One never knows what one will find until one looks. A search for St. Louis, Missouri, resident George Rothweiler resulted in this item from 1860 indicating he had voted in an 1858 election that was later contested by the loser.
George was a German native and his voting would have implied that he was a citizen at the time he registered to vote, helping approximate his latest time of arrival. There were accusations that men who were not eligible to vote (for a variety of reasons) actually voted. George does not appear to have been one of those men--at least a text-based search of the publication did not indicate any other reference to his name.
 |
Missouri contested election. Memorial of Frank P. Blair, Jr., contesting the election of the honorable J.R. Barrett, of the First Congressional District of Missouri. February 10, 1860. -- Referred to the Committee of Elections, and ordered to be printed.
Date: Friday, February 10, 1860
Publication: Serial Set Vol. No.1062;
Report: H.Misc.Doc. 8, page 119; obtained digitally on
GenealogyBank.com
|
If I had not known where George was living at the time of the election, the statement from local judges indicated which precinct in St. Louis George voted in. The next two images show the statement regarding the precinct in which George's name appears.
 |
Missouri contested election. Memorial of Frank P. Blair, Jr., contesting the election of the honorable J.R. Barrett, of the First Congressional District of Missouri. February 10, 1860. -- Referred to the Committee of Elections, and ordered to be printed.
Date: Friday, February 10, 1860
Publication: Serial Set Vol. No.1062;
Report: H.Misc.Doc. 8, page 117; obtained digitally on
GenealogyBank.com
|
 |
Missouri contested election. Memorial of Frank P. Blair, Jr., contesting the election of the honorable J.R. Barrett, of the First Congressional District of Missouri. February 10, 1860. -- Referred to the Committee of Elections, and ordered to be printed.
Date: Friday, February 10, 1860
Publication: Serial Set Vol. No.1062; page 118
Report: H.Misc.Doc. 8; obtained digitally on
GenealogyBank.com
|
As a matter of course, I always like to copy the title page to assist me in the creation of my citation. I think it makes for good practice to include a digital copy of the title page of any published work that is obtained online in digital format. I still cite the publisher of the online image--in this case
GenealogyBank.com -but the title page (shown partially here) helps me if I need to find the material in another location. Of course, my citation should be detailed enough that the title page is not necessary, but one more image in my set of files does not hurt anything and may save time later.
Contested elections in 1858 in Missouri. Who would have thought?
Students of history (which all genealogists should be) will know what American event was brewing at the time of this election. Of course, one should not assume that the impending war was part of this election contest.
