Recently in elections Category

Another election has just passed, this one with little fanfare. No federal offices were at stake and only judicial ones at the state level. Many county and local officies were not up for election and some of those who were had only one candidate.

The flier above for the 1924 Republican Party candidates caught my eye when I was looking through a file on elections at the York County Heritage Trust Library/Archives. The gentlemen certainly look "SAFE--SANE--STEADY."

Even though 1924 was a presidential election year, it wasn't an exciting election. The American Presidency Project shows that Coolidge won with 54% of the popular vote. Democrat John W. Davis carried only the "solid south" and Progressive candidate Robert M. LaFollette only took his native Wisconsin.

Who were these 1924 Republicans and where is the York County connection?

York County has had a good share of visits from U.S. Presidents. In one of a series of recent posts on presidential visits to York County, Jim McClure mentioned that William Howard Taft spoke to Yorkers from the back of a train. Click here for more on Taft's visits.

The photo postcard above, recently donated to the York County Heritage Trust Library/Archives, was sent by one of the members of the crowd to a friend.
It is addressed to Miss Mary Roser, Glen Rock, PA and was sent from Daniel Knaus, 258 E. King St. It was postmarked at York, Pa on April 6, 1910.

The message, written on both the front and back reads:

Henry Fortenbaugh didn't figure he would be elected Sherriff of York County in 1877. Besides, he didn't want to run anyway.

The York Gazette ran excerpts from a "long letter" to the York Press concerning his extreme displeasure with the York Republican and his not-good chances in the upcoming election.

The Gazette article of October 30, 1877 reads:

Lewis Miller drawing of 1840 W.H.Harrison campaign headquarters.
In 1840 Democrats derisively campaigned that the Whig candidate for President, William Henry Harrison, would be more at home in a log cabin. The Whigs seized the idea and used it as a symbol, giving the idea that Harrison was one of the common people.

That wasn't exactly correct, seeing that Harrison was the son of a Virginia planter, college educated and a career army officer before he got into politics.

The log cabin image was so striking, however, that Whigs all over the country built log cabins to use as campaign headquarters. Did York?

Republicans try to get out the European vote with absentee ballot info.

This post is about making history instead of reporting on it. And make history we will, whatever the outcome of the imminent presidential election.

Earlier this month, while wandering the cobblestones of the beautiful old city of Prague, I was stopped short by the sight in the photo above. My first reaction was that there can't be that many Americans in the Czech Republic that it would be worthwhile to have a rolling signboard advocating absentee balloting.

Then I realized, given the close proximity and relatively small size of many European nations, one painted automobile could cover quite a bit of area. When you think of all the American military personnel, business people, and tourists in Europe at any give time, reminding them of absentee voting doesn't seem like a bad idea.

Both congressional candidates were York County natives.

The incumbent was a successful newspaper publisher and could boast of having marched off with the York Company to the defense of Baltimore in 1814. He had been a member of the committee to escort the great Lafayette when the Revolutionary hero returned to visit York in 1825.

The challenger was a successful attorney and had served in the Pennsylvania Senate. He too was known to Lafayette, having received a letter of condolence from the Frenchman upon the death of his father.