Pre-state issued licensing.
Before licenses and taxes were established, most roads were paid through toll gates at various places depending on the road or project being paid for. After the Civil War, roads and bridges were being built during the Reconstruction and until the late 1800s, payment of road construction and the upkeep required was usually paid through monies collected at the various toll gates.
The first evidence of number plates mentioned in the records of North Carolina occurs in the 1883 private laws under Chapter 112- "An act for the relief of creditors of the former town of Fayetteville & for other purposes". In section 37, it mentions- "No wagon, cart or dray shall be used or employed in hauling for hire within the district until the owner or agent shall first obtain a license, and file with the clerk a bond with sufficient surety in the sum of two hundred dollars, conditioned to pay all damages theat may be sustained by any person hiring the same by the negligence or improper management of the driver or person having charge thereof. There shall be paid to the tax collector for an annual license for a four- or three- horse wagon, ten dollars: for a two-horse wagon, cart or dray, eight dollars: and for a one- horse wagon, cart or dray, six dollars: and each licensed wagon, cart or dray shall have at all times a durable label, showing the number of the license, affixed to some conspicuous part of the wagon, cart or dray."
While this mentions a durable label likely dated 1884 and newer, there has yet to be found any of these labels which more than likely would have been a metal tag of some sort that would have been attached maybe similar to the 1910 Fayetteville Hack Plate shown. |
In the 1889 General Assembly, new legislation allowed the city of Southport to tax all wagons, omnibuses, drays and even saddlehorses used for purposes of hauling to pay for building and maintenance of streets.
Charlotte's "Tax Tags"
In the 1901 General Assembly, the official birth of the city issued licenses began with the Charlotte "Tax tag" becoming a requirement on all wagons that traverse the streets of Charlotte. This was in addition to property taxes paid on vehicles and actually defined the differences between the size of the wagons bases on skeens and spindles. In addition, the law further states- "...it shall be the duty of said Supervisor, upon the receipt of the requires tax, to issue to such person a metal tag with the number, the words 'TAX PAID' and the year in which it is issued. all stamped thereon. Said tax tag, when so issued, shall be securely fastened or attached to said wagon, in some conspicuous place, and it shall be kept so attached during the current year for which the tax is paid.
The City of Concord followed suit with legislation in the 1903 General Assembly. Other cities and towns would introduce their plates as well.
County Issued Plates
In the 1907 General Assembly, legislation was passed for Guilford, Wake and Wayne counties to require vehicles to be "numbered"with a pair of plates. Later in the same year, Forsyth County followed suit. Below is the portion from that law.
It shall be the duty of the owner or other person Numbers to be operating a locomobile or automobile in the county of Forsyth to attach to the front, and on the rear, of any such locomobile or automobile or other motor vehicle the number of such machine in plain letters so as to easily be read, with a metal plate attached to or suspended from said 'vehicle or machine, and to register Numbers to be the number of said machine with the Clerk of the Superior Court in a book kept for that purpose by him with the name of the owner set opposite such number.
The City of Concord followed suit with legislation in the 1903 General Assembly. Other cities and towns would introduce their plates as well.
County Issued Plates
In the 1907 General Assembly, legislation was passed for Guilford, Wake and Wayne counties to require vehicles to be "numbered"with a pair of plates. Later in the same year, Forsyth County followed suit. Below is the portion from that law.
It shall be the duty of the owner or other person Numbers to be operating a locomobile or automobile in the county of Forsyth to attach to the front, and on the rear, of any such locomobile or automobile or other motor vehicle the number of such machine in plain letters so as to easily be read, with a metal plate attached to or suspended from said 'vehicle or machine, and to register Numbers to be the number of said machine with the Clerk of the Superior Court in a book kept for that purpose by him with the name of the owner set opposite such number.
State issued "Numbers"
State-wide licensing began after the 1909 General Assembly. What this entailed was the state issuing a 2" disc with a number stamped onto it which would be fastened onto the dashboard. It was then up to the owner to make his plates for the front and rear of the vehicle. Plates were to be either black on white or white on black with no less than 3" numbers with no less than 1/2" strokes. All vehicles were to have the seal and a rear plate as of July 1, 1909.
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