WFYI sent a message that the station “will be airing the episode of History Detectives with Greg Shine on our high definition channel, 20.1, on September 8 at 9 pm. We won't be carrying it on our regular channel 20 NEXT week because we are beginning a membership campaign this Saturday.” I'll keep you informed.

Wayne Johnson shared a bank book that his grandfather Charles P. Johnson used in 1905 and 1906 as Jackson Township Trustee. Among the trustee's duties then was to collect the road tax.

That tax started not long after the county bought the privately owned toll roads in 1893. After 1893 men were required to work a set number of days per year by crushing stone and hauling it to use on the roads. Soon after though the county taxed property owners specifically for keeping the roads in good repair.

Johnson deposited the road tax and other monies he collected for Jackson Township into the Third National Bank using the bank's book, “In account with Chas. P. Johnson 1905, Jackson Township,” and advised that the book “should be left for balancing as often as once a month.” Johnson surely rode to Greensburg from Jackson Township on a horse to deposit the monies. At least, I think so, because Ford Motor Company sold its first car in 1903 and produced 1,700 cars during its first full year of business so I doubt Johnson had one.

I wondered where the Third National Bank was located in 1905. It was at 119 East Main Street where the Big Brothers and Big Sisters is now located. In 1883 The Third National merged with the Citizens Bank of Greensburg that was at 103 East Main which had opened in 1866 to form the Citizens Third National Bank and Trust. As noted, both banks were on the south side of the square. The Third National was just east of the alley (Swem building is west of the alley). Citizens Bank was west on the south side where Hilliard Lyons is located now. In 1934, The Decatur County Bank took over the assets of the Citizens Third National and located in that building east of the alley until it was moved to West Main Street.

The next time you’re on the square check out both buildings. The Citizens National Bank (more recently was the Greensburg Building and Loan) was built in the early 1920s. It's plain compared to the Third National Bank that was built in the late teens. Both are neoclassical style architecture. Notice also the Swem Block (name on the top of the building) was built in 1885), using the Richardsonian Romanesque style. I got that information from the 1999 Interim Report.

For the road tax Johnson wrote down each person's name, a description of the property, exactly where it was located, the value and improvements and the amount of taxes to be paid. The towns in the township are Waynesburg, Forest Hill (in 1905 was called Newburg), Alert and Sardinia and if a family lived in one of those towns he wrote that – otherwise, he put down the section.

The list of Jackson Township residents in 1905 whose descendants still live in the township or live in the county is amazing. After all, it's been 103 years. There's Updike, Voiles, Shera, Shaw, Moore, Hill and Galloway. There were plenty of Johnsons, some Smiths, Pleaks, Pavy and Parker families. There are Oldham, Moore, Lawson, Isgrigg, Jones, Hern, Faulkner, Fraley, Evans, Elliott, Eddelman, Cooper, Baird, Bentley, Bannister, Bennett, Talkington and Thurston. Of course, that isn't all the names but those are names that I recognize at a glance.

Who paid the most tax for that year? Well, as far as the road tax was concerned, I believe it was Martin Hill for just the road tax ($44.89). Businesses are listed in the bank book but not in the road tax book so I believe the road tax was combined with personal property tax. Letts Hardware paid a lot of what must have been personal property plus road tax ($390) which seems a lot even today. Charles P. Johnson paid his taxes too.

I've loved looking through the material Wayne Johnson shared with me. As I've said many times, this column is the combined effort of readers and myself.

NOTE: does anyone know anything about the Wood School in Marion Township such as who gave or sold the property for the school to be built, and why it was sometimes called the Ferris School?

I love hearing from readers but I am seldom at the Daily News building. Please feel free to contact me through email at patjsmith@verizon.net or at 122 W. Sheridan, Greensburg, IN 47240.