USA > Ohio > Franklin County > Columbus > Columbus, Ohio: its history, resources, and progress : with numerous illustrations > Part 31
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The new prison building was built of brick, one hundred and fifty feet long and thirty-four wide. It was two stories high, with the east gable-end to the street, and formed a connected line with the old building. The dining-room and kitchen were on the lower floor, and two adjoining rooms on the second floor for a hospital. Above ground there were fifty-four cells or lodging-rooms, and below ground five dark and solitary cells, accessible only through a trap-door in the hall.
The cells in the first or old building were taken out, and the structure remodeled into a residence for the keeper. This change was made under the superintendence of Judge Jarvis Pike, act- ing by direction of the state officers-Ralph Osborn, auditor; Hiram M. Curry, treasurer, and Jeremiah McLene, secretary of state.
It was in 1815 that the first penitentiary building was com-
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pleted. The first act for the government of the penitentiary and the confinement of convicts therein took effect in August of that year, having been passed the preceding January. Under this act the legislature on joint ballot chose five inspectors, whose duty it was to appoint a keeper or warden, and prescribe rules for the government of the prison. The inspectors appointed James Kooken, keeper, who entered upon his office on the first day of August, 1815, and appointed Colonel Griffith Thomas, clerk.
An act passed in January, 1819, created the office of state agent, and provided for the election of both keeper and agent for three years by the legislature. Pursuant to this law, Kooken was re-elected keeper, and Thomas agent. The keeper's duties remained the same as before, except the requirement that he should pass all manufactured articles to the agent, who was re- quired to keep them in a store-house contiguous to the prison, make sales, collect outstanding debts, and pay over all his cash receipts to the state treasurer.
During the administration of Kooken, especially in the early part of it, there were but few convicts in the prison, and of course few guards were needed. Besides, the keeper was kind- hearted and lenient, when leniency could be shown without a breach of official duty. There being at times but little work for the prisoners, they were allowed to amuse themselves in various ways. One was to play ball against the west end of the north wing of the building. They had a dog in the yard so trained that when the ball fell over the wall, he would go to the main door of the front building, summon the guard, pass out, get the ball, and return it to the prisoners.
The office of state agent was abolished in February, 1822, and the legislature elected Barzillai Wright keeper, in place of Kooken. Wright died in the summer of 1823, and Governor Morrow appointed Nathaniel McLean to fill the vacancy. Mc- Lean was continued in office by the legislature until the spring of 1830, when he was succeeded by Byram Leonard, of Knox county. Leonard was succeeded, in the spring of 1832, by W. W. Gault, of Newark, who continued in office until the convicts were removed to the present penitentiary, in the fall of 1834.
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The successive clerks, after the office of agent was abolished, in 1822, and until the removal, were Cyrus Fay, Henry Matthews, George Whitmore, W. T. Martin, Nelson Talmage, Timothy Griffith, and Uriah Lathrop.
Blacksmithing, wagon-making, coopering, shoemaking, gun- smithing, cabinet-making, tailoring, and weaving were the prin- cipal trades carried on in the old penitentiary. The manu- factured articles were sold or exchanged for provisions or raw materials. The clerk had charge of the store and books.
There were about every year more or less escapes from the old prison, though but one daring outbreak is recorded. It was in the year 1830 that about a dozen prisoners secreted them- selves in a vacant cell near the outer door of the prison. When the turnkey, Arthur O'Harra, came to unlock the door, a bold fellow, Smith Maythe, who headed the gang, springing suddenly forward, caught O'Harra round the body and held him in his grip while the other conspirators rushed out. Loosing O'Harra, Maythe bounded forward and placed himself at the head of the escaping convicts. They passed by the mound and fled to the woods in a southeast direction. They were finally all taken up and returned to the prison. Maythe, after his release from the penitentiary, for robbery and attempted murder in Ken- tucky, was hung by a mob without judge or jury,
The year succeeding the removal of the prisoners to the new penitentiary, the walls of the old prison-yard were sold by the state officers and torn down. The main prison building, erected in 1818, remained two or three years longer. Then it was also removed, leaving the original building, erected in 1813, and the brick store-house, built by Wright in 1823, still standing. They were used by the quartermaster-general-one as a place for the deposit of the public arms, and the other as a workshop for the cleaning and repair of the same. Thus the two buildings were turned into a kind of state armory or arsenal. Such they re- mained until 1855, when both buildings were taken down and the materials sold or used about the new State-house.
