This table shows the residential patterns of Franklin County by race and township, showing where the black population lived.

In Franklin County precincts that voted for Lincoln in 1860 also contained the majority of churches in the following denominations: Dunker, German Reformed, Manees, Methodist Episcopal, Union, and United Brethren. Some denominations had churches located in both precincts that went for Lincoln and those that went for Breckinridge: Lutherans and Catholics. The lone African church was located in a precinct that went for Lincoln. The geographic locations of churches relative to the precinct’s voting pattern in 1860, then, reveal few clues about ethnicity and political expression.

Democratic party activists in Franklin County outnumbered Republicans in nearly every precinct, but the younger Republican or People’s Party rallied more voters in the 1860 election.

We were able to identify 300 party activists in Franklin County through the newspapers—57 percent Democrats and 43 percent Republicans.

These tables show data on the head of household’s age and party affiliation, the average age of all voting age males in the household, and precinct breakdown by age cohorts for the 1860 election. The results show that the average age differed only marginally between Democrats and Republicans. But, precincts that voted for Lincoln differed from Breckinridge precincts in the average age of both the head of household and all voters in household. The age of voting men in households in Lincoln precincts was significantly lower than in Breckinridge precincts. Lincoln attracted younger voters, the “wide-awakes” who mobilized to support the Republican Party in 1860.

This table shows the precinct level voting in votes and percentages for the candidates in the 1860 presidential election.

This table draws on data from the GIS to compare Franklin’s precincts in the 1860 presidential election. Contested districts are defined as those where the victor did not receive more than 55 percent of the popular vote. In most respects the contested districts in Franklin fit the county average. The precinct that Breckinridge won by a significant margin is significantly poorer and more concentrated in corn that either the county as a whole or the Lincoln districts.

Lincoln won areas of the county both above and below the county averages for wealth and farm values. His greatest support came from areas with strong concentration in wheat production.

The high Breckinridge precincts were poorer than the county average in both household wealth and farm value and were more heavily invested in corn than wheat.

The high Douglas precincts were wealthier than the county average and more heavily invested in wheat.