USA > Ohio > History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. II > Part 86
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465
HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.
coming and going of the most skilful and desperate criminals of other cities and States. All these facts have combined to necessitate the organization and equipment of large and safe prisons on a basis which, at the least possible net cost to the honest tax-payers of the State, should insure the safe keeping of a large body of prisoners, with a reasonable regard to their , physical and moral welfare.
The prisons of Indiana have been conducted on three different principles. The first, adopted at their inception and above referred to, was suited to the days when but a small number of persons were convicted, or confined, and may be designated as the boarding system. During its continuance the keeping of every prisoner was at the direct cost of the State, without any re- turn and without any sufficient check upon the dishonesty and rapacity of keepers, who could abuse the men committed to their charge by semi-starvation and other measures of "econo- my."
So soon as the number of convictions in the State had so far increased as to warrant the change, prisons were erected at the cost of the people. In these the convicts were confined, building, prisoners and all, leased to private in- dividuals who fed, clothed and maintained the prisoners, and paid a certain gross annual sum in addition for such labor as they could extract from them.
The third system, now in force at Jeffer- sonville, is the one common to nearly all the Northern States, of renting the labor of the convincts to contractors, who pay a certain per diem for each man employed, while the dis- cipline, control, and personal care of the men is in the hand of a warden and other officers repre- senting the State. This is commonly designated as the contract system. One of the chief objec- tions to our boarding system has already been noted; another, scarcely less serious, was the keeping of the men in complete idleness, thus leading to the still greater hardening of confirmed criminals, while it led to the complete eradica- tion of any germs of decency remaining in the younger offenders.
The curse of idleness was removed by the lessee system, but only to give place to abuses so horrible that it is a matter of congratulation that so many States have abandoned it. In Indiana
a warden was appointed by the State for each prison, whose duty it was to see that the contract of the lessee was lived up to, but the con- victs were body and soul in the hands of the contractors, and the warden had little power and too often less inclination to re- strain those whose interest often led them to com- mit the greatest cruelties. The one aim of most of the lessees was to obtain from the convicts un- der their control the greatest possible amount of labor at the least expenditure for maintenance. Men were ill-fed, ill-clothed, punished by the lash with the utmost severity, for trivial derelic- tions, or for a failure to performi in full the daily allotment of labor, often when sickness and in- firmity made it an impossibility to fulfil the re- quirement. The sick and disabled were neg- lected as if the consideration of life weighed lightly in the balance against the few cents daily necessary for their maintenance. The cells and corridors were foul, damp, and unwholesome ; swarms of vermin infested every corner, and thus overwork, cruelty, starvation, filth, the pistol and lash of the guard, all contributed to a wholesale murder of the weak, and to brutalizing the strong beyond the hope of redemption here or hereafter. The horrors of the prison systems before the lessee ceased to be the guardian of convicts were such as to better befit the days of the Spanish Inquisition than the enlightenment of the nine- teenth century.
Against the contract system now in force the principal argument advanced is based upon the competition of prison with free labor. Whatever may be thought of this, it is assuredly true that the convicts in the Indiana State Prison South, were never so well cared for in body and mind, never so orderly and well disciplined, and never so small a draft upon the treasury of the State as now.
The present prison buildings were commenced many years ago, and have been constantly im- proved and enlarged since that time, until they represent an investment of not far from $400,000. Of late the number of convicts have so far ex- ceeded the proper capacity of the prison as to render it impossible to avoid certain objectiona- ble and injurious overcrowding. To give point to this statement and also to illustrate the effect of increased population and the improvement in the machinery of justice upon the prison, the av-
59
466
HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.
erage yearly population of the Southern peniten- tiary since 1822 is extracted from the exceed- ingly careful and valuable table prepared by Warden A. J. Howard, and embodied in his last report :
1822
I
1852. .212
1823.
3
1853
.223
1824.
16
I854. 259
1825.
29 1855. .260
1826.
35
1856. .. 277
1827.
28
1857. .. 304
1828.
27
1858
.. 397
1829.
34
1859 484
1830.
. 27
1860 .. 410
1831.
39
1861 .281
1832.
42
46
1863
.. 214
1834.
44
1864.
245
1835.
43
1865 .. 247
1836.
51
I866 .. 399
1837.
53
1867 .420
1838.
37
I868. .. 387
1839
65
1869.
.393
1840.
74
1870. .. 380
1841.
.100
1871 .. 381
1842.
77
1872.
.. 399
1843.
57
1873 .. 395
18.44.
81
1874.
.388
I845.
91
1875.
.456
1846.
98
1876 531
1847.
122
1877.
.553
1848.
.129
1878
626
1849.
120
1879.
624
1850.
122
1880.
600
1851.
.150
1881.
