USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Wiscasset > Wiscasset in Pownalborough; a history of the shire town and the salient historical features of the territory between the Sheepscot and Kennebec rivers > Part 14
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The Lincoln County Jail built in 1809.
The Jail, Wiscasset, Me.
The Westport Ferry, run on a cable. From Westport Island to Birch Point.
Ferry landing on Folly Island by side of Fort Edgecomb, showing the natural formation.
Public Buildings
and its appearance was that of an ordinary substantial looking dwelling- house; but, situated as it was at the most prominent corner of the village, it was the first edifice to catch the eye of the traveler who approached the town when coming by road from either Sheepscot Farms or Twenty Cow Parish,27 for it was at this corner that those arriving by stage or by saddle. turned a sharp angle to enter the village.
This house of correction was well equipped with all of the instruments needed in meting out old-fashioned justice to malefactors. There were gyves, fetters, handcuffs, and chains, a pillory and a ducking-stool all ready for use; while in the front yard was a whipping-post, and firmly planted at the rear of the building stood the grim gallows, on which offenders were sentenced to stand for hours with a rope around their necks for certain offences. Moses Davis records in his diary: "1795. July 28. A man was seen sitting on the gallows and one standing on the pillory." There was another and an older whipping-post ante-dating 1790, a survival of the days when punishment was believed to be more efficacious than precept. This one stood at the corner of State and Second Streets (now Main and Middle) very near to the local Rialto, the town pump; and Mrs. Phebe Still, an old resident who died in 1870 at her residence on Fort Hill Street, remembered having seen it used when she was quite a small child.
The shackles or leg-irons which were formerly used in the Wiscasset jail are now in the museum of the fort at Pemaquid. They resemble two giant iron bracelets and are connected by a cumbersome chain that weighs many pounds.
Lemuel Lewis of Boothbay, and an Irishman named McMulligan, a stone-cutter, were publicly whipped for theft at the post in front of the old gaol, in pursuance of sentence of court, in 1808. The post to which they were tied stood between the gaol and the road. Edmund Bridge was high sheriff; he stood nearby wearing a cocked hat and a sword, while his deputy Norris swung the lash. The first strokes were sharp and strong, till the high sheriff, in an undertone to his deputy, stayed the blows, saying: "Not so hard." Lewis was silent. The Irishman admitted the justice of his punish- ment. This relic of a barbarous code of corporal chastisement soon after- ward passed away, and the above was the last instance of its execution in the shire town of Lincoln County.
27. The old name for Bath.
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It appears, however, that this was not the first offence of Lemuel Lewis, for in the Eastern Repository, September, 1803, there is the following notice:
100 Dollars Reward
On the night of the twelfth inst. broke and made their escape from the gaol at Wis- casset the following prisoners, viz: Joseph Horn, Stephen Horn, Abraham Decker, Robert Malcolm and Lemuel Lewis. Whoever will take up said prisoners and deliver them to the Subscriber shall receive the above reward or twenty dollars for each, and all necessary charges paid by JOHN SUTTON FOYE, Keeper of the Gaol at Wiscasset.
These men were of the notorious Horn-Decker gang whose origin was at Cape Newagen.
William Corbett, in a volume of selections from the newspaper that he published at Philadelphia called Porcupine's Gazette (Vol. V, pp. 299-230) has the following account of an attack that was made on the old gaol:
Rights of Man exercised at Wiscasset
Wiscasset, April 1, 1797. On Wednesday morning last, between two and three o'clock, the goal here was opened by an armed force, and three persons liberated who had some days before been arrested on mesne process, and for want of bail were com- mitted. The process was at the suit of Mr. Trueman, on whom they committed a most outrageous trespass the last summer, in the town of New Milford. The mob was about two days collecting, and it is suggested that they principally came from the upper set- tlements of Sheepsgut and Damariscotta ponds, and that their number was between two and three hundred. They appeared well armed, and suitably provided with axes and bars to pull down the gaol, if they could not otherwise effect their purpose. At the point of charged bayonet they demanded of the gaoler the liberation of the prisoners, to whom he was forced to comply. The number that surrounded the gaol was between fifty and sixty; but it was said there were two large parties at a small distance: one of them, about fifty in number, it seems was stationed in the road between the gaol and settlements, and the other at some distance from the gaol on the opposite side. No doubt they came expecting to find an armed force to oppose them; which would have been the case, had it not been satisfactorily ascertained, that their numbers were so great as to overpower an inconsiderable guard, and that bloodshed would have ensued. Indeed no guard military could legally have been called out to defend the gaol by force of arms, without a special order from the Sheriff, or one from two Judges of the Supreme or Common Pleas court-which could not have been seasonably obtained. Another con- sideration, however, had weight; most of the rioters were actually known, and will no doubt be eventually apprehended, and held to answer for the abuse of the constitution and laws, although for a while they escape.
