uartile 378 260 225 225 183.5 222.5 265
Average 222 206 150.5 147.8 137.8 154 184.2
Median 187 150 131 120 104 120 155.5
Lower Quartile 80 100 59 52 43.5 57 90
Lowest Acreage 1 42 3 6 5 1 6
The above table gives in a graphic manner the tendency of wealth to
increase, on the Hill, so far as wealth is represented in land. It is to
be noted that these figures, taken from the Tax-Lists of the town of
Pawling, are not precisely accurate, especially in the lower ranges.
There is an evident inaccuracy in the reporting of the smaller places.
Yet from them the following may be inferred: First, that from the
beginning of the reports, which was about the end of the period of the
Quaker Community, there was a shrinkage in the size of the land-holdings
on the Hill; and from the beginning of the period of the Mixed Community
a rise in the general averages. The lowest of the curve is about 1890,
in the Median, the average and in each of the quartiles. Second, the
incoming of the Irish immigrants, who began to be land-holders about
1850, multiplied the number of small holdings of land.
Just what cause has operated in the years 1890-1906 to increase the size
of the holdings of land it is hard to say, unless it be the expectation
that land would have a value, which is aroused by the presence on the
Hill every summer of visitors to a number equal to the numbers of the
resident population. It is evident at the present time, when the "milk
business" has been reduced to half in the past five years, that the
farmers are holding their lands with a hope of selling.
It is worthy of remark that the tax-list of the town furnish no other
data of reliable value, or even of suggestion, being obviously
inaccurate and uneven in their reports of the values of land, and of the
holdings of personal property.
The fact that is not recorded in the above statistics is this: that
certain owners, associated in close family ties, own all the land of
greatest value. Seven family groups possess, in the names of eleven of
the above owners, all the land near the Hotel, all the land for which
any one has ever thought of charging more than fifty dollars an acre.
These eleven owners of all the land of greatest value possess probably
nine-tenths of the personal property.
Holdings of property on Quaker
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