USA > Iowa > Jones County > History of Jones County, Iowa, past and present, Volume I > Part 33
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R. A. Markham, dealer in sewing machines, and Markham & Burgess, dealers in organs, etc., suffered a small loss by the fire. Mr. A. Heitchen also suffered a loss of about seventy-five dollars. The total loss by the conflagration was twelve thousand dollars. Total insurance, two thousand, nine houndred dollars. The origin of the fire was unknown.
August 11, 1896, Prison fire. The fire department was called out at 7: 55 on the night of August 11, 1896, by a fire at the State Penitentiary and when the company arrived at 8: 00 o'clock the fire was under great headway. The fire was in the frame kitchen and dining-room and rapidly got under headway and practically burned down. The fire department assisted until 12:00 a. m., and did a great service in protecting the surrounding property and retarding the fire.
October 26, 1901. At 10: 20 a. m., October 26, 1901, the Presbyterian church on Strawberry Hill, caught fire from sparks and burning leaves falling on the dry shingle roof from a bonfire of burning leaves around the church. The fire totally destroyed the church. Insurance, eight hundred dollars.
December 7, 1901. On this date the house of the sheriff adjoining the County Jail, caught fire from a chimney and did considerable damage.
January 28, 1902. At 8:30 o'clock the Prospect Park Sanitarium caught fire from sparks falling on the roof at the north end of the building and immedi- ately gaining headway. All patients in the building were carried to private homes and taken care of. The large building was rapidly damaged, the second story being practically ruined. It was a very cold morning, the temperature being ten degrees below zero, and it was with great difficulty and danger the firemen could work. It was necessary for the firemen to watch the fire until 4:00 o'clock p. m.
March 22, 1902. The American Cooperage Butter Tub Factory situated inside of the penitentiary walls caught fire and was totally destroyed. The origin of the fire is unknown and great amount of damage was done.
April 12, 1902. At 1:00 o'clock p. m. on this date, Belknap Bros. Implement Store & Plant situated in the Huggins building on north Ford street caught on fire from an unknown origin and much damage done.
November 30, 1902. On Sunday November 30, 1902, at 2:00 o'clock p. m., the fire department of Anamosa was called together to assist the fire department of Monticello, Iowa, in a very bad and dangerous fire, situated in Eastwood & Chase Hardware Store. The fire was so dangerous and threatening that the town of Monticello was in danger and a special freight train was secured trans- porting the Anamosa fire department to Monticello. The Anamosa boys did great service and materially aided in putting out the fire and received .the thanks of the Monticello community. The Monticello people treated the firemen splen- didly and quoting from the records of the fire department it says: "The company
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was furnished with food and drink while fighting the fire and after the fire was gotten under control supper was served for the company."
April 2, 1907. At 2:15 p. m. on said date the old foundry on Strawberry Hill was burned to the ground and ruined. It was with difficulty that the fire department saved the neighboring buildings.
November 20, 1908. On this date the department received a call from Amber, Iowa, for assistance, the town being in danger of destruction. The Chicago & Northwestern Railway Company furnished a passenger train taking the fire boys to Amber, where they assisted in putting out the fire and saving the adjoin- ing property. The fire started in the building of Nathan Steckel, who was burned to death.
ANAMOSA AND THE PRESS.
The first news sheet issued in Jones County was called the Anamosa News, started by William Haddock in February, 1852. He purchased an old press and type in Wisconsin, paying therefor three hundred dollars. In 1856 he sold the affair to Nathan G. Sales, who conducted the sheet in such a manner as to pique the republicans of Anamosa and surrounding country; whereupon, some of the more vengeful and enterprising spirits determined to have an organ of their own. John E. Lovejoy, of Scotch Grove township, brother of Owen Lovejoy, being a practical printer, talked of selling his farm and starting a paper. It was likewise one of the ambitions of C. L. D. Crockwell to be the pro- prietor of a journal. They entered into partnership, Lovejoy making out a list of types and machinery needed, and sending to Cincinnati for the same. Crock- well became security for the payment of the purchase money.
The first issue of the paper came out in August, 1856. After three issues, Lovejoy, not enjoying the hardships and labor connected with journalism of the border, and owing to sickness in his family, returned to his farm, leaving the entire affair in Crockwell's hands. The latter was a druggist, and had but little time or inclination to devote to editorial writing and other journalistic duties. He therefore asked Mr. Edmund Booth to contribute editorials to the young enterprise which he did for some months. Matt Parrott, afterward state binder and publisher of the Iowa State Reporter at Waterloo, bought an interest in the paper in January, 1858. May 3d of the same year, found the journal which was called The Eureka, under the ownership of Crockwell, Parrott & Booth. June 28, 1859, Crockwell retired, and December 12, 1862, Edmund Booth became sole owner of the paper. His son, T. E. Booth, was received into partnership October 10, 1867, and from that time until the death of the elder Booth, The Eureka was published by E. Booth & Son.