It was reported on Tuesday, that the rioters had dispersed, and gone home. Many persons from the settlements before alluded to, were here during the greatest part of
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the day, and I conversed with several on the subject of their lands, advised them, es- pecially such as lived out of incorporated places, to apply to Government for redress, and suggested the possibility of relief heretofore digested between us.28
On a very cold night during the winter of 1867, this building caught fire and burned to the ground. An eyewitness, still living, remembers that a newly born litter of pigs, whinock and all, were saved in a mattress tick, after the feathers had been emptied.
Rumor has it that this fire was of incendiary origin and that the old gaol was burned by a neighbor whose view it obstructed.
The Town Pound
At the first annual meeting of the town of Pownalborough, held in the house of Josiah Bradbury, in 1761, the sum of £Io was voted for the build- ing of stocks and pounds. The subject of discussion as to whether hogs might run in the highway if properly "Yoaked and Ringed" was decided in the affirmative. It is not known where the first town pound was located, al- though an early one was located on the land of the county house at Birch Point. The pound best remembered was an inclosure at the corner of the old county road to Sheepscot, beside the wooden gaol, which gave the name Town Pound Corner to that place.
In 1846, it was voted to take the barn of the poorhouse as a "place for strays," and the land on which it was situated was a part of the old gaol yard. Although this inclosure may not have met the requirements of town pounds which should be "Pig-tight," "Bull-strong" and "Horse-high," it proved to be quite adequate as a place of detention for stray creatures.
Many a sturk, stallion, sheep, or shote found trampoosing in the high- ways was put into this yard and kept securely within its confines until re- claimed by its owner.
Robert Greenough was keeper of the pound in 1808, and Ebenezer Cogswell in 1823.
The Lincoln County Jail
Records of the Lincoln County court house show that in 1807, the sum of $6,000.00 was raised to build a jail at Wiscasset-this appropriation be-
28. This account was contributed by Dr. J. Franklin Jameson of Washington.
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ing made after the appointment of a committee to consider the advisability of making repairs on the old gaol, which was a wooden structure dating back a dozen years.
The corner-stone of the "new" jail was laid August 1, 1809, (see Diary of William Greenleaf) and the stone portions of this sombre-looking build- ing were completed in 1811. It was at the time of its erection the principal penitentiary in what is now the state, and large enough to accommodate the prisoners of Sagadahoc and Knox Counties, its capacity being forty pris- oners. It was the first building in Maine to be put up for the safe-keeping of criminals and before the state prison was established in Thomaston it was used for the confinement of many notorious felons.
It is situated on a sightly hill on Federal Street, overlooking the river and harbor from Clark's Point to the Lower Narrows, and is not far from the spot where George Davie, his brother and two others built the first huts known to exist in what is now Wiscasset.
The dimensions of the stone part of this jail, not including the keeper's house, are, on the outside, 40 feet, 7 inches long, 36 feet, 7 inches wide, and over 20 feet in height. The granite slabs which were used in its construction were brought from the Edgecomb quarries and are 41 inches thick at the foundation, and 30 inches at the eaves. These great stone blocks also form the ceiling of the cells. There are two floors on which these cells are located, with a large attic above them. A corridor runs through the center on each floor, three cells being on each side of it, making twelve cells in all.
Light is admitted through iron-barred windows. The doors are made of wrought iron bars, swing on hinges, and are secured by enormous locks re- quiring keys weighing three pounds to unlock them. One United States marshal facetiously remarked that the turnkey was obliged to carry these keys about on a wheel-barrow.
