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Voting in Mitcham Beat
To set the scene in our part of the state, in Clarke County, the largest business "village," (T. H. Ball's word), was Choctaw Corner, where Carlton and Slade had opened in the spring of 1853, a store with "new and fashionable stock of spring goods." At Bashi, also at this time, was a flourishing business house owned by George Carleton. John W. Figures was carrying on a dry goods store at Coffeeville. There were similar stores at Jackson and Suggsville. With all this as a backdrop for our discussion of early voting in Clarke County, the polling places in 1852, were Jackson, James' Distillery, Suggsville, Gosport, McDuffee's Gin, Gates', Choctaw Corner, Tallahatta Springs, Campbell's, Coffeeville, Abner Wilson's Old Place, and Grove Hill. Now if you lived in what would become Mitcham's Beat, since Mitcham's precinct would not be established until 1859, voting was probably done at Coffeeville by those who had the motivation to vote and could travel the distance. Civil divisions, called "beats," were set up by Clarke County as a means of handling political matters and voting. The place within the beat where the citizens met to vote was called a precinct. T. H. Ball's history states that the word "beat" suggested a military origin, much like older states who had set them up for military purposes. Let's take time out and correct the misconception that everyone who wanted to, could vote. Wrong! In 1852, generally speaking, only men could vote. The movement for women to have the right to vote had started back in 1848, but was only on a limited basis. Not until 1920, when the 19th amendment to the U. S. Constitution was passed, could women vote in America. In 1924, when my granddaddy Bill White died here in Chilton, he and his son Bud, who was of voting age, ( 21 was the age for voting in those days), were voting in Clarkesville. There were probably a couple of reasons for this: Granddaddy Bill's daddy, Ennis White, had lived and voted in what we call Old Clarksville, before living in Chilton and Clarkesville was not so far when one traveled the Jordan Bridge road which ran from the area in front of Hopewell Church, south, to the area of Blue Mountain, coming out near Mt. Zion Church. Clarkesville was probably reached by locals, like my family, by a trail that cut off a few miles by going south, crossing Satilpa Creek, and then bearing to the right which would put them in the Clarkesville area. This also explains how Hopewell Church had members on the roll, in 1857, who lived in Clarkesville, like Charlie Coate. Jordan Bridge road was very handy in the days of horses and mules to make the time shorter for traveling from Chilton area to Clarksville. In 1860, 15 people voted in Clarkesville. Voting for the first time, at the new Mitcham's precinct, set up the year before, 12 people voted for Alabama to leave the Union leading up to the Civil War. At Coffeeville 116 people voted. By 1880, 422 people lived in the Mitcham's precinct and 573 lived in the Clarksville precinct. Various locations were set up as voting places over the years including, Bedsole's Store, Bedsole's school, and Prospect, which was the place where most of the people of the Chilton area voted until about 1946. When Bealie Harrison returned from World War II, in 1946, Buck Hare's store was the polling place in Chilton. Bealie remembers voting here and Katie Brunson remembers working here, first, as a substitute, and then as a regular poll worker at Chilton School precinct. By now, a woman could vote and be a poll worker! Chilton School closed in 1953 and the polls were moved to Hopewell Church. Katie continued to work the polls for over 50 years. She and Bealie Harrison, also having served for 50 years r and was ecognized a few years ago, have received certificates for their hard work and dedication to the Chilton-Hopewell precinct, Box 1, Beat 15, by Clarke County election officials. Katie Dell remembers that, when she began working, paper ballots were used and counting was done by calling out the names of candidates who received the votes and the tally system was used. The people from Chilton who have served are too numerous to name, but those of some age can still see some like Lois Roberts, Dovered White, Ervin Hall, and Thelma Pugh, working at different times, guarding those ballots and keeping things running very orderly. So, vote! What a privilege and what a history!
Joyce White Burrage is a retired Clarke County High School teacher living in her native Chilton community.
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