It was the original purpose to call the paper the Free Soiler, and such was the name of the first prospectus, that being the time of the Free-Soil movement. Crockwell, however, who delighted in oddities, gave it the name it still wears- The Eureka (I have found it). The Eureka was first issued in the first brick building erected in Anamosa, being only one story high, fifteen feet square, built for a physician's office. It has since occupied quarters in the brick buildings of S. T. Buxton, H. C. Metcalf, and about 1870, The Eureka found a home in the
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second story of the building on the corner of Ford and Main streets, built by E. Booth & Son for the purpose. This location has since remained the home of The Eureka.
The original size of The Eureka was a seven-column folio, which was enlarged to eight columns in October, 1866, at which time the office purchased a Hoe power- press, the first power-press for a country office in this part of the state. Upon the death of E. Booth, and in fact for some time prior thereto, T. E. Booth has had sole charge of the paper. A Simplex typesetting machine has been added to the conveniences of the paper, and with other modern equipments, the office is ready on short notice to do good service. The Eureka has long been a favorite with the old settlers, and its columns are read with interest by all.
It may not be amiss to state in this connection that J. E. Lovejoy, the first proprietor of The Eureka, was a brother of the celebrated Owen Lovejoy, of Illinois, and likewise a brother of Elijah P. Lovejoy, who was killed by a mob at Alton, Illinois, in 1838.
George H. Walworth, a brother-in-law of Edmund Booth, was one of the defenders of Elijah P. Lovejoy, and was in the building when Lovejoy was shot. Mr. Walworth was elected to the Iowa legislature in 1839, for Jones and Cedar counties, and after Jones was entitled to a representative, Walworth represented the county for two or three terms. He afterward went south and was killed by an accident. Mr. Walworth was a man of fine abilities and remarkable per- sonal attractions, and was noted for his energy and enterprise.
Anamosa Journal. The organ of the democratic party at the county seat of Jones, is an eight-column folio weekly paper, published every Thursday, and called the Anamosa Journal. This paper was established in the year 1872, by one A. L. Smith, as editor and proprietor. Under the management of Mr. Smith, the enterprise seems not to have proven a success, and on the first of January, 1874, it passed into the hands of P. D. Swigart. On the seventh day of same month, a half interest was sold to Swigart Bros., and the publication was continued under the name of Swigart Bros., until the twenty-ninth day of June, 1874, when J. M. Swigart disposed of his interest to C. H. Monger, the firm changing to Monger & Swigart. On the first of August, in the same year, J. A. Monger purchased the interest of Swigart and the firm changed to Monger . Bros. J. A. Monger continued as one of the proprietors for a year, when the Journal passed into the hands of C. H. Monger, sole editor and proprietor from that time until his death about ten years ago. His son, Shubal Monger at once took up the editorial pen with the same energy and forcefulness which char- acterized the writings of his father. A few years later, E. R. Moore, the present proprietor, purchased the paper, and under his management, the Journal has become one of the prosperous local papers in the county.
The real prosperity of the Journal may be said to date from the time it passed under the management of C. H. Monger. The parties connected with the paper prior to that time, were not educated to journalism and were not well calculated to succeed in such an enterprise. Mr. C. H. Monger had been somewhat edu- cated to the newspaper business before he came to Jones county, and his success in a measure was due to that fact.
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The political complexion of the Journal is democratic, while that of The Eureka, is republican. These papers, being published at the county-seat, wield a political influence in their own parties.
The Anamosa Daily Call, was the name of a sheet started by a fellow named R. B. Curtis, in 1894. This publication was of short life, and with the sudden exodus of the editor, The Call became a thing of the past.
The Reformatory Press is a weekly publication issued by the confined in the state reformatory. It contains well written articles contributed by the convicts as well as information in regard to the affairs and happenings in the reformatory, and is published under the supervision of Chaplain F. H. Pickworth.
IOWA STATE REFORMATORY ..
(This article was written by Judge H. M. Remley at the request of the state Board of Control and published in the Bulletin of Iowa Institutions in Volume 3, January, 1901, and brought down to date by Clark Beems, clerk of Anamosa Re- formatory .- HISTORIAN.)