The attic is divided into four compartments, one of which was used for poor debtors; one for women prisoners; one for sick patients; and one for insane persons. The large compartment was used many years ago as a work- shop in which the inmates of the jail manufactured boots and shoes. This was the first jail in the state where under the law of 1873 prisoners labored, and continued for years without profit to the county. The workshop was abandoned after a few years. The following notice appeared in the local newspaper :29
29. Seaside Oracle, June 24, 1876.
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Damaged and shopworn boots for sale very low. Calf and fish boots merely shop- worn also a few pairs of red and black slippers.
The Jail Workshop, Wiscasset.
Sometime during the eighties when Seth Patterson was serving his second term as jailer, while finishing the rooms for women and invalids, he was assisted in his work by a tramp who was serving sentence for vagrancy. This tramp was a master mason, and an expert at his vocation. He had previously been in the employ of General Butler, working on his mansion in Washing- ton. He came to Maine to spend his vacation and while in this state he spent all of his money, was arrested for vagrancy and lodged in jail. Being an excellent workman he finished these rooms in a most satisfactory manner.
So attached did he become to the family of Patterson, that he overstayed his time, but after his departure no tidings were ever received from him.
In the early days when Lincoln County embraced all of the territory east of the Kennebec as far as the English provinces, the sporadic settlements were few and far apart, it was necessary for the judge and the clerk of the courts for the county to travel from place to place, and hold sessions in different localities convenient for the prosecution of justice. Sessions of the Supreme Judicial Court were sometimes held at Wiscasset, sometimes at Hallowell, sometimes at Dresden, and occasionally at other places.
In the early laws "tumults, rebellion, conspiracy, mutiny, sedition, man- slaughter, incest, rape and murder, were capital offences. Adultery, drunk- enness and vagrancy were punishable offences. They must all be tried within the colonial precincts. Magistrates were required to hold in suspense judg- ment on crime in aid of application to the king for pardon. . . . ">30
There was a large trunk full of old papers in the keeper's room at the jail that were carefully arranged for examination by the late William Davis Patterson, and which show, as do many other records, his painstaking re- search and labor. The oldest document is dated June II, 1795. It is an order from the Superior Court to Thomas Fletcher to give securities to the court for costs. There is a commitment ordering an offender "to gaol for stealing two quintals of salt fish." The same court sends Seth Hammon to jail for being a "Worthless idler," and "stands committed until the due course of the law had taken place." There is no record to show that he was ever discharged.
30. Lincoln County Probate Records, 1760 to 1800, William D. Patterson, page IX.
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Wiscasset, like all seaports, had its share of vagrants, many of whom were sailors, ill, inebriated or incompetent, whose ships had sailed without them leaving them to the mercy of the town. There are several legal instru- ments for the arrest and detention of deserters from vessels. This offence seems to have been of common occurrence, and the offenders were immedi- ately locked up or carried aboard ships if caught before the departure of the merchantman. A few such mariners remained all of their lives in this vil- lage and became worthy citizens.
In olden times clergymen occasionally acted in the capacity of magistrates condemning transgressors of the law to jail or the whipping-post. There is one old paper that requires the culprit to give sureties, which bears the autograph of Rev. Francis Winter, the first settled minister in Bath.
According to other documents, the following sentences were imposed at the July term of court held at Hallowell in 1796 (not long after the erec- tion of the wooden gaol): "Zadoc Brewster; to suffer six months imprison- ment, and give bonds to the amount of $200 for his keeping the peace, and being of good behavior for two years, and pay costs amounting to $96.36. Phoebe Barnes: to suffer 30 days imprisonment: to be set on the gallows for one hour with the rope around her neck, and give bonds to the amount of fifty dollars to keep the peace for one year and pay costs." Thomas Lemon was fined $ 10 and costs for a misdemeanor. A warrant for the arrest of Peter Bobo says that "he was a negro and on the 9th day of June 1796, was brought before the Court at Pownalborough, charged with assaulting the body of Samuel Goodwin, Jr., of Dresden in said county, gentleman, with intent to murder, on the eighth day of the month. Accused was ordered to give bonds for his appearance at the Court at Hallowell, but failing to give sureties, was committed to the gaol in Wiscasset."
