USA > New York > Chemung County > History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York > Part 58
USA > New York > Schuyler County > History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York > Part 58
USA > New York > Tioga County > History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York > Part 58
USA > New York > Tompkins County > History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York > Part 58
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$3,476.00
Expenditures 1,657.10
Balance in treasury $1,819,26
219
AND SCHUYLER COUNTIES, NEW YORK.
The present officers of the Home are: President, Mrs. R. H. Ransom ; Vice-President, Mrs. Frederick Hall ; Treasurer, N. P. Fassett, Esq .; Secretary, Miss Fannic Wheadon. Board of Trustees, Mrs. R. H. Ransom, First Presbyterian Church ; Mrs. David Tuttle, Lake Street Pres- byterian Church ; Mrs. Nyc, Park Church ; Mrs. David Decker, Hedding Methodist Episcopal Church ; Mrs. Lu- queer, First Methodist Episcopal Church ; Mrs. St. John, First Baptist Church, Madison Avenue; Mrs. Tompkins, Trinity Protestant Episcopal Church ; Mrs. Frisbie, * Grace Protestant Episcopal Church ; Mrs. A. Robertson, South Main Street Methodist Episcopal Church ; German Lutheran Church.
THE STATE REFORMATORY.
One of the State's institutions has its location in Che- mung County, and as such deserves more than a passing notice at our hands. The Reformatory, while it is a place designed for the confinement of convicts, is not one founded solely for the punishment of its inmates, but, as its nanie indicates, is established for their correction and reforma- tion.
The aet for loeating the saine was passed April 29, 1869 (chapter 408), and authorized the Governor to appoint five commissioners to locate the institution in the Sixth Judicial Distriet, the commissioners to receive by gift, or to pur- chase for the State, the lands necessary for the purpose. The commissioners were Joseph Warren, Theodore W. Dwight, Charles H. Winfield, George W. Hubbell, and Robert Earle, who proceeded to make choice of a site two miles north of the eentre of the city of Elmira, being por- tions of the farms of L. G. Bancroft and James and George S. McCann, and reported their action to the Legis- lature, which approved the selection March 28, 1870 (chap- ter 108), and authorized the commissioners to purchase the same. The purchase was made for $34,731, Bancroft receiving $5625, James McCann $12,056, and George McCann $17,050. In 1871 an act was passed (chapter 715) authorizing the purchase of additional lands, and the same was made of Bancroft for $1927, and George McCann $1394, making a total of $38,052 for about 280 acres. In 1870, by the act approving the first purchase of lands, five building commissioners were appointed, to wit : C. C. B. Walker, of Corning; S. T. Arnot and F. H. Atkinson, of Elmira ; A. H. Miller, of Owego ; and Amos Pilsbury, of Albany. The last-named gentleman, however, resigned, and Joseph Warren, of Buffalo, was appointed to fill the vacancy.
These commissioners proceeded to proeure plans for the proposed building,-those of William L. Woollett, of Al- bany, being adopted. Mr. Woollett was appointed principal architect, and A. J. Warner, of Rochester, who was one of the unsuccessful competitors on plans, supervising archi- tect. The reservoir was also built about half a mile from the building, on lands of the institution, and at an eleva- tion of 90 or more feet above it. The dam of the res- ervoir was thrown across the ravine, and is 140 feet wide at its base, 13 feet wide at top, and 630 feet in length on
the top. The water overflows about five aercs, and the ca- pacity of the reservoir is 13,000,000 gallons, and is calcu- lated to hold a year's supply. It cost $34,165.74. The original plan of the building was for one principal or east front, 508 feet 8 inches long, with north and south wings, 241 fect 8 inches each, with a warden's or superintendent's residence in advance of the principal building, 70 feet 8 inches by 80 feet 8 inches, to eonsist of a sub-cellar, base- ment, principal, sceond, and attie stories. The dimensions of the building are unchanged ; but the roof, which was to have been a Mansard, has been changed to a different and less costly style. The original plans ealled for a stone build- ing, for which briek has been substituted above the basement line. The expenditures for the first year amounted to $136,895.10. The appropriations for 1870 and 1871 were $275,000.
In 1872 the building commissioners were increased to nine, and an appropriation of $200,000 was made. In 1873 no appropriation was made; but instead thereof an investigation was ordered of the action of the former com- missioners, the committee being General H. S. Diven, S. D. Hodgman, H. Pritchard, and C. S. Decker, who re- ported that notwithstanding ecrtain extravagant expendi- turcs of the commissioners, the building could be eoni- pleted in two years within the original estimates.
