Great Register, Marin County, 1876. Donated by Roy Farrington Jones in 2000.
The “Great Register” of Marin County from 1876, a 15-page document listing the names, places of birth, occupations, towns of residence, dates of naturalization and dates of registration for all registered voters in the county; printed by H.S. Crocker & Co., Printers, San Francisco.
The state of California began voter registration in 1866 following the Registry Act, an effort to prevent voter fraud. A law passed in 1872 required counties to publish an index of all registered voters every two years. These volumes, known as Great Registers, were maintained by the county clerk. In 1876, the year of our register, only men over the age of 21 were eligible to vote. Further exclusionary voting amendments followed, barring natives of China from participation (1879) and the establishment of a literacy requirement (1894).
Interestingly, the presidential election of 1876, which took place just two months after our register’s publication, remains one of the country’s most contested, resulting in the Compromise of 1877 and the end of Reconstruction. Also in 1876, America celebrated its 100th birthday and held its first World’s Fair, where amazing inventions like root beer, ketchup and the telephone were unveiled. On the Fourth of July, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton led a group of feminists through the fair, protesting the failure of amendments that would have granted women the right to vote.
The names of early Marin residents who left their mark on the county jump off the pages of our Great Register as I turn them—Burdell, Coleman, Cook, DuBois, Fallon, Giacomini, Irwin, Kent, Murray, Pacheco, Reed, Short—about half, immigrants from other countries who became naturalized citizens of the United States within the prior 15 years and all who registered to vote for the first time within the prior five to ten. So many listed are dairymen, farmers, merchants and laborers. Marin County is being built as its pioneer roots are being laid.
Sources: California State Library, learner.org