The jail calendar is a large book resembling a merchant's ledger, bound in embossed leather with the title emblazoned on the back in gold letters. It contains the accounts of all persons transacting business with the house. Debit and credit with all customers is carefully kept, and the names of "dead beats" may be seen on the page of profits and loss.
The oldest calendar commences at 1800. The first entry is July tenth, from which it appears that Peter Bobo, the negro who assaulted Samuel Goodwin, was convicted in 1796, and confined eleven years when he died.
In 1803, Robert Malcolm of Bowdoin, was imprisoned for theft. He
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broke jail three times and was recaptured twice, the last time he escaped and was never again found. Moses Thorndike of Camden, was committed in 1812 for assisting English prisoners of war to escape. In 1817, William Campbell a foreigner, was confined fourteen days and had to pay a fine and costs for "profanity and hard swearing." In 1824, a small boy of fourteen years of age was imprisoned one month for stealing apples, and in 1826, another boy suffered like punishment for stealing a beehive. In 1827, John McDonald, eighteen years of age, was confined for piracy and afterwards sent to the state prison.
The first calendar covers a period of thirty-five years. The descriptions of prisoners are not very clear-they being designated as a "negro," "an Irishman," "a boy," etc., without further remarks. In the last part of the book are one thousand names of poor debtors, who were committed and released in various ways. The law for the collection of debts seems to have been used more as a means of vengeance than of profit in those times.
Hanging in the turnkey's room, there used to be a pair of old-fashioned shackles such as were used a century ago, when they were riveted upon the wrists and ankles of the prisoners. The handcuffs weighed about six pounds, and the ankle chains, nearly thirteen pounds, having three feet of chain as large as an ordinary ox-chain to connect them. Alden Bailey, a blacksmith of long ago, and whose shop was on Water Street, was frequently called upon to rivet these barbarous shackles on the prisoners.
Among the records of the jail calendar are seen the entries made by Samuel Holbrook, a keeper about 1830. His handwriting is very artistic, he being not only able to flourish in true Spencerian fashion, but also to draw and form antique Roman letters with great dexterity and skill.
Holbrook was a schoolteacher by profession and taught the village school. One day during school hours, a small boy told him that the jail was afire. He immediately started out on a dead run for the scene, arriving with all of the scholars in his wake. They succeeded in getting all of the pris- oners out of the building and shackling them to a tree in the yard. Just at this time a stage-coach came down the road and the horses seeing the fire became terrified, and dashing pell mell into the yard, they overturned the stage-coach, pitching the passengers out in a mélange of pupils and prisoners.
The keeper's house was burned to the ground and traces of that fire may still be seen within the jail. A brick building, which forms the west wing of
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the stone structure, was afterward erected, so that the entire set of buildings is now practically fire-proof.
In 1841, a man was imprisoned for killing a horse, and three years later another was sentenced for a similar transgression.
A violator of the liquor law was locked up for one day when he was able to give bonds. This is the first case on record under the law in this state.
In 1842, a culprit is detained thirty days in durance vile, for "profane cursing and loud swearing." In 1844, a mysterious person was imprisoned eleven days "for Jugglery and Unlawful games." Cases like the last two scarcely appear credible in these enlightened times.
Five men who were confined for mutiny were described as "real sailors." Eight men from Bath were held for trial, in 1848, on the charge of rioting, and five were sentenced to thirty days' imprisonment. At a later date there were many famous criminals lodged here, among whom were the Bowdoin- ham bank robbers; Daniel Wilkinson, an English burglar who shot night watchman William Lawrence of Bath through the head, was brought to Wiscasset to the Lincoln County jail. Wilkinson was hanged at Thomaston and his body sent to the Bowdoin Medical College. Here, too, was Lucy Ann Mank, who shot and killed Dr. Baker of Warren, Maine. After a long trial she was acquitted and went to Lowell, Massachusetts, where she shot a second man. She was convicted and sentenced to the state prison for eight years which term she served, being later discharged.
