Naked Voters

A group of Franklin County free-staters were determined to cast their ballots against the LeCompton Constitution in the August 2, 1858 election. But getting to the polling places proved to be a challenge due to weeks of heavy rains that had swollen small creeks in the area past flood stage. A group of 43 men, 26 on horseback, had to cross three streams to reach the polls, a farmhouse north of here. Horses swam the first stream carrying double loads, and ropes tied to trees guided a number of the voters across the second stream. At the last creek, and the widest, the men who remained stripped off all superfluous clothing and dropping it on the bank, plunged in, the stronger assisting the weaker. Seventeen voters proceeded to the polls in undress uniform, some of them very much so. A kind neighbor who did not require dinner dress, fed them before they returned home. The pro-slavery issue was defeated.