Latah County, Idaho

Records, 1888-1959
87 linear feet

The records of Latah County were transferred to the University of Idaho Library by the county prior to 1980. They were processed by Judith Nielsen between April and June 1997.

HISTORY

The present Latah County was originally part of Nez Perce County, Idaho Territory. In 1887 Congressman Fred Dubois of Blackfoot introduced a bill in the U.S. Congress creating the county of Latah from the northern part of Nez Perce County. The bill met with little opposition and was signed by President Cleveland on May 14, 1888; thus making Latah County the only county in the United States created by an act of Congress.

COUNTY OFFICIALS

Auditor: The auditor is the chief accounting officer of the county and is responsible for keeping records of revenues, expenditures, and balances in county funds, and for making certain that county agencies do not overspend their budgets. The auditor reviews all bills presented to county agencies, sees there are funds to pay them, presents the bills to the county commissioners for their approval, and writes checks, called warrants, to pay the bills. The auditor also prepares financial reports, computes property taxes due, and accounts for licenses. In the capacity of recorder the auditor is responsible for recording, filing and indexing a large number of legal documents, including deeds, marriage licenses, leases, certificates of sales, mining claims, and wills admitted to probate. The auditor also serves as clerk of the district court, and plays a role in selection of juries, collects fees, and provides clerical assistance to the court. As county clerk he or she has important responsibilities in election administration, such as supervising local election officials, helping to register voters, publishing notices of election and preparing and printing ballots. The auditor also serves as clerk of the county commission, recording all proceedings, resolutions, and votes.

Treasurer: The county treasurer is responsible for receiving money belonging to the county, accounting for and safely keeping the funds. The treasurer deposits the money in bank accounts or invests the funds temporarily in United States certificates of deposit or other securities. Serving as tax collector, the treasurer sends out property tax notices, collects personal and property taxes and issues warrants to collect delinquent taxes.

Assessor: The main function of the county assessor is to set a fair value on property for tax purposes. To do this the assessor keeps an accurate map of each parcel of property in the county and visits the property to determine its value. The assessor sends each property owner a statement showing the market value of property for assessment purposes and hears the objections of taxpayers who are protesting this amount. The assessor is also responsible for registering motor vehicles, selling license plates, and handling titles for motor vehicles.

SCOPE AND CONTENT

The records of Latah County span the years 1888 to 1959 with the bulk of the material covering the years 1888 to 1930

Included are records of the auditor in his/her several capacities (i.e. auditor, recorder, clerk of the court, and clerk of the county commission), records of the treasurer, and the assessor.

As the following inventory indicates, not all series of records are complete. In some instances record books are lacking volumes, reports may be lacking several years, numbers of recorded deeds may be missing, and some volumes of tax statements are also lacking..

ARRANGEMENT AND DESCRIPTION

These records were moved to different storage areas within the library several times prior to processing, therefore any original order was destroyed. Following the description of duties of county officials outlined by Sydney Duncombe in his Handbook for County Officials in Idaho (10th edition, University of Idaho Bureau of Public Affairs Research, 1991) the records were organized by office.

The records of the auditor were divided into several sub-series, since the auditor also serves as clerk of the court, recorder, and clerk of the county commissioners. Included in the auditor's records are license records, bonds, reports, certificates of nomination, and forest protection charge lists. The bonds were originally bundled and their received order was not altered; during processing it was discovered that dates occasionally overlapped, and some small sections were interspersed among larger sections.

The clerk of the court records contain a district court fee book, a record of cases in Nez Perce County from 1883 to 1890 which appears to have been hand copied from the original books, district court calendars, and court stenographers shorthand notebooks for cases from 1893 to 1939. The stenographers' notebooks were divided into series by type of book used, which is also a chronological arrangement. In many cases the books were numbered, and this numerical arrangement was retained; unnumbered books are at the end of each series. Series I-III are in small notebooks, while the shorthand notes in series IV are on 81/2 x 14" sheets of paper which have been foldered by year. Some of the books are water damaged, and numbers in each series are lacking.