The commissioners of 1872 were William Dundas, Frank H. Atkinson, Samuel C. Taber, John Davis Baldwin, and Stephen T. Arnot, of Elmira; C. C. B. Walker, of Corning, Charles D. Champlin, of Urbana ; Ezra S. Buckbce and Abram H. Miller, of Owego. J. Davis Baldwin was Chairman ; S. C. Taber, Secretary ; William Dundas, Treas- urer. In 1874 the appropriations amounted to $300,000, and the Governor was authorized to appoint a superintend- ing builder to take charge of the construction of the build- ing. In 1875 another appropriation was made and drawn for the work, amounting to $100,000, making the appro- priations, up to 1876, $875,000.
In 1876 the Legislature appointed Louis D. Pilsbury, of Albany ; Sinclair Tousey, of New York ; Wm. C. Wey, of Elmira ; Rufus H. King, of Elmira ; and Judge Ariel S. Thurston, of Elmira, a board of managers for the Reforma- tory, and by the act (chapter 207) gave them general eharge and superintendence of the institution, and charged them to conduct the same on non-partisan principles. They were to have no compensation for their services, but were to have their reasonable traveling and official expenses paid, and were to hold to their office as follows : Pilsbury five years, Tousey four years, Wey three years, King two years, and Thurston one year from the passage of the act ; their suc- cessors to hold five years. Judge Thurston was appointed his own successor. The board was to appoint a general superintendent, and in May, 1876, Z. R. Brockway, of De- troit, was appointed to the position, which he at present most worthily fills.
Since the present management took charge of the Reformatory the appropriations have been as follows : 1876, 8160,000; 1877, $185,000; 1878, $50,000 ; total, $395,000. Of this amount the sum of $30,000 was ex- pended in 1876 for maintenance and salaries, and an ap- propriation of $50,000 was made for the same purpose in
# Deceased in June, 1878.
İ
220
IHISTORY OF TIOGA, CHEMUNG, TOMPKINS,
1877, leaving the amount received for construction to be $365,000 .* The report of the managers of 1877 shows the board organized for business on May 9, 1876, by choosing Manager Pilsbury chairman, and Manager Thurston secre- tary and treasurer, which positions they still retain. At this time the principal building and south wing only were ereeted, two blocks of cells and a small part of the outside wall of the north wing was in progress of construction. The south wing was unfinished, and there were no inclosure walls, no outside doors, no facilities or furnishings for sub- sisting prisoners or guards. Making temporary provision for the safe-keeping of conviets, requisitions were made on the State prisons at Auburn and Sing Sing for the same, for the purpose of completing the building as soon as the con- tract work was done, which was completed in July, 1876. 194 convicts, including 10 sentenced direct from the courts, were received the first year, who rendered, up to January, 1877, 13,000 days of labor on the buildings and grounds, and in the domestie work of the establishment, thus re- ducing the cost of the work very materially. At the date last named 312 cells were ready, the south wing, central building, and officers' quarters were finished and in use, the foundation for the inclosure wall was complete, and a brick wall 20 feet high, 20 inches thick, supported with strong pilasters every 12 feet, with suitable sentinel towers and gateways, all coped with six-inch stone coping, was built around the inner inclosure of 625 by 575 feet. A work- shop 50 by 200 feet, of two stories of 14 feet each, was also built, with an engine and boiler-room to the rear, 25 by 40 feet. Suitable buildings for gas- works, and a kitchen and laundry building 50 by 125 feet, with a vegetable cellar 8 feet deep underneath the whole building, was well under way. The north wing was ready for the roof, and 70 acres of the farm were prepared for the spring sowing. Up to this date (Jan. 10, 1877), the managers had drawn and expended of the appropriation of $160,000 the sum of $125,949.48; the balance, $34,050.52, being exhausted between that date and that of the appropriation of 1877. Sinee then the north wing, the inelosure walls, and the barns and outhouses have been completed, and much grading done; the Reformatory now being in sueeessful operation, with eell accommodations for 504 convicts.
Brush- and harness-making are now carried on sueccss- fully, and all of the iron-work of the north wing has been made in the shop, except the castings. A foundry for small castings and hollow ware is about to be erected, and another shop of the same size as the first one also, both shops to be operated by the present powerful and beautiful engine now driving the machinery of the present works. The culinary department is well managed, as is also the laundry, now lately established. It is expected that the present appropriation of 1878, $50,000, will complete every- thing, and place the Reformatory upon the self-supporting basis, by the industries within its walls and on its lands. The number of convicts, July 3, 1878, was 221.