During the existence of the old prison, it was customary to take the convicts out to work in different parts of the town, sometimes with, but often without a guard. While Mr. Gault
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was keeper, a convict named Scott (a printer) was allowed to seek employment at his trade outside the prison, and retain a portion of his earnings for his own use. One Sunday, pretend- ing that he was wanted at the printing-office, he obtained per- mission for himself and another prisoner to go there. But in- stead of going to the printing-office, Scott and his friend " waited," as they termed it, " on the groceries, and had a glorious spree." As the truants did not come back in due time, a guard was sent after them. They were found, using persistent en- deavors to reach the prison, but so drunk that their progress was snail-like.
At one time, Scott worked in the Hemisphere printing-office, located in the upper part of the building afterward occupied by the Clinton Bank. Meeting Governor Lucas on the street, Scott, having imbibed a bountiful supply of whisky, insisted with rather too much pertinacity upon a pardon from the governor. The latter complained to the keeper, Mr. Gault, and Scott's pedestrian exercises were afterward circumscribed by the walls of the prison.
It may be here mentioned that when work was begun upon the new or present penitentiary, such convicts whose time was not likely to expire before the building was finished, were promised a pardon in case they were taken out to labor upon the new structure, and were faithful, and made no attempt to escape. Those who made that promise were employed accord- ingly, and in no instance was there a violation of the condition.
THE OLD PENITENTIARY LOT .- After the removal of the prisoners from the old penitentiary, in 1834, a question arose as to the ownership of the ten-acre lot set apart for its location. On the one hand, it was said that the lot reverted to the original proprietors of the town or their heirs; and on the other, it was contended that the title to the ten acres still remained in the State by virtue of the original grant. The legislature twice re- ferred the question to committees composed of members of the legal profession. A majority of each committee reported in favor of the State's title, An act was passed March 17, 1838, authorizing the governor to cause the tract to be laid off in city
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lots, which were to be appraised and sold. It was laid off ac- cordingly, but no sales were made.
In March, 1847, Elijah Backus, an attorney of Columbus, brought suit, in the name of Gustavus Swan and M. J. Gilbert, against R. N. Slocum, quartermaster-general, occupying the buildings, for the recovery of the old penitentiary tract. It seems that the plaintiffs' claim was founded upon a quitclaim obtained some years before from the heirs of Kerr, Mclaughlin, and Johnston. The case was continued from time to time, until June, 1851, when judgment was rendered against the defend- ant by default. This was, in effect, a judgment against the State. The plaintiffs were put in possession by the sheriff in September following. Mr. Backus then, as the attorney or agent of the plaintiffs, or on his own behalf, as was said, rented to the State the buildings it had supposed to be its own. Besides, the hill included within the area of the tract being composed of sand and gravel, which commanded a ready sale, Mr. Backus realized a thousand dollars or more from that source.
In the meantime, there were men watching these operations who were determined that an attempt should be made to regain for the State what had been lost by default or neglect. Accord- ingly, in March, 1852, George E. Pugh, attorney-general, brought suit for the recovery of the land, in the name of the State, against S. W. Andrews, quartermaster-general, in posses- sion under a lease from Backus or his clients. In November, the same year, the Court of Common Pleas of Franklin county rendered judgment in the case against the State. An appeal was taken to the District Court by George W. McCook, attorney- general, and on the 21st of September, 1854, the State obtained a judgment, and on the 19th of January following, the secre- tary of state, as the representative of Ohio, was, by Thomas Miller, sheriff of Franklin county, formally put in possession of the disputed territory. The legislature, in March, 1856, vacated the plat of the ground made under the act of March 17, 1838, except as to Mound street, and directed the governor to cause the land to be again laid off into lots, and to be appraised and sold. At the next session, an appropriation of one thousand
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dollars was made, out of the proceeds from the sale of these lots, on her petition, to the widow of Alexander McLaughlin, one of the original proprietors of Columbus.
