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.
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.
In this episode, we chat with Dr. Evan Kutzler about politics, historians, and the line between good history and crass punditry.