Mar 092010
I have always thought of County Treasurers as people who sat in offices filled with books and records, toiling away behind closed doors, out of the public eye. Not necessarily so! I recently found an article about my great-granduncle Judson Brenner (1862-1929), Treasurer of Mahoning County, Ohio. The article was in the New Castle (Pennsylvania) News, Wednesday, November 17, 1927, page 13.
Safe Is Seized In Tax Crusade
YOUNGSTOWN, O., Nov. 16. –
County Treasyrer Judson Brenner has
started a comapign to collect delin-
quent taxes by seizing personal prop-
erty. Attaches of the treasurer’s of-
fice seized the safe in the office of
the Keesecker Land company and
took it to the treasurer’s office.
The picture that comes to mind is the Treasurer and his staff (‘Attaches’) performing an Elliot-Ness-like raid on the offices of the miscreants. Of course, it was probably nothing quite so spectacular. But it had to raise some hackles somewhere. Can you see a contemporary politician acting so rashly?
I guess, however, if you are 65 (retired from a successful business career) you can afford to act in unconventional ways. What was the aftermath of the confiscation of the safe? I don’t know. That will have to be researched. I would guess that the Keesecker Land company paid their back taxes.