CHOLERA IN THE PENITENTIARY .- Soon after the breaking out of the cholera in Columbus in the summer of 1833, it made its appearance in the Ohio penitentiary, then located on the old penitentiary lot. It invaded the prison in the form of a fatal epidemic on the 17th of July. The number of convicts incar- cerated at that time was three hundred and three, and few es- caped an attack of illness more or less severe. Business of every kind was almost wholly suspended. About one hundred were confined to the hospital ; forty cases were pronounced gen- uine cholera, and eleven prisoners died of that disease.
At no period since its organization, in 1815, has the Ohio pen- itentiary been so scourged by an epidemic as by the cholera in 1849. Notwithstanding every precaution, more than one-fourth of the inmates became its victims. At the time it entered the prison as an angel of death, it was spreading its desolating wing over the city of Columbus and several small communities within a radius of ten or twelve miles from the city.
The cholera had prevailed in the city eight or ten days when it broke out in the prison. The first cases occurred on the 30th of June. In the morning of that day there were two cases, both of which proved fatal. Dr. H. Lathrop, the regular prison physician, being absent that morning, Dr. William Trevitt was called in. The latter continued to assist Dr. Lathrop, who re- turned in the afternoon of the 30th, until the death of Dr. L., when Dr. Trevitt was appointed to succeed him as prison phy- sician. Dr. Lathrop was attacked July 3, when the number of new cases occurring daily was from fifty to sixty. Having par- tially recovered, he returned to his post on the 6th of July, con- trary to the advice, and even remonstrance, of his friends.
On that day there were three deaths; five on the 7th, and eight on the day following. The disease had now prevailed nine days, and out of four hundred and thirteen prisoners three hundred and ninety-six had been prescribed for by the phy- sicians for cholera in some of its stages. Twenty-one had died.
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On the 9th of July twelve more deaths. The prospect now became frightful in the extreme. The directors sought addi- tional medical skill. They called to the aid of Drs. Lathrop and Trevitt other eminent medical practitioners in the city, as Drs. B. F. Gard, Robert Thompson, J. B. Thompson, J. Mor- rison, and Norman Gay. Several medical students and citizens were also engaged as attendants and nurses.
At this crisis the panic among the prisoners was distressing. Labor was entirely suspended in the workshops and on the State-house. The hospital was crowded to overflowing with the sick, the dying, and the ghastly corpses of the recent dead. The abandoned workshops were at once turned into hospitals, divided into wards, and physicians and nurses assigned to each. Many of the guards, panic-stricken, fled when their assistance was most needed, and their places had to be filled, difficult as it was.
From the necessity of the case, the strict discipline of the prison was relaxed. The prisoners were allowed almost unre- strained intercourse. Some exhibited manly heroism or stoical indifference, while others displayed the most timid, nervous, and striking agitation. The impulse to flee was checked by frowning prison walls, while sore distress and death reigned on every hand. To pass through the prison-yard at this time was a severe trial of heart and nerve. It was impossible, without emotions deep and painful, to meet the eager throng that crowded about one at every step, and hear the exclamations : " In the name of God, sir, can not we have our pardons !" "Will not the gov- ernor come and have mercy on us?" "Must we be kept here to die ?" "For the love of Jesus, speak to the governor in our behalf!" "I plead for my liberty, for my life !"
Many of the prisoners entreated earnestly, importunately, not to be locked up in their cells, promising the best behavior in re- turn for such indulgence. The warden persuaded that a relax- ation of discipline would be beneficial, determined to try the ex- periment of leaving the prisoners out of their cells. Many feared that unpleasant consequences would result from this course, and predicted insubordination, mutiny, and revolt. But these fears were not realized. The prisoners seemed to be deeply
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grateful for the forbearance shown them, and the interest taken in their welfare. They rendered very efficient aid when help was so much needed, and, in many cases, were bold and un- flinching in administering to the relief of the sick.
