John Elting "Idiot" Document
These days, calling someone an idiot is to call them stupid or foolish – a common insult. In 1860, however, it held a more detrimental definition, especially as it was placed next to John Elting’s name on a list of oaths conducted by the election board. This document reveals not only the truth about John Elting’s place in New Paltz society but unveils a darker reality for disabled individuals in the 19th century.
Description
The document was a single sheet of yellow oxidized paper, due to old age. The size of the paper itself was standard for legal documents and can be estimated to be about 8.5 by 14 inches. The edges of the paper have not been greatly affected by weathering, and so they are still uniformly straight and unbent, sharp. Most of the damage to the edges of the paper is around the corners, where the paper appears to have lost the sharp corners to both ripping and folding as the paper was handled. Even so, the corners still maintain most of the precise rectangular shape, as only the very outer edges of them have been impacted. On the page itself, text is handwritten with ink and a quill in cursive English writing. There are no premade lines on the paper, and the handwriting extends throughout the full length of the front side of the paper, and about halfway down the back side.
Provenance
The list of oaths was created in 1860 for the election period on November 16, 1860. It remained in possession of the town until the 20th century, when it was acquired by Historic Huguenot Street. According to its collection page, “The bulk of the records appeared to have been collected by past HHS President Kenneth E. Hasbrouck throughout the length of his term, which lasted from the early 1950s to 1994” (Lefevre). The list remains in their possession to this day.
Narrative
Traced back to 1860, this list of oaths taken and challenged offers viewers a look into voter registration and discriminatory measures taken to exclude disabled voting populations.
Voter registration was not a common practice in the United States, with the first law being enacted in Massachusetts in 1800 (Harris 65). New York State passed a law in 1859, just before the presidential election of 1860. “The precinct officers were authorized to prepare registration lists without personal application of the voter and were directed to use the poll list of the preceding election in determining who were qualified to vote” (Harris 73). Registration allowed for easy identification of voting members of an area.
In the list, John Elting is described to be “an idiot uncapable of taking an oath,” by a seated board. When asked if he understood the nature of the oath, the document posits that he did not, ultimately challenging his ability to participate in elections and barring him from registration.
Johannes “John” Johnson Elting was born to Peter and Cornelia Wynkoop on April 2, 1811. He was the eighth of nine siblings. While little documentation exists on this particular Elting, United States Census Records from 1850 and 1860 lists him as part of the Edmund Elting household, his younger brother’s. Though an occupation is missing from his entry compared to other Elting adults, he had seemingly met the requirements for participating in elections, all except for one, where his name is distinguished from the other Eltings by a single word: “idiotic.”
During the early to mid-19th century, an idiot most referred to “a person who was not able to care for himself or herself, do useful labor, or understand the legal consequences of his or her actions” (Rose 14). Typically, this label covered those with “a wide range of impairments, including cerebral palsy, epilepsy, deafness, and what would later be described as autism, as well as cognitive disabilities that could arise from thyroid disorders, head injuries, and high fevers” (Rose 14). It wasn’t common for specific disorders to be identified, though census data also demonstrated that John wasn’t the only one in the family, with his older sister Jane Elting also receiving this marker. Having this label inscribed on both census records and the oath list severely restricted Elting’s autonomy and ability to participate in government.
The board noted that Elting was unable to understand the nature of the oath on account of his idiocy. In addition to this, they also made note that Elting claimed “he had landed property but did not know how he came by it.” Landed property means property specific to land ownership. As noted by census records, he lived with his younger brother Edmund who is labelled as the Head of Household, though interestingly, according to the 1860 census record for Ulster County, John Elting’s real estate was estimated at $5,000. By this point in New York history, property requirements for white men were removed entirely in 1821, meaning that owning landed property did not matter any longer. Understanding this, it is possible that John Elting was using this ownership as a way of legitimizing his status as a citizen, even if it was an outdated standard. Nevertheless, the board refused to administer the oath to him on account of his idiocy.
Discrimination against disabled people during the 19th century crossed notions of Christian hereditary sin of earlier centuries and the Protestant work ethic that took full force during the industrial revolution. Samuel Gridley Howe, a physician and educator in the 1800s, advocated for state-funded asylums during this time as a means of rehabilitating disabled people as people who can financially contribute towards their families. “Howe's intertwined condemnations of idleness, attacks on those who required ‘excessive care,’ and celebrations of self-sufficiency reflected the fact that, like many other mid-nineteenth-century elites and reformers, he saw public dependency and overgenerous charity as morally corrosive to both individuals and the republic” (Rose 20).
For those like Elting, though there is no evidence of any institutionalization, his inability to work or contribute to these capitalistic and Protestant-rooted standards would ultimately undermine his ability to fully participate in civil society. Yet, his long lifespan – dying in 1870 due to dysentery – is evidence that while neglected by the board and denied his voting rights, he was still a member of the Elting family. Oftentimes in farm-owning families like Edmund Elting’s, they “proved by far the most capable of accommodating “idiotic” relatives...a partial explanation may lie in the fact that farmers had little choice but to make use of everyone in the family, despite varying levels of ability and productivity. In addition, given that skilled craftspeople and small proprietors also commonly retained their children at home, the overlap between home and work may have also made it easier to provide care as needed” (Rose 47-48).
It is possible that despite this denial, John Elting was able to continue living his life fully, but documents such as these stand as a reminder of more quiet, unseen part of voter discrimination of this time period towards disabled individuals robbed of their rights to participate in the governmental structures they live within. Additionally, however, it exists in demonstration of how far voting rights and legal protections for disabled people have gone – evidenced by the Voting Rights Act of 1965, National Voter Registration Act of 1993, the Americans with Disabilities Act, etc. – and how much more work there is to be done.
~ShirEl Wolfstein, Revised by Sara Vala
Works Cited
ADA.gov. “The Americans with Disabilities Act and Other Federal Laws Protecting the Rights of Voters with Disabilities.” ADA.gov, 14 Nov. 2023, www.ada.gov/resources/protecting-voter-rights/. Accessed 17 Sept. 2025.
Elting, James W. The Descendants of Jan Eltinge: The Genealogy of the Elting/Eltinge Family. Charlotte, North Carolina, James W. Elting, Aug. 2002.
Harris, Joseph Pratt. Registration of Voters in the United States. Washington, The Brookings Institution, 1929.
New York State Archives; Albany, New York, USA; Census of the State of New York, 1865
New York State Archives; Albany, NY, USA; Census of the state of New York, 1855
New York State Archives. “State Board of Elections.” New York State Archives, 2025, www.archives.nysed.gov/creator-authority/new-york-state-state-board-elections. Accessed 17 Sept. 2025.
Rose, Sarah F. No Right to Be Idle : The Invention of Disability, 1840s-1930s. Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press, 2017.
Rothman, Lily. “Here’s How Registering to Vote Became a Thing.” Time, 18 Sept. 2019, time.com/4502154/voter-registration-history/. Accessed 17 Sept. 2025.
The National Archives in Washington, DC; Record Group: Records of the Bureau of the Census; Record Group Number: 29; Series Number: M432; Residence Date: 1850; Home in 1850: New Paltz, Ulster, New York; Roll: 608; Page: 318a
The National Archives in Washington D.C.; Record Group: Records of the Bureau of the Census; Record Group Number: 29; Series Number: M653; Residence Date: 1860; Home in 1860: New Paltz, Ulster, New York; Roll: M653_871; Page: 46; Family History Library Film: 803871