The situation of the buildings is an eligible one, being on an elevation above the general level of the valley of some 70 feet. From the parlors of the superintendent's dwelling a
fine view of the valley and surrounding hills, with the eity in the distance, is obtained; lending a charm to the sur- roundings that is most agreeable.
The managers, with their report in 1877, submitted a bill embodying their views for the regulation of the eonviets under their charge, and the manner of their sentence thereto, which became a law, substantially as reported by them, on April 27, 1877. The act of 1876 provided that the Reformatory should receive all male criminals between the ages of sixteen and thirty years of age, not known to have been previously sentenced to a State's prison on con- viction for a felony. The discipline was to be reformatory, and the managers were given discretionary powers to use such means for the aeeomplishment of the ends of the insti- tution as they might deem expedient. The courts were to sentenee such criminals as the Reformatory was authorized to receive to the Reformatory, instead of to the State's prisons; and convicts were to be transferred from the prisons to complete the work on the buildings when re- quired by the managers.
The act of 1877 authorized the managers to terminate the term of sentence of any convict sentenced thereto by the courts ; the latter sentencing to the Reformatory simply, but not fixing a limit to the sentence as regards the duration thereof. The clerk of the court wherein the convict is tried and sentenced forwards with the convict a full record of the trial, names and residences of the judges, jurors, and witnesses in the ease, copy of the testimony, etc., for the inspection of the managers. An officer of the Re- formatory conveys the convict to the same, in lieu of a sheriff. Paroles may be granted to sueh of the convicts as the managers may deem worthy to receive such an exhibi- tion of confidence to go outside of the walls of the Re- formatory for such time as the managers may deem judicious. The managers are to keep such control over the prisoners as shall prevent them from committing crime, best secure their self-support, and accomplish their reformation. When any prisoner shall be received into the Reformatory upon direct sentcnee thereto, they shall cause to be entered in their register the date of such admission, the name, age, nativity, and nationality, with such other facts as ean be aseertained of parentage, of early social influences, as seem to indicate the constitutional and acquired defects and tendeneies of the prisoner, and, based upon these, an estimate of the then present condition of the prisoner, and the best probable plan of treatment. Upon sueh register shall be entered quarterly or oftener minutes of observed improvement or deterioration of character, with notes as to methods of treatment employed ; also all orders or alterations affecting the standing or situation of such prisoner, the circumstances of the final release, and any subsequent facts of the per- sonal history which may be brought to the knowledge of the board of managers. A system of markings for credits and discredits (known as the Irish system) is to be kept in operation ; the eredits being gained for good personal de- meanor, diligence in labor and study, and accomplished results ; the discredits following derelictions, negligenees, and offenses. An abstraet showing the status of each pris- oner in the matters before specified is to be filed semi- annually with the Secretary of State, and the prisoner is to
# A portion of the appropriation for 1878 is for maintenance.
221
AND SCHUYLER COUNTIES, NEW YORK.
know his standing from month to month, or oftener, if he desires. " When it appears to the managers that there is a strong or reasonable probability that any prisoner will live or remain at liberty without violating law, and that his release is not incompatible with the welfare of society, then they shall issue to such prisoner an absolute release from imprisonment, and shall certify the fact to the Governor and the grounds thereof, and the Governor may, at his discretion, restore the prisoner to citizenship. But no petition or ap- plication for such release shall be entertained by the mana- gers." The Governor, however, may exercise the executive clemency and pardon offenders, as in other instances.
From the directions and requirements of the law, it will be readily seen that the methods of treatment of convicts in vogue in the Reformatory are not founded on the old dogma of total depravity, but, on the contrary, on that higher con- eeption of human nature which holds that deep in every human heart lies a chord that will vibrate to kindness, and beat responsive to acts put forth by others for the good and reformation of the possessor of that heart. Hence the practical workings of the institution all tend to the uplifting of the beginner in crime, to arrest his downward march, and to give him an impetus in the opposite direction. Its system of gradation and markings places the convict upon his good behavior, and draws out what of manhood he has, be it much or little, and makes the most of it. As he looks upon his record from day to day, and sees its accumulating deposit of credits, he is nerved to more assiduity, or, being warned by the counter-drafts of discredits, he is awakened to greater vigilance and more determined effort, and firmer resolves to be worthy of the trust reposed in him. To all, the pleasing prospect of regained liberty and restored re- spectability, like a clear-burning Pharos in a dark, tempes- tuous night, is a leader and guide to safety and happiness.