It is seldom that statesmen, when providing for state institutions. lay their plans on a scale sufficiently broad and liberal for the future requirements of the state. Our courthouses, school buildings and depots have all been outgrown. Ninety per cent. of all our land is tillable, and the development of our state ex- ceeds the expectations of the most sanguine. In 1855 the population was two hundred and fifty thousand-now it is two million, two hundred and twenty-five thousand. The population of Rhode Island is three hundred and ninety-five to the square mile-that of Iowa is forty-one. When our population equals that of Rhode Island we will have over twenty million inhabitants. In 1855 the legis- lature of this state appointed a committee of which Senator James W. Grimes was chairman, to report plans and select a location for an insane asylum, the cost of which was expressly limited to fifty thousand dollars. They reported, locating the asylum at Mt. Pleasant, and presented a plan which would require the expenditure of two hundred thousand dollars, and recommended that the same be adopted, insisting that the future needs of the state would demand such a building. The legislature adopted the plan and appropriated the additional one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. This action called forth the criticism of the opposing political party, as an example of party extravagance and corruption. The Hon. J. M. Elwood, in a speech at Dubuque, September 25, 1858, said:
"The edifice contemplated by the plans of the commissioners is to be, when completed, a massive structure covering an eighth of a square mile; the wings are three stories in height and the front is four stories in height and the outside of the building is to be finished of cut stone. This institution is larger and more spacious than the insane asylum of any state in the Union-larger than the in- sane asylum of New York, a state which contains four million people. One wing of that institution, I have no doubt, would amply accommodate all the insane which this state will be called upon to provide for half a century to come. And for more than fifty years to come one-half of that building will not be needed for the use of the insane of this state, and in those empty and
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naked walls will be the money of the people of this state, a monument of useless and oppressive taxation. * * * What reasons exist for the erection of this splendid pile? Why was the plan fixed upon so stupendous? Only two reasons occur to me. I am informed that Governor Grimes, the chairman of that com- mittee, owns near the site of this institution a large amount of real estate which would be enhanced in value by this erection. Governor Grimes is also a very ambitious man and he meant during his term of office to do something by which future generations might know that James W. Grimes had been governor of this great and growing state. It is a monument to his ambition at the sacrifice and the expense of the people of this state."
Not forty-five years have passed away, and time has not only vindicated the broadest views of Governor Grimes, but if anything, it has condemned him in that he did not comprehend the marvelous demands of the future. Our state has now spent for land and building at Mt. Pleasant eight hundred and thirty-two thou- sand, five hundred and twenty-five dollars and its capacity is nine hundred and fifty inmates. It was long since filled and another insane asylum was built at Independence costing one million, forty-eight thousand, nine hundred and fifty dollars and accommodating one thousand, and forty unfortunates. This too has been crowded and a third has been built at Clarinda at an outlay of eight hundred and sixty-seven thousand, seven hundred and eighty dollars, capable of caring for nine hundred and fifty inmates. A fourth was demanded and five hundred and twenty-four thousand, one hundred and forty dollars has already been ex- pended upon the asylum at Cherokee. Besides all this, we have provided a home for feeble-minded children at Glenwood at the cost of four hundred and fifteen thousand, nine hundred and fifteen dollars.
When the Fort Madison penitentiary was established by the territorial legis- lature in 1839 it was located upon a narrow sand ridge terminating at the base of the bluff about four hundred yards back from the Mississippi River. The walls then enclosed only three and one-half acres. It seems that the number of insane increases in our state much more rapidly than the number of criminals. This presents a question of much importance, but which can only be alluded to here: What relation does the rapid development of insanity in Iowa sustain to the ad- vance in education? What bearing has the spread of education among the people upon the number of criminals? Or, in other words: Does education tend to in- crease insanity and to lessen criminality? The Fort Madison penitentiary, with a capacity now enlarged to six hundred, supplied the requirements of our state for thirty-four years and until the Anamosa penitentiary was established.
