Union war hero and future president of the United States, Rutherford B. Hayes, was elected to the first of his two terms as Ohio governor on this day in a hard-fought and narrow victory. The Democratic challenger, Judge Allen G. Thurman was beaten by a slim 2,983 margin in a race where 404,603 ballots were cast and the continued debate in the state over African-American voting rights dominated. Despite the narrow margins, the Republican Party won most of the contests in the state wide elections. Hayes' vacated seat in the United States Congress, however, went to the Democrat, Samuel Fenton Cary, in the special election to fill it. (By John Osborne)
Joseph P. Smith (ed.), History of the Republican Party in Ohio... (Chicago, IL: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1898), 288.
