Local Elections in the 18th and 19th Centuries

Newtown Square Hotel (circa 1891)

Today is Primary Day when our political parties each select candidates for the fall elections.  2011 is a typical “off year” election, with no federal offices in play, and just a few statewide races for judges, and a few local offices. Most races are uncontested this year. Where I vote, a slate of school board candidates was running “against” the party, but otherwise there were few contests. It has been a rainy morning as well, and so the turnout is expected to be very low. 

What were elections like in Delaware County at the beginning of our independence, and for the next 100 years?  Up until 1789, there was no Delaware County. All of the townships that now form Delaware County were then part of Chester County, and the county seat was at the city of Chester, at the far eastern border of the county, equally inconvenient to everyone in the huge county. 

The courthouse was located in the city, voting took place in the city, and if you were a party to a lawsuit, a witness, or a juror, you had to come to the city. In the days of transportation by foot and horseback, this trip was a major investment of time for those who lived far from the city of Chester, such as those in Oxford, West Grove or Kennett Square. As Henry Ashmead noted in his 1884 History of Delaware County: 

“It involved considerable labor to go and return in those days, and in winter time, when, in a warm spell, the roads would be wretched beyond expression, it was a journey such as no man of these modern times would contemplate calmly.”

Of course, traveling over this distance to vote was not a problem for the women of 18^th and 19^thcentury Pennsylvania: they didn’t have the right to vote until 1920. However, all of the county offices were there as well, and so the distance had to be covered for the probate of wills, will challenges and the like. Imagine the trip for an elderly widow living in Oxford, Pennsylvania, and having to travel the very hilly and muddy Baltimore Road (today’s Route 1) for 37 miles to get to the city of Chester to deal with the estate of her husband.  

With the separation of the eastern townships of old Chester County into the new Delaware County in 1789, the legislature also took aim at making it more convenient to vote in the elections in the new country. George Smith’s History of Delaware County gives a good account of the beginning of local elections:

“In early times the general election for the whole county of Chester, was held at the Court-house in Chester. Before the Revolution, Chester County was divided into three election districts, called Chester, Chatham, and Red Lion—the places at which the election was held.  Chester district embraced nearly the same territory that is now included in Delaware County.  After the division, the people of the whole county continued to vote at Chester till 1794, when an Act was passed dividing the County of Delaware into four election districts.  This Act constituted the townships of Concord, Birmingham, Thornbury, Aston, Bethel, and Upper Chichester, the second election district—the election to be held at the house of Joshua Vernon, in Concord; the townships of Newtown, Edgmont, Upper Providence, Marple, and Radnor, the third election district—the election to be held at the house then occupied by William Beaumont, in Newtown; and the townships of Darby, Upper Darby, Haverford, Springfield, and Tinicum, the fourth election district—the election to be held at the house then occupied by Samuel Smith, in Darby. The people of the remaining townships still held their election at Chester, and those townships composed the first district.”

In the first contested presidential election in 1796, voters in Marple and Newtown made the trek to the Farmer’s Wagon tavern kept first by William Beaumont (until 1810), and then by his son Davis Beaumont (see photo), at the crossroads of the Newtown Street and West Chester Roads (now Route 252 and West Chester Pike/Route 3).  The 439 voters in Delaware County that year, generally free, white, male property owners age 21 and older, preferred Federalist John Adams over Democratic Republican Thomas Jefferson, giving Adams, the ultimate winner, about 71 percent of their votes.

Davis Beaumont

The Farmer’s Wagon tavern where they cast their votes, and the adjacent general store, formed the commercial hub of the local community, as the stage coach from Philadelphia to West Chester stopped there as well, bringing mail, news and visitors from each place to this small country crossroads. 

In 1838, Newtown became its own election district, and voting continued to occur at the tavern.  In 1846, under new management, the tavern upgraded its image, changing its name from the Farmer’s Wagon to the Newtown Square Inn.  Davis Beaumont owned the Inn, inherited from his father in 1810, until 1868, two years prior to his death, when he sold it to William T. Davis. 

Davis, a former cattle drover, knew the needs of farmers traveling with their cattle to market, and made the inn a destination for drovers and their cattle.  Cattle auctions were held on the porch of what was then called the Newtown Square Hotel.  The auctioneer?  William T. Davis.  As one of the few businessmen in town, Davis was a political force, and so the hotel remained the polling place in Newtown township for well into the 20^th century. 

In the last presidential election of the 19^th century, Delaware County voters overwhelmingly turned out for Republican William McKinley, giving him 13,952 votes to 4,071 for his Democratic opponent William Jennings Bryant. There were a number of third-party candidates that year, and the next highest vote total was 184, for the Prohibition party candidate Joshua Levering. 

As we leave the 19^th century, I want to share a description of the hotel as it existed in 1891 (see photo), when local author and travel writer Julius Sachse passed through:

“At the present day the old inn has degenerated to an ordinary country tavern, a mere stopping place for the few who still travel the almost deserted turnpike, while the outside benches and bar-room chairs offer a gathering place for the idle gossips of the vicinity—the only exception to the humdrum routine being the days when cattle sales are cried from the tavern porch, or in the winter when some merry sleighing party wakes up the nooks and crannies of the old hostelries for the time being  . . .”

And, of course on election day, when local farmers left their farms and made the trek into town, to vote, to meet and greet, pick up supplies, and talk about the political issues of the day.