Ghosts of Elections Past in Citrus County
By: Ken Marotte, Citrus County Historical Society
Citrus County has had more than it’s share of controversial elections over the years. Relatives campaigned against relatives. Election officials were arrested and sent to jail. The clock on the roof of the Old Courthouse played a key role in the future of county politics. See how many stories from past elections you remember.
Inverness Steals the Courthouse
Undoubtedly the most consequential election in Citrus County took place over a period of over three years. When Citrus County was born in June 1887, Mannfield was designated as the temporary county seat. It was understood that the citizens of Citrus County would select a permanent location in a future election. Until then, space for government operations in Mannfield was rented from local residents. The first local newspaper, the Citrus County Star, began operations in Mannfield.
Various factions within the county lobbied for their area as the official county seat. Many people wanted government to be centrally located in Mannfield or Lecanto. Land developers of the Homosassa Company offered to make a donation of $10,000 if their settlement was designated as the county seat. The powerful Florida Orange Canal and Transit (F.O.C.T) company wanted the county seat to be located near the lakes in the eastern part of the county and offered a $5,000 donation to the county. They were champions of the village of Tompkinsville in the early elections but later favored their new settlement “Inverness”. The new village was probably named at the behest of F.O.C.T. Vice-President Alexander B Campbell, whose family hailed from the Inverness, Scotland area.
The question required six separate elections over the years to settle the issue since no single site received the required majority of votes cast. It was not until April 9, 1891 that the Board of County Commissioners officially recognized that Inverness had defeated Lecanto by eight votes. The Lecanto supporters decided to appeal the close outcome and sent their lawyer to request a stay from a judge. In the meantime, the Inverness faction loaded all of the books, furniture and county records onto a wagons and quickly moved all of the trappings of government to the new county seat. When County Clerk W.C. Zimmerman refused to move, the Inverness supporters famously loaded him onto a wagon and brought him to Inverness as well.
Lecanto supporters attempted to reverse the decision a few years later and presented a formal petition for a new election to the BoCC. However, their petition failed to include the required number of voter signatures to prompt a new election and their request was denied. Inverness remains the county seat today.
You’re Under Arrest
The rivalry between Inverness and Lecanto continued into the 20th century. Citizens awoke on June 8, 1928 and found that Lecanto’s John E. King had narrowly defeated Inverness lawyer George W. Scofield in a close race for Florida State Senator. Scofield filed suit against the election canvassing board and asked a judge to order a recount. The canvassing board replied that Circuit Judge Fred Stringer was an ally of Scofield and successfully motioned to have him removed from the case. The case was assigned to Judge T. Frank Hobson of Pinellas County.
In those days, paper ballots were used by voters and inserted into locked metal boxes in each district. The boxes were brought to the county election board for review and tabulation. The judge determined that there were some irregularities in the handling of ballot boxes in Homosassa and Lecanto. He issued a Writ of Mandamus and commanded the officials of those precincts to recount the ballots in those two boxes. The four officials in charge of those boxes (R.J. Murcheson, Joe Trotter, Eugene Gleason and T.L. Rogers) refused to comply with the Judge Hobson’s order. The four men claimed that the ballot boxes had been tampered with and they would not participate in a recount on that basis. Accordingly, they were arrested by Sheriff B.O. Bowden and locked in the county jail for contempt.
After three days of jailhouse cuisine, the reluctant electors changed their minds and decided to comply with the Judge’s order. To make a point, Hobson ordered the four men to be brought under lock and key to his courtroom in Pinellas County to officially purge the contempt order (and presumably receive a final tongue-lashing from the annoyed jurist).
George W. Scofield had suspected that his original defeat was in error. He won the race for the Florida State Ninth Senatorial District after the recount was concluded.
Scofield vs Scofield
The Scofield family was embroiled in another political campaign in 1948. This time two members of that family were running against each other. Citrus County Judge E.C. May had announced that he was running for re-election. George W. Scofield’s son, O. Frank Scofield, decided to challenge May for the judge’s position. The situation became more complex when M.C. “Mannie” Scofield, George W. Scofield’s brother and Frank Scofield’s uncle, had also decided to run for that office.
Mannie Scofield addressed the situation in the Citrus Chronicle. He said that he discussed the 1948 election with Judge May and was given to understand that the incumbent would not be seeking re-election that year. M.C. Scofield went on to say that he told everyone in his family that he intended to run for County Judge and was surprised when his nephew later threw his hat in the ring. He approached his nephew and told the younger Scofield that he would help prepare Frank Scofield to run in 1952 if he withdrew from the 1948 election. He lamented that the younger lawyer did not accept his proposition. Mannie Scofield concluded “…he is a splendid young man and I am proud to have him for a nephew, but having been in the office with him I happen to know that he does not have a working knowledge of the law in my opinion a County Judge should have.”
Frank Scofield took the high road and didn’t mention his uncle in any of his political advertisements. He emphasized his youth and visited almost every home in the county. He also replied that he had over 14 year’s experience as a lawyer and is not a newcomer to the profession.
The Democratic primary results were announced in Chronicle on May 6, 1948. Young Frank had won the “Battle of the Scofield’s” by a 2 to 1 margin. Judge May came in second in the primary and would face Frank Scofield in a run-off on May 25, 1948. He won the judge’s bench by almost 200 votes in the final election and would serve in that capacity for 20 years.
It was not the last time Mannie Scofield made news in Citrus County. He owned Scofield Chevrolet in Inverness and had a practice of washing and servicing cars on the city sidewalk in front of his dealership. He was warned to stop using the sidewalk but refused to do so, claiming that he had been given permission by a previous City Council. He was arrested by Charlie Dean in March 1955 for repeated violation of a city ordinance. He was booked into the jail and released. The matter was settled to the satisfaction of Mannie Scofield and the city in 1956.
Connor vs The Courthouse Clock
The election of 1948 also featured a controversy about the Courthouse clock. Charles C. Connor had been County Clerk for 11 years. His son, James E. “Nick” Connor, assumed the post afterward and had served 14 years as the election of 1948 approached. Connor waited until the last minute to file paperwork for his candidacy. According to the rules of that time, candidate declarations had to be approved by the County Clerk and the head of the Democratic Executive Committee in order to be included in the party’s primary. Connor (of course) approved his own candidacy as Clerk. He sent the papers to the office of Executive Committee head George T. Condrey, which was only a few blocks away. It’s important to note that the paperwork had to be submitted, approved and fees paid by 12pm noon on March 19, 1948.
The bell in the Courthouse clock tower chimed noon at the same time that Connor’s messenger was entering Condrey’s office. Hearing the bell, Condrey blew a whistle denoting that the deadline for submissions had passed and no more candidates would be accepted. This meant that veteran James E. Connor could not stand for re-election as the Democratic candidate.
Connor tried to argue that using the Courthouse clock as the office county timepiece was not appropriate because it was reset periodically by a janitor and was frequently either ahead or behind the established standard time. After much consideration, Connor decided that 14 years in that role was enough and he accepted a position as Secretary of the Florida Commercial Fisheries Associate. He later became State Senator for Citrus/Hernando/Sumter counties and Citrus County Judge.
Connor’s procrastination opened the door for a young Mayor of Inverness – Francis “Cowboy” Williams – to win the subsequent election and begin his career as Citrus County Clerk of Court.