The penitentiary was established April 12, 1872, by Chapter 43 of the Four- teenth General Assembly. At that time the Hon. John McKean was senator from Jones county and the Hon. John Tasker and the Hon. P. G. Bonewitz were mem- bers of the house of representatives, the Hon. James Wilson, now secretary of agriculture, was speaker of the house, and the Hon. John Russell of Jones county was state auditor. The act provided that a penitentiary should be established at or near the stone quarries near Anamosa and that three commissioners chosen by the general assembly should select the exact location, and receive bids for the purchase of suitable quarries which must contain not less than one million cubic yards of stratified stone. But none of these should be selected until the state
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had received a deed to seventy acres of ground free of expense. The commis- sioners were given power to appoint a superintendent and to employ men and to purchase material. Fifty thousand dollars were appropriated for the purposes of the act. The Hon. William Ure, of Fairfax, Linn county, Hon. F. L. Down- ing, of Oskaloosa and the Hon. Martin Heisey, of Fort Madison, were chosen commissioners and their compensation was fixed at five dollars per day and ex- penses. The commissioners met at Des Moines April 23, 1872, and organized by electing William Ure president and F. L. Downing secretary, and adjourned to meet at Anamosa May 7, 1872. The board met at the appointed time and place and inspected the various quarries and proposed sites for the penitentiary. They also advertised for bids for quarries, which under the act were not to cost more than fifteen thousand dollars. They then adjourned to meet at West Lib- erty, May 16th, for the purpose of starting on a trip through the eastern states to examine their penitentiaries. The next meeting was at Anamosa on June 12th. Proposals to sell quarries were then received from the following persons: Dr. S. G. Matson, for ten thousand dollars; Philip Haines, for fifteen thousand dol- lars; Dr. N. G. Sales, fifteen thousand dollars; H. Dearborn, fourteen thousand dollars; J. A. Green, twelve thousand, five hundred dollars; E. M. Crow, six thousand dollars, and J. G. Parsons, fifteen thousand dollars. The proposition of N. G. Sales was accepted. Downing and Heisey voting therefor and Ure voting to purchase the Haines quarry. The quarry accepted contained eighty acres. Two locations were proposed for the site of the penitentiary. One under the leadership of Judge Mckean and Mr. H. C. Metcalf was an agreement to donate two entire blocks and six acres of land adjacent, situated near the business portion of the city. The first named was in a basin surrounded by higher land, while the second was an elevated and sightly location. Both were well drained and healthy. The commissioners both in the selection of the quarry and of the site of the penitentiary showed that they did not comprehend the imporance nor the magnitude of the duty entrusted to them. They selected the lower location, and as a consequence the buildings and walls do not present that imposing appearance which they would have done had a better and more elevated site been chosen. They did not realize that in one generation millions of dollars in cash and labor would be expended on the exact location selected, and when once begun the location could not then be changed. The quarry purchased has since been sold for one-tenth of the purchase price and another purchased. The land now owned by the state consists of fifteen acres where the walls and build- ings are situated, the quarries on the Buffalo River consisting of forty acres and a farm of two hundred and two acres, adjacent to the city and about one hun- dred and sixty rods from the walls.
At a meeting of the commissioners, held June 19, 1872, plans prepared by W. L. Foster & Company, of Des Moines, were accepted, the sum of two thou- sand, five hundred dollars being allowed therefor. Mr. Foster was also em- ployed to supervise the erection of the buildings and allowed ten dollars per day and expenses. Mr. Heisey was also authorized to act for the board when it was not in session. July 2, 1872, Lewis Kinsey was appointed clerk and secre- tary of the board "at a salary of not less than sixty dollars per month." August.
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1872 lumber was purchased of Curtis Brothers & Company and W. G. Young & Company, of Clinton, Iowa, to make a high stockade around the yard and tem- porary buildings at the prison and at the quarry. A small stone building was erected with hired labor and temporary wooden cells placed therein. In January, 1873, sixty-four cell doors were purchased at a cost of three thousand, one hun- dred dollars. Warden Hunter, in his report for the year ending June 30, 1900, stated that he had made sixty-one cell doors, using eleven thousand, seven hun- dred and ninety-one pounds of iron, and that the actual cost to the state was two hundred and six dollars. The labor required for making and hanging these doors was that of four men for fifty-four days. The sixty-four cell doors purchased were placed upon the wooden cells in the temporary building and are now used in the permanent cellhouse. April 7, 1873, work was begun at the quarries with hired labor, and a tall stockade was then placed around the prison yard enclosing eleven acres. On May 13, 1873, twenty convicts were transferred by order of the executive council from the Fort Madison penitentiary to Ana- mosa. Of these the record shows that John Barlow had the distinction of starting the count at Anamosa, he being known as convict "No. I." He was de- scribed as follows: "Height, five feet, five and three-quarters inches, light com- plexion, hair and beard sandy, dark brown eyes, thumb off left hand, woman dancing with garland over her head tattooed on right arm, weight, one hundred and thirty pounds." All descriptions are now taken by the use of the Bertillon system and photographs. The other convicts transferred were numbered up to No. 20. The first convict sentenced to this prison was from Jones county, and was known as "No. 21." As he has relatives in Jones county his name and de- scription will not be given. These convicts were confined in the wooden cells and employed at the quarries and in preparing to erect a permanent building.
