CEERTIFICATE OF ELECTION OF

GOVERNOR JOHN ALEXANDER MARTIN

1887

Ernst F. Tonsing, Ph.D.

Thousand Oaks, California
25 July 2010

This certificate of election of Governor John Alexander Martin to his second term
as Governor of the State of Kansas was framed and once hung on the walls of great
grand-daughter, Virginia Tonsing, of Kansas City, Kansas. Upon her death, it came to
me, and now adorns my home in Thousand Oaks, California, as a treasured memento of a
remarkable ancestor. On white parchment, the initial letters are gold, the important
words also gold. A filigree of blue vines decorates the initial letters of the first two lines.

The document measures 20 x 16 inches including the frame, and contains a blue
seal on the lower left corner authenticating the certificate. Within a gold square in the
upper left corner sits a blond woman with a gold tiara and earrings, a gold band on her
left arm, in a copious white, vaguely Greek gown trimmed with gold, bare left breast, and
holding a stalk of three red flowers and leaves. Perhaps the figure represents the
fecundity of the State of Kansas.

In transcribing the certificate, the spacing below is approximate. Underlining

represents the words written in gold and red, and italics the names that are inscribed in a
light, brown ink. The text of the document reads as follows:

The State of Kansas

Certificate of Election.

We the undersigned The State Board of Canvassers of the State of Kansas

do hereby certify that from legal returns received on file and recorded in the office
of the Secretary of State, of a general election held pursuant to law on this second
day of November A.D. 1886 in the various Counties of this State of Kansas
John A. Martin, having received the greatest number of votes cast for Governor
was duly elected to the office of Governor of the State of Kansas for the term
commencing January 10th
A.D. 1887.
In testimony whereof we have hereunto subscribed our name and affixed
the Great Seal of the State this 30th day of November A.D. 1886.
Jno. A. Martin Governor.
E. B. Allen Secretary of State.
[SEAL] E. P. McTate Auditor of State.
Sam’l T. Howe Treasurer of State.
M.B. Bradford Attorney General.