Thankful Thursday: F.A. McMurray Elected Sheriff of Jasper Co., Iowa

Frederick Asbury “F.A.” McMurray- certificate of election as sheriff of Jasper County, Iowa, 14 Nov 1899.

McMurray Family (Click for Family Tree)

As you can imagine from looking at the Electoral College map from the 1896 election that was posted yesterday, the vote for a Democratic candidate- our F.A. McMurray- was a close one. F. A. received 3,173 votes for sheriff- just 5 votes more than his Republican opponent, Charles Hook.

The Iowa State Democrat of 9 Nov 1899 had results on page one of the paper.  “The republicans elected everything on the ticket save sheriff.” The outcome was not as the Democrats hoped, obviously. The paper blamed lack of turnout by Dems as causing the rout. They had statistics for 12 precincts (of 27), and stated that 184 Democrats did not show up at the polls. “The wonder is, why didn’t they vote?”

The votes for sheriff seemed to not have any specific slant- for instance, in Newton, which had 4 precincts, each candidate won 2. In some precincts, there was only 1 vote difference; in others 90 votes.

Nevertheless, the close vote was enough to get F.A. elected as Sheriff, and he received the above certificate on 14 November 1899.

The 16 Nov 1899 issue of the Iowa State Democrat offering the ‘official’ results can be found on newspaperarchive.com (sadly no free versions), and listed the tallies in each precinct by men on the ballot. F. A.’s lead had decreased to 2 votes with this official count, but he was still Sheriff-Elect.

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

  1. Election in Jasper County-results– Iowa State Democrat, 9 Nov 1899, vol. 19, no. 45, p. 1, columns 3-4, via newspaperarchive.com.
  2. “Sheriff election results contested,” Iowa State Democrat, 23 Nov 1899, vol.19, no. 47, p. 1, newspaperarchive.com.
  3. “An Election Contest,” Newton Record, 30 Nov 1899, p. 1.

 

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