As a pioneer, she was fiercely independent. One must wonder if it was the paying tax, which I seriously doubt, as she was invested in infrastructure development and often wrote about the benefits to farmers of being able to expand their markets, educate their kids, etc in the Mansfield Gazette. Or, if she was bitter over being required to pay such outlandish (to her, who lives most of her life in pinury) sums to a government who did not consider her qualified to manage the money they sought to tax.

You gotta a bet for a woman like Wilder, that fucking chaffed and rankled.