As recorder the auditor's records include 9 volumes of Land department abstracts which lists land by legal description and records details of any sales, chattel and crop mortgages, and estray notices which are handwritten notifications of livestock found on private property and requesting the owner to claim the animal(s).

The clerk of the county commission records include a jailers report of prisoners, bonds and election returns for road overseers, and road district inventories.

The second series contains the treasurer's records. These include 12 volumes of warrant registers, from 1888 to 1939, name indexes to the registers, quarterly statements and monthly reports, trial balance books, fish and game licenses issued, tax sale certificates which are also called delinquency certificates (the tax sale certificates, 1884-1912, are individual sheets of paper, the delinquency certificates, 1913-1917, are bound in volumes), and volumes titled Indexes to delinquent taxes which are indexes to the tax sale certificates. The series also includes six volumes of special property road tax records, 1902-1908 (1906 lacking). The final items in the series are miscellaneous papers which were discovered among the bank statements.

The final series contains the records of the assessor. Included are plat maps of Moscow arranged by addition, plat maps of small Latah county towns, lists of property belonging to Potlatch Lumber Company, John Vollmer, Edward Rutledge Timber Company, Northern Pacific Railway, and the Forest Development Company which was subject to assessment, taxpayer statement for property taxes, and a book of motor vehicle license fees collected.

In 1987 permission was received from the state archivist to discard approximately 20 cubic feet of redeemed warrants. Many remaining items were set aside for discard during processing. Included were records recording internal transactions between departments (e.g. auditors' requisitions to the treasurer), certified list of warrants to be issued, warrants, redeemed warrants, receipts, check registers bank deposit slips, bank statements and paid checks, duplicates of treasurer's reports, detail sheets of tax collector's reports, tax payer statements for property taxes except for 0 and 5 numbered years (Oregon State Archives record retention schedule recommendation), assessors rubber stamps, and several unused volumes of printed forms. This reduced the records by an additional 125 cubic feet.

Permission to discard the above material was requested from the state archivist. Following receipt of the permission the discard list will be sent to the Latah County Historical Society in case there are any items they feel would be useful for either research or exhibit purposes.

Records of the Kendrick State Bank which were deposited with the Clerk of the Court during dissolution hearings were removed and accessioned separately; these will become MG 384.

SERIES LIST

I. Auditor, 1883-1959 1-79

A. Auditor, 1888-1959

B. Clerk of the Court, 1883-1939

C. Recorder, 1888-1925

D. Clerk of the County Commissioners, 1888-1926

II. Treasurer, 1888-1954 80-147

III. Assessor, 1914-1959 148-180

INVENTORY

LATAH COUNTY

Box Folder Description Items

I. Auditor, 1883-1959

A. Auditor, 1888-1959

1	Auditor's abstract of expenses, road and bridge tax, 1904-1909	1
2	Road district account book 2, 1913-1921	1
3	Auditor and Recorders fee book, 1892-1895	1
4	Record of Election tickets printed and furnished, 1892-1920	1
5	License record (auctioneer, billiards, circus, etc.) 1, 1914-1931	1
6	License stubs, 1898, 1908-1910	4
	Auditor and recorder bonds for county officials, 1888-1893	480
7	Bonds, School district, 1891-1892	26
8	Auditor and recorder bonds for county officials, 1909-1925	600
	Special constable bonds, 1911-1913	10
9	Auditor and recorder bonds for county officials, 1927-1944	300
	Auditor and recorder bonds securing county deposits: First Trust and Savings Bank, Moscow, 1922-1928	6
		First Bank, Bovill, 1922-1928	5
		Bank of Juliaetta, 1923-1927	5
		Latah County State Bank, 1921-1928	5
		First National Bank of Moscow, 1922-1928	24
		First Bank, Troy, 1924-1929	40
		Moscow State Bank, 1923-1927	23
		Kendrick State Bank, 1924-1926	3
		Genesee Exchange Bank, 1922-1928	37
	Semi-annual report of District Attorney, 1891-1894	7
10	Joint Auditor and Treasurer statements, 1895-1925	150
11	Joint reports of Auditor and Treasurer, 1920-1925	9
	Auditor's report, 1903-1914	60
	County Auditor's detailed statements, 1919	16
12	Certificates of nomination, 1910-1918	220
	Nomination papers, 1920	75
13-14	Special school tax levies, 1889-1914	2000
15-19	Forest protection charges, 1925-1933, 1938, 1959	249