For sixteen days and nights, no key was turned upon a pris- oner. Yet during all that time, perfect order and due subordi- nation prevailed. These sixteen days and nights marked out in the prison a "reign of terror " in reality.
Many of the convicts were pardoned by the governor. But it was soon found that the prisoners were safer within than outside the walls. Their presence created a panic, and people shunned a pardoned convict as a walking pestilence. If at- tacked by cholera, he was almost sure to perish for want of care.
It was on the 10th of July that the cholera reached its cul- minating point in the prison. The mortality was greater than on any other day. The number of deaths was twenty-two. On that day, too, after exhausting professional service, Drs. Lathrop and Gard returned to their homes, and were never more seen at the penitentiary. Both were attacked by the fell disease, against whose ravages they had fought long and well. Neither of them left his room afterward. Dr. Lathrop's was the second attack, and he died the next day, the 11th. Dr. Gard died on the fol- lowing Monday, the 15th. These two brave men fell, univers- ally lamented, martyrs to their professional zeal and large- hearted humanity.
On the 11th, Dr. G. W. Maris took the place of Dr. Gard at the prison. From the 10th of July, there was a gradual subsi- dence of the mortality in the prison. On the 11th, the deaths were sixteen, on the next day twelve, on the 13th seven, and six on each of the two following days. After that the deaths were never more than three on any one day, and generally but one, until July 30, when the last death from cholera occurred. This last victim expired just one month after the first two were at- tacked.
At the breaking out of the pestilence in the penitentiary, the prisoners numbered four hundred and thirteen. One hundred and sixteen died from cholera, and five from other diseases. By
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deaths and pardons, the number of prisoners was reduced to two hundred and seventy-three.
When, upon the subsidence of the sickness, the usual prison discipline was resumed, the prisoners returned in good order to their cells, and to their ordinary course of life in the prison, without resistance or complaint.
It is a remarkable fact that not a death occurred in the peni- tentiary from the 8th of August, 1849, until the 30th of June, 1850-an exemption from mortality not known in the prison since the removal to the new penitentiary in 1834.
While the cholera prevailed in Columbus, in 1850, there was sickness in the penitentiary, but no deaths until June 30. Be- tween August 30 and November 29, twenty-two deaths occurred from an aggravated form of dysentery and other diseases, but none of them were by the regular physician attributed to cholera.
THE STATE QUARRY .- By an act of the legislature passed March 12, 1845, it was made the duty of the directors and warden of the penitentiary to procure by purchase, or otherwise, a lime- stone-quarry for obtaining, in an economical manner, suitable stone for the public buildings and other public works of the State, and to construct a railroad from the penitentiary to such quarry. On the 11th of April ensuing, the directors and warden closed a contract accordingly, and received from William S. Sullivant a deed conveying to the State in fee simple fifty acres of land, two and one-half miles west of the penitentiary, including two stone- quarries and the land between them ; also, his interest in a large island opposite the penitentiary, and the right of way through any part of his land to the quarry or quarries, for the sum of fifteen thousand dollars, payable one-half in one year and the other half in two years, with interest from January 1, 1846. This stone-quarry tract is situated on the right bank of the Scioto river. When purchased by the State, it was covered with a fine grove of timber. The Columbus and Xenia railroad passed over its southern portion, and a county road leading to the city crossed it near the river.
Soon after the purchase, the directors and warden contracted with the Columbus and Xenia Railroad Company to construct a bridge across the Scioto river of sufficient width to admit of two
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railroad tracks, one of which should belong to the State, and the other to the company, each party paying one-half the expense.
The state quarry, in a special report of the directors of the penitentiary, dated January 14, 1847, is stated to contain fifty- five acres of continuous limestone rock, lying in strata from five inches to five feet thick, possessing considerable variety and affording the finest building-stone in the western country. The rock is described as "of secondary formation, composed almost entirely of marine productions, of different forms and colors, giving to the polished block an appearance like clouded marble."
The railroad from the penitentiary to the quarry, including turn-outs, was reported as completed September 1, 1847. It was three miles in length, and cost $19,451.84.
THE PRESENT PENITENTIARY.
