Photo of the Week
FROM THE SCHS LIBRARY ARCHIVES
“How shall we know it is us without our past?”
– John Steinbeck
Suffolk County Elections Board Record Book
by Wendy Polhemus-Annibell, Head Librarian
Page from Suffolk County Elections Record Book. (Image from the Collection of the Suffolk County Historical Society Library Archives. Copyright © Suffolk County Historical Society. All rights reserved.)
With this week’s elections taking place in New York and across the nation, we dug out our original Suffolk County Election Records Book, which includes voting records for all of Suffolk County from 1799 to 1817.
On this particular page dated 1803, votes for Suffolk County Assemblymen were recorded in Southold Town. The three top vote-getters in Southold — Israel Carll (an incumbent with 128 votes), David Hedges (118), and Sylvester Dering (114) — went on to win the county-wide election and to serve as Suffolk County’s three allotted Assemblymen. All three candidates were members of the Democratic-Republican Party.
The vote was signed and certified by four Southold Inspectors: Thomas Moore, John Corwin III, Daniel T. Terry, and Eleazer Overton. The State election was held over a three-day period from April 26 to 28, 1803.
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AAQ / Resource: 1708 House, Southampton / Bed & Breakfast
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