In 1867, while repairs were being made on the state prison at Thomas- ton, eight convicts were received here for safe-keeping. Alvin Piper was then the keeper of the jail, when a break was attempted. The gentle art of jail-breaking had not then reached the scientific perfection of modern days and the convicts' method was crude. The prisoners had scraped the white- washed walls of the jail and saved the lime until the jailer's children, Charles Piper and his sister, Francene, a girl of eighteen, should enter with breakfast for the prisoners. At that moment they threw the oxide of calcium into the eyes of Charles Piper, and taking advantage of his temporary blind- ness, made a dash for liberty. Francene was just behind him on the stairs and without an instant's hesitation she hurled the hot coffee into their faces, badly scalding one of them about the neck and head.
Will Devitt who lived opposite the jail rushed out on the hill shrieking at the top of his voice, "Prisoners out of Jail!" Others took up the hue and
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cry until someone thought of ringing the church bell which gave warning to the town. Shops were closed, business suspended and the entire male pop- ulation engaged in the man hunt. Six of the men were caught, but one of the band reached Lowell's woods on the Gardiner road and escaped. Six months later he, too, was captured and taken to Thomaston. The scalded convict never left the jail until transferred with the others to the Maine state prison.
During Sheriff Morse's term of office Nathan F. Hart of Tenant's Har- bour was lodged for many weeks in the Wiscasset jail, where, according to Morse, he whiled away the time playing penny-ante in the jail corridor with a fellow prisoner named Thomas who later gave damaging testimony against him. The Hart-Meservey murder trial was one of the most famous cases on record. According to the testimony brought out at the trial held in Rockland before Chief Justice Appleton in October, 1878, Hart had gone to the home of the Meserveys in Tenant's Harbour on the evening of De- cember 24, 1877, for the purpose of robbing his neighbors of "old silver," and other money. Capt. Luther Meservey "was off on a voyage" and Sarah, his wife, was not in the house at the time when Hart is said to have entered it but she came in before he had found the money. A hand to hand fight ensued and from the information given in court it appears that she received a blow on her head from the butt of a revolver and was strangled by a "cloud"-a worsted hood-which she wore.
Hart made the amateurish mistake of trying through anonymous letters to plant a false clue, so that his conviction turned more or less on the opin- ion given by handwriting experts. One of these was Alvin R. Dunton31 of Camden, who at first testified for the State before the grand jury and later appeared for the defence.
Hart was convicted by "evidence clear and conclusive" of an infamous crime and sentenced to a life term in the state prison where he died October 9, 1883, five years after his conviction.
Dunton had published a pamphlet in 1882 entitled The True Story of the Hart-Meservey Murder Trial for the purpose of exonerating Hart.
Seth Patterson, in 1869, succeeded Alvin Piper as keeper of the jail. Altogether he held that office for twenty-two years. During his term of service there were several insane prisoners, many of whom the court would
31. He was a member of the firm Payson, Dunton & Scribner, publishers of writing books and charts for schools.
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not convict. Three were murderers and exceedingly dangerous culprits. These were tried and sent to the state asylum in Augusta, from which place one of them made his escape and drowned himself in the Kennebec River.
One imagined that he was a circus clown, and performed very remarkable feats while under this delusion. A distinguished foreigner of fine presence and exceptional education astonished his companion with wise and witty remarks. He remained incognito.
One poor insane woman, with tooth and nail, gave the turnkey a terrify- ing time during her incarceration.
During the time of Emery Boynton another break was accomplished. John W. Giles and William Ireland, confined in the Wiscasset jail for stealing a schooner at Rockport, escaped on November 18, 1871. They were traced to Augusta and later caught at South Gardiner, by City Marshal Siphers, who arrested them and put them in the lockup at Gardiner.
One of them had a baseball bat in his possession which he brandished like a shillalah when arrested, but he quietly submitted to being chained to the other prisoner and together they were brought back to Wiscasset, by Boyn- ton who had received information as to their whereabouts and gone after them.
The last poor debtor was locked up during the eighties, but when his bills were paid by a friend, he departed to start life over with a clean slate.
The records show that during the entire term of office of Seth Patterson, more than a score of years, there were but three deaths and one birth in the Lincoln County jail.32
The first hanging in what is now the state of Maine took place in No- vember, 1644. It is an interesting example of the ordeal of touch. Katherine Cornish was hanged for murdering her husband and it is recorded that when she and Footman, her lover, were brought to Cornish's body, "he bled abundantly."33
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