As we approach the November 3 election day, let’s recall the example of Sturbridge resident Deacon John Phillips – a farmer, deacon, and militiaman of 1776, who thought it a citizen’s duty to vote in the elections for his nation’s chief executives.

He did that duty the first time when George Washington’s name was on the ballot, and the last when Abraham Lincoln was among the candidates. In 1864 at 104 years of age, his 79-year-old son drove him into town.

In an account given by one of the deacon’s neighbors, “he rode from home, two miles, to our Town Hall...to cast this vote. He entered it between two unfurled flags of his country, bearing on the Stars and Stripes; all within, at the same time rising, with uncovered heads, to do him homage. And when offered two votes [ballots] to take his choice, he said, ‘I vote for Abraham Lincoln’.”

The President, upon hearing this story, wrote to Phillips: “I have heard of the incident at the polls in your town, in which you bore so honored a part, and I take the liberty of writing to you to express my personal gratitude for the compliment paid me by the suffrage of a citizen so venerable. The example of such devotion to civic duties in one whose days have already extended an average life-time beyond the Psalmists’ limit, cannot but be valuable and fruitful. It is not for myself only, but for the country which you have in your sphere served so long and so well, that I thank you...”  

Phillips died on February 25, 1865.

Yankee Xpress thanks the Sturbridge Historical Society for allowing us to reprint this inspiring article from its recent newsletter about a 104-year-old man - and his 79-year-old son – who, in 1864, rode two miles into town to vote. W