Already have three young men received their first parole of six months, and so far have not abused the trust and confidence reposed in them, but have gone to work, and made their first report July 1, 1878. The superintendent, by means of the postal and telegraph facilities of the land, is Argus-eyed, and has them within his reach ; and if per- chance they shall stumble and fall again into error before their parole expires, he can bring them back again into the Reformatory for further discipline. A full release at the end of six months awaits the faithful " ticket.of-leave" man, and the Governor's pardon restores him to honorable citizen- ship.
Thus every motive of self-interest, of right-doing, of liberty, of respectability, is enlisted to bring up the man from the slough of despond into which he has fallen, and out of the quagmire of vice into which he has wandered, and set his feet on the solid ground of virtue and morality, of hope and confidence, and with his eyes fixed steadily on the heights of manhood he can attain thereto if he will, and be safe.
Much of the success already attained is due to the efforts of Mr. Brockway, the efficient superintendent, to whom the board of managers most cheerfully and heartily award the praise and credit. He is by nature and education admirably fitted for the work he has in hand, and under his guidance it is rapidly progressing to a well-demonstrated
success. When one visits the institution and witnesses the workings of it, and listens to the explanation of the system, and the recital of individual experiences therein by the superintendent, it is easy to accord to him the office of one who is " taking the blind (morally) by a way they know not; leading them in paths they have not known, and making darkness light before them and crooked things straight."
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
POLITICAL HISTORY.
Political Divisions of the People-Presidential Preferences and Gubernatorial Gatherings - Popular Questions - Constitutional Amendments-Free Schools and a Pure Judiciary-Anti-Slavery Agitation, and what came of it.
POLITICAL DIVISIONS.
THE division of the people of Chemung on political issues since the organization of the county is best shown by the way they cast their ballots for candidates for Presi- dential electors and Governor.
The first election was in 1836, when the Presidential elec- tors resulted as follows :
Dem.
Whig.
Total.
Big Flats.
126
45
171
Catharine
157
235
392
Catlin
92
36
128
Cayuta ..
100
11
111
Chemung
187
69
256
Dix ...
169
91
260
Elinira
422
283
705
Erin .....
120
3
123
Southport.
175
91
266
Veteran
184
136
320
1732
1000
2732
Subsequent elections have resulted as follows.
Dem.
Whig. Abolit'n.
Temp.
Total.
1838 .- Governor
2064
1835
...
...
3449
1840 .- President.
2296
1698
9
4003
1842 .- Governor
2304
1534
35
.....
3873
1844 .- President.
2592
1791
106
.....
4489
1846 .- Governor.
2014
1666
.....
3781
1848 .- President
2165₴
1943
...
.....
4836
1850 .- Governor.
2611
1976
...
4587
1852 .- President
3189
2326
339
.....
5854
1854 .- Governor.
1467
1613
1067
98
4245
1856 .- President
1789
2664
766
5219
1858 .- Governor.
2533
2369
29
148
5079
1860 .- President.
2476
2949
...
...
...
...
...
7417
1870 .- Governor.
4082
3502
178
7762
1872 .- Presidentt
3728
4350+
....
...
SOS4
1874 .- Governor
4226
3453
2472
7936
1876 .- President.
5228
4732
36
9990
The election in 1876, by towns, was as follows :
Dem.
Rep.
Scattering.
Total.
Ashland
142
114
1
257
Baldwin
129
127
...
256
Big Flats
254
252
...
506
Catliu
181
196
...
377
Chemung.
259
247
506
Erin
136
261
1
398
Elmira Township.
180
198
1
379
# Van Buren. Cass, 728.
t Greeley.
+ O'Conor, 6.
¿ Clark.
5425
1862 .- Governor
2631
2589
5220
1864 .- President.
3109
3292
6401
1866 .- Governor
3382
3467
6849
1868 .- President
3708
3709
Amer.
Rep.
Abolit'n.
Amer.
.....
..
222
HISTORY OF TIOGA, CHEMUNG, TOMPKINS,
Dem.
Rep.
Scattering. Total.
Elmira City, 1st Ward 259 )
182 )
2 )
403
2
3d
385
311
2
4th
338 2125
464 -2290
8 /18
4433
=
5th
349
381
1
66 6th
394
317
3
166
232 |
405
472
...
877
Southport
347
525
5
877
Veteran
358
269
...
627
Van Etten 214
277
...
494
Popular questions submitted to the people have been dis- posed of as follows :
1845 .- For Constitutional Convention. ..... 2060
Against same ...
88 For abrogatiou of the property qualifieation for office. 1155
Against same
1846 .- For the amended constitution Against samue ..
For equal suffrage Against same .. 2082 686
1849 .- For free-school law 2799
Against same, 312
1850 .- For repeal of free-school law. 2315
Against repeal .. .. 2135 1853 .- For proposed amendment relating to canals. 1636
Against amendment.
