Edward W. Gough

The man whose name the case carries. E. W. Gough was elected to the Avon Park city council in 1949 on the votes of the town’s Black precinct, was president of the council by 1951, and on 25 September 1951 seconded and voted for the resolution that threw out every ballot cast in that precinct — a resolution that seated him in the place of one of the councilmen those votes had just elected.

The Supreme Court of Florida’s report of the case that followed is styled Gough et al. v. State ex rel. Sauls et al., with his name at the head of the appellants.[gough-1951]

Who he was

Edward W. Gough, aged 56 at the federal census of April 1950, so born about 1894. He owned and worked in his own welding and machine shop at Avon Park: the census records his occupation as “Machinist,” his industry as “Welding & Machine Shop,” his class of worker as owner, and his working week as fifty-five hours. His wife Leila M. Gough, 51, born in Florida, kept the books for the same business as an unpaid family worker.[census-1950-ed-28-6]

The identification rests on the trade as much as the name. When the Atlanta Daily World reported the Avon Park election of 1949, it described the Gough who won a council seat on the Black vote as “a machine shop operator.”[adw-1949-09-25] The census finds exactly one machine-shop owner named Gough in Avon Park.

The enumerator’s page carries two small puzzles that are recorded here rather than smoothed over. The head of the household was first written as “Gough, Leila M,” sex F, and then struck through and corrected above the line to “Edward W,” sex M — the enumerator began by entering the wife as head. And the birthplace column reads “Fla” with “Virginia” written above it as a correction, the two never resolved against each other.[census-1950-ed-28-6] Where Edward W. Gough was born is therefore not settled by this record.

Living in the household immediately before the Goughs on the same census page was Charles H. Lewiston, 68, born Illinois, with his wife Della — the councilman who moved the resolution of 15 September 1951 and voted for its rescission ten days later. The two men who between them moved and seconded Avon Park’s business in that fortnight were next-door neighbors.[census-1950-ed-28-6]

What he did in 1951

15 September. The council canvassed the returns of the election of 11 September. The council’s own investigating committee found “insufficient evidence … to determine fraud or material irregularities which would change the result.” Mr. Lewiston moved the resolution declaring the winners; Mr. Gough seconded it. Wiley Sauls Jr. was declared re-elected mayor with 877 votes, and Rush, Smith, Thomas, Kirkland and Sparks councilmen.[gough-1951]

25 September. On the complaint of O. C. Wilkes, the defeated candidate for mayor, the same council rescinded that resolution, found “a grave irregularity … sufficiently serious to change the entire results,” declared every ballot cast in Voting Place No. 2 “illegal and void,” and declared elected Wilkes as mayor and, as councilmen, Wolff and Gough himself, alongside Rush, Smith and Thomas.[gough-1951] The Tampa Tribune records the division: Gough, Lewiston and Delegal voted for it; Kirkland voted against; Shivers abstained.[trib-1951-10-11]

9-10 October. After Circuit Judge Don Register issued a peremptory writ of mandamus ordering the council to rescind the second resolution “forthwith,” Gough and three colleagues were cited for contempt for not doing it. They answered the citation in the judge’s chambers at Wauchula, where he was presiding over the Fall term of the Hardee County circuit court. The Tribune has Gough speaking there: “Council President Gough and other councilmen hastened to assure the judge that they would keep their promise to meet tonight.”[trib-1951-10-11] They met at 8.15 that evening, rescinded the resolution, and the men elected on 11 September were sworn in.[trib-1951-10-11]

20 November. The Supreme Court of Florida affirmed, holding that the council had no judicial power to decide the legality of votes and that the Legislature could not have given it any.[gough-1951]

The part that is hard to explain

Two years earlier the Black precinct had put him on the council. The Atlanta Daily World named him among the winners of 1949, alongside Reason Shivers, in an election where 297 of Avon Park’s 317 registered Black voters turned out.[adw-1949-09-25] In 1951 he presided over, and voted for, the annulment of that same body of votes — and was seated by it.

Nothing found so far explains the change: no statement by him, no speech, no letter, no interview. The Tribune’s reporter caught him only in the judge’s chambers, promising to comply.

Where he was born, when he came to Avon Park, when he died and where he is buried; whether he stood again after 1951 and what happened if he did; what became of the machine shop; and whether he ever gave any account of his own conduct are not recorded.

References

• gough-1951 — Supreme Court of Florida, Special Division B (Chapman, J.). Gough et al. v. State ex rel. Sauls et al., 55 So. 2d 111 (Fla. 1951). 20 November 1951. gough-v-state-ex-rel-sauls-1951.md
• trib-1951-10-11 — The Tampa Tribune (Tampa, Fla.). Supreme Court Halts Action Contested Avon Park Vote; and Avon Park Council Action Questioned, by Hayden Williams — The Tampa Tribune, 11 October 1951, page 17. 11 October 1951. tampa-tribune-1951-10-11-avon-park.md
• adw-1949-09-25 — Associated Negro Press, in the Atlanta Daily World. Negroes Swing Mayor’s Election In Avon Park, Atlanta Daily World, 25 September 1949, page 3. 25 September 1949. https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn82015425/1949-09-25/ed-1/?sp=3
• census-1950-ed-28-6 — United States Bureau of the Census. Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950, Population Schedules, Florida, Highlands County, ED 28-6 (Avon Park city, Commissioner’s District 1). 5 April 1950. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/303137156

Related

• Reference: Gough v. State ex rel. Sauls, 55 So. 2d 111 (Fla. 1951)
• Reference: The Tampa Tribune, 11 October 1951
• Entity: Wiley Sauls, Jr.
• Finding: in 1951 the Avon Park city council threw out every vote cast in the Black precinct

Where this comes from

Evidence

corroborated — More than one independent source agrees.

Review

unverified — Drafted from sources but not yet checked by a volunteer.

Rights

society

Sources

1. Supreme Court of Florida, Special Division B (Chapman, J.), Gough et al. v. State ex rel. Sauls et al., 55 So. 2d 111 (Fla. 1951) (1951)
2. The Tampa Tribune (Tampa, Fla.), Supreme Court Halts Action Contested Avon Park Vote; and Avon Park Council Action Questioned, by Hayden Williams — The Tampa Tribune, 11 October 1951, page 17 (1951)
3. Associated Negro Press, in the Atlanta Daily World, Negroes Swing Mayor's Election In Avon Park, Atlanta Daily World, 25 September 1949, page 3 (1949)
4. United States Bureau of the Census, Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950, Population Schedules, Florida, Highlands County, ED 28-6 (Avon Park city, Commissioner's District 1) (1950)

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