This is a story about John George Jackson that Dorothy Davis relates in her book John George Jackson. John George was the son of Colonel George Jackson. John George later replaced his father in the U.S. House of Representatives.
I thought Dorothy’s story appropriate today as we approach the 2020 Presidential Election. How they voted in 1798 was VERY different from how we vote today! First, John George’s election was in Virginia. In 1798 to vote in Virginia, one needed to be a white male over 21 years old and own property. Also, as the story dramatically demonstrates, there was no such thing as a secret ballot or buffer zones at polling places where people where not allowed to intimidate voters or actively campaign.
Enjoy reading! Dan
“By mid-April [1798, John George Jackson who wouldn’t turn 21 years of age until September and therefore eligible to vote and run] had traveled along almost every stream, where settlements existed, soliciting votes [for a seat in the House of Delegates of the Virginia General Assembly]. Most of the voters on election day could reach the [Harrison County, WV] courthouse by traveling no more than a few hours. His greatest problem, as he saw it, was to get freeholders on the Ohio to journey over eighty miles of wilderness trails to vote for him at the courthouse in Clarksburg. He promised them food and lodging at the Jackson ordinary [inn owned by his father George Jackson] if they would make the trip.
“Because his mother [Elizabeth Brake Jackson] was five months into pregnancy, his sister Catherine presided over preparations for the election day celebration. She directed the help who scurried about cleaning beds and floors for sleepers and cooking many potfuls of food to store away. Catherine assured John George that everyone he sent to the ordinary would be cared for.
“John George, on election day, was at the courthouse shortly after dawn. Just before Sheriff Reed opened the polls the twenty-one-year-old candidate spoke to the crowd in the courthouse yard then walked into the courthouse to take a seat on the bench where sat the other candidates. Sheriff Reed admitted the first voter, motioned towards the candidates and asked, “For whom do you vote?” The voter pointed to his favorite, and as he called out the name, one of the two clerks made a mark in the pollbook. During the day whenever a voter’s voice boomed forth with “John George Jackson,” the youth heard a loud cheer from the outside. As he left, the voter was met at the door by Jackson friends and “if he used the ‘critter’ he was helped to a grog … by the aid of a tin cup and a pail of water” at the barrel of whiskey George Jackson had provided. Sheriff Reed declared the polls closed toward sunset after voters no longer stood in line. John George Jackson had won “the almost unanimous vote of the County.”
Ref: John George Jackson by Dorothy Davis, McClain Printing Company, 1976, p. 43-44.
Lineage: John George Jackson3, George Jackson2, John Jackson1. Submitted by Dan Hyde.