133
1865 .- For bounty law of State. 4549 Against same 496
1866 .- For Constitutional Couvention Against Conventiou. 3265
3420
1869 .- For constitutional amendments 3250
Agaiust same. 2049
For property qualification for colored voters. Against same.
2357
1870 .- For act to fund eanal debt Against same,
2643
1872 .- For aet relating to general defieieney 426
1922
For amendment respeeting eourt appeals
2940
Against same
53
1873 .- For appointment of Judges of Supreme Court. 1370
Against appointment. 2905
For appointment of County and City Judges 1299
Against appointment. 2171
1874 .- The average majority for 11 constitutional amendments submitted this year was about ....
2600
ANTI-SLAVERY SENTIMENT.
While there was no regularly-organized anti-slavery so- ciety in Chemung County, yet the agitation was none the less marked, and in its beginning excited quite as much opposition as elsewhere. The first movement was begun in 1836, by Rev. John Frost, John Selover, and Dr. Norman Smith, the former and latter being original " dyed-in-the- wool" abolitionists, while Elder Selover began as a coloni- zationist with Gerrit Smith. When the Utica people drove the anti-slavery men and women from their city to Peter- boro', Gerrit Smith was no longer a colonizationist, but a zealous emancipationist, and Elder Selover experienced his change of heart on that subject about that time. In 1837 the Annual Conference of the Methodist Churches of West- ern or Central New York was held at Elmira, and in that Conference was an organized anti-slavery society, composed chiefly of the ministers of that Conference. They desired to hold their annual meeting for the election of officers and the transaction of other business, and applied to the trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church for permission to hold their meeting in it, and were refused. A like application to the other churches met the same refusal. In this strait the ministers applied to Messrs. Selover, Frost, and Smith for aid to get a place to meet in, and they applied to Mr. Davis, the proprietor of the island,-then a beautiful place of resort for all public gatherings,-for permission to meet there, which was readily and cheerfully granted. To this island the ministers and others, to the number of 300 or
400, repaired ; but just before organizing the meeting, a deputation from the village trustees waited on the clergy- men, and in the name of the trustees forbade the gathering, on the plea of creating a disturbance. The jurisdiction of the trustees over the island was nil, and the clergymen re- fused to abandon their meeting. Thereupon another depu- tation of worthy and respectable citizens appeared, and proceeded to read a paper emanating from the trustees of the Presbyterian Church, also forbidding the meeting; but the jurisdiction of the Presbyterian Church over the ministers of the Methodist Conference was of a slighter tenure than that of the trustees of the village over Davis Island, and the second deputation was laughed at for their pains. The fathers of the village and of the church fail- ing in their mission, a less respectable and more noisy rab- ble-" fellows of a baser sort"-took up the task of dis- persing the abolitionists, and with tin horns and pans, and rattles, and implements of rowdyism and riot, they so deaf- ened the atmosphere that the words of the speakers could not be heard by the audience, and the meeting was broken up and left the island.
Application was then made to Mr. T. S. Day for permis- sion to meet on his farm at the foot of what is now Waslı- ington Street, in Elmira City, which being granted, the meeting assembled, some 200 strong, about half being the ministers of the Conference and strangers in the village, and the exercises were peaceably conducted. This was the only anti-slavery meeting seriously disturbed by a mob in Elmira. Rev. Mr. Frost was the marshal who conducted the proces- sion to Davis Island, and for his anti-slavery sentiments, which he would preach at every opportunity, he was finally forced to withdraw from the pastorate of the Pres- byterian Church, to make way for one whose political senti- ments were more in harmony with those of the financial pillars of the church. Subsequently, discussions were held by Mr. Selover and S. G. Andrews with certain attorneys, and a brother-in-law of the Presbyterian pastor, one Wool- sey Hopkins, on the ends and aims of the Colonization Society, the latter gentleman taking the affirmative side of the question, upholding the society as the true ameliorator of the slave, and the former the negative, showing the society to be an aider and abettor of slavery, and that emancipation was the only true amelioration of the slave. Dr. Tracy Beadle, John W. Wisner, and Simeon L. Rood were the chosen umpires of the disputation, and decided that the negative had the best of the argument. Six months later the discussion was repeated, with the same result substantially.
From the time when Elmira refused a hearing to the abolitionists, in 1837, the sentiments it sought to repress grew, slowly for a time, but steadily and surely, until it divided and broke into the ranks of the great parties, and swept over the country like a rising, irresistible flood, in 1856, and the party founded on the principle of emancipa- tion at that time have held sway at every Presidential elec- tion since.
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