An 1857 illustration shows how violent, corrupt, and exclusionary American elections once were. Voting was limited, could be dangerous, and was often corrupt - until generations pushed to expand and protect the franchise. Today’s system exists because of that long fight and the quiet work of those who safeguard it. Read the full reflection.
Election Day 1876 in Wilkes-Barre was strangely calm—quiet polls, policemen on watch, and “brilliant” saloons where neighbors waited out the night. The city edged for Samuel Tilden, but the nation’s disputed count delivered Rutherford B. Hayes as President and the end of Reconstruction. A Coal Region snapshot of a forgotten turning point in American politics. Read the full story.
"No arrests were made." In October 1861, the Miners' Journal of Pottsville, PA reported on a brawl at the Betz tavern in turbulent Minersville Street of the city on Election Night. Read the full story.
On the eve of the 1936 election, Franklin D. Roosevelt came to Wilkes-Barre, PA and delivered one of the sharpest labor speeches of his presidency—rooted in Coal Region history and aimed squarely at corporate coercion. John Mitchell Day gave FDR the setting, and coal miners gave him the audience. Read the full story.
In October 1952, President Harry S. Truman rolled into Pottsville on a campaign stop for Adlai Stevenson. It was the first time a sitting U.S. president visited Schuylkill County, and thousands packed the streets and stadium to hear him speak. His words touched directly on the Coal Region’s struggles with unemployment, the decline of anthracite, and the promise of new industry. It was a moment of history in Pottsville, even if the county ultimately swung for Eisenhower that November. Read the full story and listen to the speech.
On Election Night 1864, politics turned deadly in Tremont, PA. After Schuylkill County voters re-elected Congressman Myer Strouse, a band of Irish mineworkers—calling themselves the “Bloody 69th”—paraded through town. Hours later, 25-year-old George W. Thompson was beaten to death. No one was ever tried. This is the Coal Region’s volatile Civil War era—press bias, ethnic tension, and justice denied—told through one forgotten murder. Read the full story.
In October and November 1864, Pennsylvania soldiers, including Sergeant Henry Keiser of Lykens, cast their votes for president from their army camps near the front lines. This pivotal moment in the Civil War helped secure Abraham Lincoln’s re-election, ensuring his policies of emancipation and Union victory would continue. Explore this firsthand account of wartime voting - the first "absentee" voting in Pennsylvania history. Read the full story.
On a fall evening in 1864, the streets of Lykens, Pennsylvania came alive with a torchlight parade in support of President Abraham Lincoln. As the Civil War neared its end, local residents rallied behind Lincoln's re-election, marching in solidarity through their mining town. This procession symbolized the region's deep commitment to the Union cause and Lincoln's leadership during one of the nation's most turbulent periods. Discover the historical significance of this event and its place in the broader context of the 1864 election. Read the full story.
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In the late summer and autumn of 1860, the looming election sparked heated political rhetoric, marches in support of political causes, and whispered talk of a coming civil war. These feelings manifest themselves in a violent skirmish between Republicans and Democrats on the streets of a Wayne County community on September 28, 1860. The fight in Hawley, which started … Continue reading Stone-throwing and gunfire: A riot at a political meeting in Northeastern Pennsylvania in 1860