An act for the erection of a new penitentiary was passed by the legislature February 8, 1832. It provided for the election or appointment by the general assembly of three directors, at a salary of one hundred dollars each per year, to select and pur- chase a site ; to control the erection of the buildings, and appoint a superintendent at a salary not exceeding a thousand dollars a year, to plan and superintend the work of building. Directly on the passage of this act, the legislature appointed as directors under it Joseph Olds, of Circleville; Samuel McCracken, of Lancaster, and Charles Anthony, of Springfield.
FIRST REPORT .- On the 7th of December, 1832, the speaker of the Senate laid before that body the first report of the directors of the new penitentiary.
The directors say in this report that, after having spent much time in the critical examination of the several sites proposed, and having carefully considered their several advantages, in connection with the very liberal donations offered, they had unanimously come to the conclusion that the permanent interest of the State required the selection of the site on the east bank of the Scioto river and north of Columbus. There was, it ap- pears, some difficulty about obtaining a title to the site selected ; but the directors, during the preceding summer, had made an
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agreement with five public-spirited citizens of Columbus-Jo- seph Ridgway, Joseph Ridgway, Jr., Otis Crosby, Samuel Crosby, and D. W. Deshler-who undertook, in consideration of $750 cash, and a transfer to them of the subscriptions for procuring a site, amounting to $1,170, to procure and guarantee to the State a perfect title. They afterward succeeded in obtaining, for about $2,000, a conveyance to them from all the proprietors of the land, being fifteen acres, and on the 17th of October, 1832, executed to the State a warranty deed for the same. The di- rectors, also, for the purpose of securing a good landing on the bank of the river, purchased a small strip adjoining of John Brickell for fifty dollars. The whole site, therefore, cost the State eight hundred dollars.
The directors, in May, 1832, appointed Nathaniel Medberry, of Columbus, superintendent of the new penitentiary, at a salary of one thousand dollars a year. Contracts were forthwith made for stone and brick for the building. The contract price for the stone and lime, the stone to be measured in the wall, was $1.48 per perch. The contract price for the brick was $2.40 per thou- sand, the contractors having the labor of such a number of con- victs as they might choose to employ, not exceeding thirty-six, to be guarded at their expense. Considerable progress had been made in preparing the brick and stone.
The directors submitted the plan of the new prison projected by the superintendent. The front building was to be four hun- dred feet long, and to contain, when completed, seven hundred cells, with the keeper's dwelling and the guard-room in the center. The walls of the prison would also be four hundred feet long and twenty-four feet high. The estimate of the cost of the whole, for seven hundred convicts, including their labor, was $78,428.51, and excluding their labor, $58,744.61.
THE NEW PRISON .- The work on the new building was com- menced in earnest in March, 1833. In the early part of the sea- son there were employed upon it from fifty to eighty convicts. The work was suspended in the summer of 1833, on account of the prevalence of the cholera among the prisoners. It was, how- ever, resumed in the latter part of the season, when about one hundred convicts were kept at work.
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The building was so far completed that the directors, on the 27th of October, 1834, appointed Nathaniel Medberry the first warden of the new penitentiary. On the two succeeding days, the convicts were removed from the old to the new prison. The directors, on the 5th of March, 1835, appointed Isaac Cool, dep- uty warden; H. Z. Mills, clerk; Rev. Russell Bigelow, chaplain, and M. B. Wright, physician.
The new prison was now in full operation under a new law, new officers, new rules, and regulations. The old system of barter was abandoned, and, instead of the manufacture of arti- cles for sale by the State, the convicts were hired by the day to contractors or large manufacturers, who worked them in prison- shops, as at present. At first, rules of great severity were adopted and rigidly enforced in the government of the prison. But these of late years have given way to more humane and kind treatment. The odious "lock-step " was first abandoned, then the "shower-bath" and the use of the " cat" were laid aside, and solitary confinement substituted. The convicts are afforded regular religious, moral, and literary instruction, and continued good conduet shortens the term of imprisonment.
During the year 1837, there was constructed within the prison- grounds, at the cast end of the main building, a separate apart- ment for female convicts, containing eleven cells, with capacity for twice that number.
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