The Wheeling Daily Intelligencer

The Intelligencer:

City Real Estate and Personal Property.

We observe that in the cities of New York, Chicago and St. Louis there has been a noticeable decline in the value of real estate and personal property, as returned by the assessors, since last year. And we see it also stated that this is the case in ten of the leading cities of the country. We presume the same thing has occurred in very many of the smaller cities and towns of the land.

It has not, however, been the case in Wheeling, as the figures lately handed in by the City Assessor will show. In every ward there has been an increase in the value of real property, and in every one but three an increase in personalty. The real estate of the city is returned at $10,303,221 for 1877 as against $9,913,421 for 1876, and the personalty at $5,489,629 as against $4,823,244.

In regard to the personal property it is only fair to say that there is a variance in the figures returned by some of the banks and those returned by the assessor, but even accepting the figures of the banks there will still remain an increase in the value of personal property in the city over last year.

Not only did the aggregate value of property increase in the city in 1876—the year of the greatest depression since the panic—but also our population increased from 27,933 to 28,270. For convenient reference we herewith append a table showing the population of the city, by school districts, for the years 1877 and 1876, and the property valuation in each of the Wards. It is as follows:

[Omitted garbled table data as unusable]

We presume that there are few cities or towns in the country that can make a better showing these hard times than these figures present. Wheeling is often reproached as too conservative in her ideas. Her conservatism, however, pans out to good advantage after four years of a panic in prices.

Washington	1877	1876
Madison	3,754	3,64
Clay	4,478	4,26
Union	4,030	3,87
Centre	4,847	4,69
Webster	2,896	2,8
Ritchie	4,533	4,6
Tate	3,782	3,95

First Ward	8	83	290	$760,190
Second Ward	1	176,015		1,639,740
Third Ward	2	308,200		2,245,550
Fourth Ward	7	530		735,730
Fifth Ward	1	687,800		1,035,440
Sixth Ward	1	664,300		1,613,350
Seventh Ward	8	430		697,650
Eighth Ward	1	148,266		1,145,771

First Ward	$238,689	$215,180
Second Ward	1,451,968	1,820,840
Third Ward	2,516,587	1,931,560
Fourth Ward	85,435	174,480
Fifth Ward	35,633	275,891
Sixth Ward	529,233	139,268
Seventh Ward	151,015	188,190
Eighth Ward	216,102	217,885