In 1863, Republican Levi Prizer ran for the county office of “Director” against Democrat John H. Thomas. Despite being a resident of West Pikeland Township, Levi received only 72 votes from the township while Thomas received 118. Why did his own neighbors vote against him?

Since West Pikeland township lies in the northern section of Chester County, one might expect that its residents voted for the Republican Party, the party most often associated with the cause of anti-slavery and Union. But throughout the 1860s, township residents routinely cast two Democratic votes for every one Republican vote. Even when it came to voting for Lincoln himself in 1860, the majority of township residents voted for John Breckinridge, a man from Kentucky who campaigned on the platform of the protection of slavery.

As the map below demonstrates, West Pikeland was not the only township in the area voting Democratic. For whatever reasons, the township was part of a “Copperhead” (as northern Democrats were derisively called) stronghold in the northern section of Chester County. During the Civil War, a number of anti-Union meetings in this area caused uproar among the county?s Republican supporters.

Despite winning the majority of Chester County's votes for Governorship in 1860, the residents of West Pikeland township and the surrounding area overwhelmingly cast their votes for his Democratic opponent, Henry D. Foster

“The inauguration of Abram Lincoln. Business of all kinds generally suspended”