B. Clerk of the Court, 1883-1939

20	Record book, Nez Perce County, 1883-1890	1
21	District court fee book, 1891-1895	1
22-25	District court calendars, 1889-1909	4
26-28	Court stenographers shorthand notebooks, Series I, 1893-1895	87
28-31		Series II, 1895-1897	93
32-33		Series III, 1892-1898	23
34	1-15		Series IV, 1889-1908	138
35	16-30			1909-1914	120
36	31-46			1915-1919	112
37	47-52			1919-1921	30
38	53-57			1922-1924	33
39	58-62			1925-1926	31
40	63-64			1927-1928	11
	65-68			1938-1939 and undated	17
41	69		Reporters transcript and exhibits: Boas v. Latah County, 1939	8
	70	Typescript: First National Bank vs. Regents of the University of Idaho, 1913	2

C. Recorder, 1888-1925

42	Abstracts Land Department: Charitable and other institutions, 1901-1914	1
43		Penitentiary land, 1901-1914	1
44		Public buildings; Agricultural college, 1902	1
45-46		School land, 1891-1914	2
47		School land; Timber land, 1907-1925	1
48		Normal School land, 1901-1902	1
49		Scientific School land, 1901-1902	1
50		University land, 1901-1914	1
51-71	Chattel and crop mortgages, 1891-1910	10499
72	Estray notices, 1888-1910	20

D. Clerk of the County Commissioners, 1888-1926

73	Jailors reports of prisoners, 1889-1892	14
73-76	Road overseers bonds, 1888-1922	1850
77	Road overseers inventories, Districts 1-35, 1889-1926	500
78		Districts 36-62, 1889-1926	420
79	Road overseers election returns, 1898-1911	225

II. Treasurer, 1888-1954

80-91	Treasurer's Register of Warrants, 1888-1939	12
92	Name index to Warrant registers: Unidentified (5)	1
93		Unidentified (6 on cover)	1
94		1924. Current expenses	1
95		1926. Current expenses	1
96		1928. Current expenses; Road district	1
97		1928, 1929. School district	1
98		1930. School	1
99	71		1929. Current expense; Road district	1
	72		1930. Current expense; Court trust; Sheriff's revolving fund	1
	73		1931. Current expense	1
	74		1931. School	1
100	75		1932. Current expense	1
	76		1932. School	1
	77		1932. Hospital and indigent	1
	78		1933. Current expense	1
	79		1933. School	1
101	80		1933. Hospital	1
	81		1934. Current expense	1
	82		1934. School	1
	83		1934. Hospital and indigent	1
	84		1935. Current expense	1
102	85		1935. School district	1
	86		1935. Hospital and indigent	1
	87		1936. Current expense	1
	88		1936. School district	1
	89		1936. Hospital and indigent	1
103	90		1936. Health unit fund	1
	91		1937. Current expenses	1
	92		1937. Hospital and indigent	1
	93		1938. Current expense	1
	94		1938. Hospital and indigent	1
104	95		1939. Current expense	1
	96		1939. Hospital and indigent	1
	97		1937-1939. Health unit; Court trust; Sheriff's revolving, Noxious weed eradication, Weed revolving	1
	98		1946-1948. Unidentified	1
105	Treasurer's quarterly statements, 1888-1894	25
105-107	Treasurer's monthly reports, 1888-1928	630
108	School district financial journal, 1911-1916	1
109-110	Trial balance books, 1897-1915	2
111	Trial balance book: Auditor, 1897-1903	1
112		Special School District, 1931-1948	1
113-118	Treasurer's and Tax collector's cash account books, 1921-1954	6
119	Fish and game licenses, 1903-1904	1
120-123	Tax collector's reports, 1888-1913	1295
124-131	Tax sale certificates, 1884-1912	10785
132-137	Delinquency certificates, 1917	38
138	Index to delinquent taxes: Lots 2, 1916-1918	1
139	Index to delinquent taxes: Lands 2, 1916-1918	1
140	Delinquent tax collections reports, 1919-1935	1
141-146	Special property road tax record, 1902-1905; 1907-1908	6
147	Insurance policies (court house, furniture, etc.), 1908-1920	46
	Incoming correspondence, 1921-1934	20
	List of widows and soldiers, 1922 tax rolls	3
	Summons, country treasurer and commissioners, 1920	1
	Highway commissioners, appointment of, 1921-1926	28
	Apportionment of school money, 1918-1919	8
	Reports to superintendent of condition of bond, etc., of school districts, 1921	1
	School district valuations, 1919-1920	2
	Tax sale certificate of Charles Riggle of Kendrick, 1923	1
	Tax collectors detailed statements, 1919-1928	16
	Delinquent tax notices for publication, 1917-1922	7
	Miscellaneous papers, 1904-1937	18
	List of Northern Pacific Railway land in Latah County, 1921	1
	Protests in payment of taxes, 1920-1929	10
	Public administrator papers, 1922-1936	18
	Notice of land on which the state of Idaho holds mortgages, 1922	7

