16

1st Interrog. What is your age, occupation and residence ?
Answer. I am 40 years old, a farmer, and reside in District
No. 10, Allegany county, Maryland.

2d Interrog. State whether or not, you were Judge of elec-
tion for your District at the election on the 6th of November
last, and if so, state whether there were persons who failed to
vote at said election, and if any so failed, state the reasons
fully?

Answer. I was an Associate Judge at the election in No-
vember last, for District No. 10. There were persons who
did not vote at said election. Some refused to take the oath
in section 4, of Article 1 of the Constitution, of the State of
Maryland, which the Judges required them to take, and there-
fore were not allowed to vote. Others had charges preferred
against them before the Registers of 1865, by whom they were
registered as disloyal, and therefore, they were not allowed to
Tote. These men were registered as qualified voters in 1866,
by J. J. Thompson. I was one of the Registers in 1865. All
who were registered, and had not charges preferred against
them, were allowed to vote upon taking the Constitutional
oath. There were some parties at the polls who did not offer
to vote. Those having charges preferred against them, and
not allowed to vote, were as follows: David S. Arnold,
Charles Best, J. McClure Mason, John Phillips, Jacob Shafer,
James F. Liller, Charles O. Nethkins, Benjamin F. Schaffer
and John Whirrell. Charges were brought against these
men in 1865, and they were registered as disloyal. Those
who refused to take the oath on election day, are as follows:
David E. Houser, John Gower, Sr., Peter Knepp, Francis
Martin, George Mossey, John C. Nethkins, George L. Mos-
sey and Henry Thompson. I don't recollect seeing Wm. Ar-
nold, Ezra Houser, John Roth and George Roth, on election
day. I don't know John A. Gower, John W. Gower, Isiah
Houser and John Ritter, Jr.

3d Interrog. Was there or not, an armed force at the polls
in District No. 10, on the day of the election, and if there
were men with arms, what use did they make of them, and
what was their general demeanor, and why did they come
there with their arms?

Answer. I saw men there with guns and pistols, but they
made no use of them further than to keep them in their pos-
session, quietly, and to shoot a chicken hawk, with my per-
mission, late in the evening. From all the information I
have, to the present time, they came there with guns because
it had been rumored there had been threats of raising a riot
at the polls by the Conservative party and their friends from
West Virginia. I saw James Liller and perhaps others near
the window with their guns.