On the 30th of September, 1873, work was begun on the first permanent building, known as "Work Shop No. I." The men who laid the first stone upon this building were convict No. 7, D. J. VanWie, and No. 14, Ed. Sheridan. This was a large building, two stories high. Cells made in exact accordance with the permanent cells were placed in this building and the iron doors from the wooden cells were placed upon them. When the permanent cellhouse was built these cells were transferred to it, and are now in use. Afterwards this building was used as a dining-room, chapel, library, hospital and for many other uses. The roof and floors burned out about five years ago, destroying several thousand dol- lars worth of stores, but it has been repaired and is now doing excellent service.
December 11, 1873, the following memorandum was entered in the prison records :
"This evening at half-past five o'clock George Williams, one of the prisoners was taken suddenly sick with paralysis on the left side. Doctor sent for about 9 o'clock; another attack on the right side and he became speechless; died at half- past ten o'clock."
He was known as "No. 5," and his was the first death at this penitentiary He was buried on an elevation facing the rising sun at the prison farm, where is now the prison cemetery. The deceased convicts, whose bodies are not claimed by relatives and those who are not transferred to medical colleges under the
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present law, are buried in this cemetery, side by side in rows, and their graves are marked with head and foot stones made by the convicts. During the summer of 1873 Mr. Heisey was chosen warden by the commissioners and Governor C. C. Carpenter appointed C. L. Hall, Esq., of Anamosa, commissioner. Stone was sold at this time upon the market at the regular prices. On November 18th the convicts had performed one thousand, eight hundred and fifty days' work at the quarry. Morgan Holmes, known as convict "No. 3," escaped in August, 1873, his being the first escape. He was soon recaptured by the sheriff of Bu- chanan county and returned, for which the sheriff received the customary reward of fifty dollars. An escaped prisoner has been recently returned who got away twenty years ago, he having been living in Chicago under an assumed name. He inherited some property and in his efforts to obtain this his identity became known.
During Mr. Heisey's wardenship the first permanent workshop was built and the southeast corner of the wall was erected. The number of convicts was small and comparatively slow progress was made. The Sixteenth General Assembly enacted a law abolishing the office of commissioner and placing this prison under the same laws which govern the penitentiary at Fort Madison. This act took effect April 1, 1876, and the legislature elected Mr. A. E. Martin, of Delaware county, warden. He was four times reelected, serving until April 1, 1886. Dur- ing his administration the executive council redistricted the state so as to send many more convicts to Anamosa, thereby increasing the number of men, and the work advanced more rapidly. During his wardenship the massive wall was completed around the main yard. This wall is composed of immense stones en- closing an area seven hundred and fifty-five feet east and west and six hundred and thirty-nine feet north and south, containing eleven and seventy-five-thou- sandths acres. The foundation is laid fourteen feet below the surface of the ground and is twelve feet wide at the bottom and seven feet wide at the surface of the ground. It rises twenty-eight feet above the ground and is four feet wide at the top. This foundation is laid upon piles driven fifteen feet further down at the northwest corner of the wall. Stone turrets or guardhouses are built at the corners, and gates at proper intervals. This wall is twenty-one rods more than half a mile long. Warden Martin also built the south cellhouse. This building lies along the south end of the east wall so that the east side of the building forms the wall. The foundations of the cellhouses were made by laying immense flat thick stone under the entire building fourteen feet deep. The house is one room and the cells are builded four tiers high upon this foundation. in the center of the room, placed end to end. They are made of cut stone, each parti- tion, floor and ceiling being a single stone. They do not touch the sides or ceiling of the building, and in this room are three hundred and twenty cells. Mr. M. Q. Barr, of Oskaloosa, was chosen warden and succeeded Mr. Martin April 1, 1886, holding the office until April, 1892. Warden Barr erected the walls around the insane and the female departments, enclosing one and six hundred and forty- eight-thousandeths acres, immediately south of the main prison and also completed the insane building and enclosed the female building. The insane building is separated from the female building by a wall similar to the outside wall, with no openings whatever. P. W. Madden, Esq., of Spencer, Iowa, was chosen warden
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