III. Assessor, 1914-1959

148	Plat books, 4-39-5 to 8-39-5	6
149		9-39-5; 16-39-5 to 18-39-5; Beagles-Bremers	6
150		Bremer's 2^nd - Deakin's 3^rd7
151		Deakin's 4^th - Highland View	6
152		Homestead - McGregor's	6
153		McGregor's 2^nd - Mt. View	4
154		Olesen's - Park	5
155		Rayburn - Sandelius	5
156		Schumacher's - Urquhart	6
157		Urquhart's 2^nd - White's acre; Coal bins; Oil distributing plants	5
158		Warehouses, elevators, mills, plants; Personal property; Industrial; Juliaetta	4
159	Property ownership maps for tax purposes, n.d.	11
159	School district township maps, n.d.	37
160	99	Plat map: Avon	1
	100		Bovill	1
	101		Cornwall	1
	102		Deary	1
	103		Deary: Home and Orchard tracts	2
	104		Genesee	1
	105		Genesee: City View addition	1
	106	Genesee: Harris and Sunnyside additions	1
	107		Genesee: West addition	1
	108		Harvard	1
	109		Helmer	1
	110		Joel	1
	111		Juliaetta	1
	112		Juliaetta: Park and Aldrich additions	1
	113		Kendrick including Addison's addition	1
	114		Kendrick: Oaks addition	1
	115		Onaway	1
	116		Onaway: Bull's addition	1
	117		Potlatch: Highway tracts	1
	118		Princeton: Smith's addition	2
	119		Rue	1
	120		Troy	1
	121		Troy: South side	1
	122		Troy: State addition	1
	123		University of Idaho (NE 1/4 18-39-5)	1
	124		SW 1/4 17-39-5 and SE 1/4 18-38-5	1
162	Assessor's book of land transfers, 1914-1915	1
163	Property belonging to Clearwater Timber Company, 1917	1
164		Edward Rutledge Timber Co., 1916-1917	2
165		Forest Development Company, 1946, 1948	2
166		Milwaukee Land Company, 1951, 1957, 1959	3
167		Northern Pacific Railway, 1916-1917	2
168		Potlatch Lumber Company, 1915, 1917, 1951, 1959	15
169		John P. Vollmer, n.d.	2
170-175	Taxpayer statements: Property tax, 1925	53
176-169	Taxpayer statements: Property tax, 1930	344
180	Book of motor vehicle license fees collected, 1922-1934	1

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