection of this military tax. This law also required the assessor each
year to make out a separate and distinct list of all persons subject to
military duty and not exempt by law and not members of any volunteer or
independent company. A certified copy of this list was to be sent to the
adjutant general of the state and the original list deposited in the office
of the county clerk.

An act approved April 25, 1855, re-enacted the earlier section regarding
those subject to military duty. It also required the assessor, as before,
to make out a military list, a copy to be transmitted to the brigadier
general of the brigade to which his county belonged, and the original to be
deposited in the office of the county clerk. This law required the payment
of a tax of twenty-five cents by each person on the military list for the
support of the volunteer militia of the state. The assessor was to assess
this tax and it was to be collected and returned in the same manner as other
taxes. An amendatory act of April 10, 1856, increased the military tax to
fifty cents and required the state controller to have uniform blank receipts
printed and distributed to the various counties for use in the collection of
this tax.

(see Part Two)
Carolyn
http://cagenweb.com/mariposa/


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