In anticipation of the passage of the 15th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, The Elevator, a San Francisco newspaper serving the black community, asked its readers in 1869 to identify “colored male adults” in their communities, men who would be qualified to vote when the amendment passed.

These are names sent in for Chico in Butte County and for the town of Tehama in Tehama County.

The 15th Amendment was ratified on February 3, 1870, the last of the three Reconstruction Amendments.

I don’t know much about the names on this list. Please comment if you can add anything about any of them. Peter Jackson is listed on the 1870 census of Chico as a barber, age 34, born in New York. Perry Jackson and Edward Holmes are on the next page of the census, as is Joseph Flowers, a laborer, age 48 from Georgia, who is married to Laura and has four children at home.

Josiah Jackson and Benjamin Maulbrie show up on the census, with occupation given as “laborer.” I have seen Josiah Jackson’s name in Bidwell’s ledger as a worker on Bidwell’s new mansion. He was paid $1.50 a day. Here is Josiah Jackson’s name in the Great Register (list of voters for Butte County).

And here is a newspaper item involving Joseph Flowers and his neighbor, Chinese merchant Ah Sun Kee, from the Chico Review Weekly, October 18, 1871.

It’s a relief to know that the “dorg” survived.