POLL BOOK AND TALLY SHEET OF NOBLE TOWNSHIP, RUSH COUNTY, INDIANA, FOR THE 1864 GUBERNATORIAL ELECTION BETWEEN JOSEPH MCDONALD AND OLIVER P. MORTON, AND THE OTHER STATE OFFICES AND JUDGESHIPS

[Indianapolis?, 1864. Folio, 8 ½" x 14". [16] pp, folded. Poll Book preprinted with introduction, columns and headings, names of candidates, etc. First [5] pages and final [4] pages completed in neat ink manuscript. The first page contains an introduction at the top half, followed by names of voters up through #279 on page [5]. At page [13] is the pre-printed certification filled in and signed by three officers, followed by a list of both preprinted and added names of those on the election ticket and the offices they seek, with number of votes received by each in manuscript. The final page contains the docketing information. Signed by Andrew Griffin, David McKee and John D. Dource, and filed on October 13, 1864. Quite clean. Very Good.
[with] Tally Paper. 17" x 28". Preprinted with heading, columns, and names of candidates and offices they seek. Some additional candidates added in manuscript, with manuscript tallies and calculations. Old folds with a few short splits at corner folds, a few splits repaired with archival tape on verso, some soiling of verso. At the head of the document are the signatures of Andrew Griffin, David McKee and John D. Dource, judges; and Benjamin F. Reeve and J.R. Hunt, clerks. Tally sheet docketed on verso as filed October 13, 1864, by B.F. Tingley, Clerk. Very Good.

During Indiana's 1864 gubernatorial election, Oliver P. Morton ran on the Union ticket against Democrat Joseph McDonald. Morton had been elected Lt. Governor under Gov. Henry Lane in 1860. Lane resigned two days after being confirmed in January, 1861, so that he could take a seat in the U.S. Senate; Morton succeeded to his office. Morton won the election by more than 20,000 votes.
Names of the 279 who voted include: Lewis Smith, Bradford Z. Norris, John B. Reeve, Owen Reynolds, John W.N. Hunt, William Carney, Henry Long, Hiram Smith, Henry Armstrong, John Ryan, Thomas N. Smith, George W. Brown, David Johnson, Alexander FitzJarrell, William Quail, Francis M. Patterson, George Gray, Lorenso D. Richardson, Richard W. McKee.
Benjamin F. Tingley [1823-1904] served as the Clerk of Rush County from 1864 to 1872, and he was a member of the local Freemason lodge where he held the position of treasurer for a time. Others who signed off on these documents as judges and clerks were primarily farmers by occupation. (Inventory #: 33879)