Mrs. Edward V. Rowlett extracted the 1834-1840 Michigan tax rolls for the Pontiac Michigan chapter of the DAR, who self-published them in 1953 and presented copies to various institutions. Extracted information may contain the name of the assessed, description of the property being assessed, acreage, value of property, taxed amount, section, township range where the property exists. The values in the headers do change as you look at the various roll tables.
The column “Range” on a tax roll refers to the “Range” designation in the Public Land Survey System (PLSS). In the PLSS, land is divided into townships and ranges.
A “range” is a vertical column of townships, measured east or west from a principal meridian. The “E” in “Range E.” probably stands for “East,” indicating that these ranges are east of the principal meridian. The values ranging from 1 to 10 would represent how many ranges (vertical columns of townships) east of the meridian the land is located.
So, for instance, “Range 1 E.” would be the first range east of the principal meridian, “Range 2 E.” the second range east, and so on up to “Range 10 E.”
Table of Contents
Tax Roll of Pontiac Township, 1834, p. 1
Tax Roll of Springfield Township, 1839, p. 24
Tax Roll of Addison Township, 1840, p. 33
Tax Roll of Bloomfield Township, 1840, p. 44
Tax Roll of Brandon Township, 1840, p. 55
Tax Roll of Commerce Township, 1840, p. 66
Tax Roll of Groveland Township, 1840, p. 83
Tax Roll of Holly Township, 1840, p. 93
Tax Roll of Highland Township, 1840, p. 100
Tax Roll of Lyon Township, 1840, p. 107
Tax Roll of Oakland Township, 1840, p. 117
Tax Roll of Orion Township, 1840, p. 130
Tax Roll of Pontiac Township, 1840, p. 144
Tax Roll of Royal Oak Township, 1840, p. 170
Tax Roll of Southfield Township, 1840, p. 180
Tax Roll of Springfield Township, 1840, p. 190
Tax Roll of Troy Township, 1840, p. 199
Tax Roll of Waterford Township, 1840, p. 209
Index, after page 218