.524
To provide for the great increase in the com- mitments to the prison, indicated in the forego- ing table, the Legislature made an appropriation of $50,000 for the building of a new cell house. The work was at once undertaken, and the spring of 1882 finds it substantially completed. The building contains cell accommodations for four hundred prisoners, and will quite do away with the unfortunate crowding which has com- pelled more than three hundred inmates of the penitentiary to sleep upon cots closely placed in the corridors of the old cell house. It will readily be seen that no ordinary guard system would be equal to the task of maintaining disci- pline and preventing communication between convicts, the formation of plots, and the foment- ing of discontent among the men, when they are thus crowded together, and, worse still, as every man inhales and throws out in a poisonous condition from three to four hundred cubic feet of air per hour, it is obvious that the death rate of the prison, though now quite low, will be
largely decreased by the change. As an evi- dence of the truth of this statement it may be said that for the year ending October 31, 1880, with an average of six hundred convicts in the prison, there were seven deaths. One of these was from the effects of a wound inflicted by a fellow-convict. Of the remaining six, five died of pulmonary diseases of one or another form. The mere fact of confinement inclines a man to consumption, but the number of deaths from lung troubles in the prison is certainly in an un- natural proportion.
The system of discipline in the Southern prison has passed through every phase from the extreme severity of the earlier years of the cen- tury, keeping pace with the public sentiment of the day until the administration of corporeal pun- ishment has been reduced, under the adminis- tration of Captain Howard, to the minimum consistent with the maintenance of any degree of discipline. Captain Howard may be said to represent the advanced practical school in his effort to secure at once obedience, order, and humanity in the prison. He has no sympathy with the brutal and brutalizing system which destroys every remnant of self-respect in the convict by constant and cruel bodily punishment, and almost as little with the sickly sentimentalists who believe that the life of an imprisoned crim- inal should be made a sort of perpetual Sunday- school picnic. His desire is that a change in the prison system may be made which will iso- late the prisoners and render reform as well as punishment possible. Under the congregate system he does not regard the former as to any considerable degree practicable. In his report to the Governor for the year 1880 he gives his views on the subject in these words :
"These men are here mainly because of an un- willingness to conform to the laws of the State. It could not be expected of them that they would render a voluntary submission to the laws of the prison. As it requires the dread of punishment to restrain them outside, and even this has not been sufficient, it follows as a matter of course that to maintain good order, and obedience to the prison laws, there must be maintained a deterrent system of punishments within the insti- tution. Associated together for work, an aver- age of forty to the guard, there is the occasional opportunity to break over the rules without de-
1862. .. 202
1833
467
HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.
tection. This leads to more or less frequent infractions. But for the dread of punishment if apprehended, the whole mass would become a howling mob. It would be sheer nonsense to talk about regulating the conduct of these con- gregated outlaws, simply by kind and generous treatment or by moral influences of whatever kind. If they could have been reached by such influences, the great bulk of them would not be here. The enforcement of the necessary disci- pline under such conditions, is not promotive of the moral reformation of the convicts.
"The conclusion follows, that the congregate prison as here, is not in any considerable degree a reformatory institution. Being neither re- formatory in its effects upon the inmates, nor sufficiently deterrent in its influence upon the criminal classes generally, it fails to accomplish the purposes of its creation, and should be abandoned whenever any better system of penal institutions may be found.
"Any attempt at reformation in the prison sys- tem that does not look to making the institution more deterrent in its character, with increased facilities for the reformation of the convicts, would, in my opinion, be utterly barren of re- sults."
The underlying principle of the system of dis- cipline which has been made so largely to re- place the lash is the time allowance for good be- havior, which secures to the convict maintaining a certain standard, a shortening of the term of imprisonment. The law of Indiana provides for an abatement which renders it possible for a man constantly keeping to this standard to gain time for various sentences, as follows:
In I year 12 days.
In 2 years. 36 days.
In 21% years .. 54 days.
In 3 years ..
92 days.
In 4 years ..
120 days.
In
5 years ..
180 days.
In 6 years .. 252 days.
In 7 years .. 336 days.
In 8 years .. 432 days.
In 9 years .. 540 days.
In IO years .. 660 days.
In II
years .. 790 days.
In 12
years .. 936 days.
In 13
years .. 1092 days.
In 14 years .. 1260 days.
In 15 years .. . 1440 days.
In 16
years. 1602 days.
In 17
years .. . 1836 days.
In 18
years ..
2052 days.
In 19 years. .2280 days.
In 20 years .. 2520 days.
In 21 years. .2772 days.
In addition to this inducement to good be- havior, Captain Howard has made a rule which requires every guard to report daily the conduct of the men under his charge, according to a system of plus and minus marks-the highest plus marks for behavior beyond suspicion; the lowest minus mark for extremely bad deport- ment. These reports are daily recorded and a report for each convict made at the close of every month, and upon this report are based the grading of privileges, as for example for the use of tobacco and corresponding with friends. If the convict fails to reach a certain percentage, his allowance for "good time" is denied, and if he falls to a certain lower range, he loses a pro- portion of the time already credited to him, if any there be. This system has already, in the short time of its enforcement, produced good re- sults, and much is hoped for it. The lash is contemplated as an agent in the prison disci- pline, but it is only used for the punishment of prisoners guilty of the most serious offenses, and its greatest value lies in the effect of its presence as a passive agent for awing such prisoners as are not amenable to more gentle influences.
A new chapel and hospital building have re- cently been completed and the moral and relig- ious instruction of convicts will now be prosecuted with more effect than when facilities for proper teaching were lacking.
An excellently selected library is also a feature of the prison, and its books are eagerly sought and read by the convicts. The hospital facilities and surgical attendance are of the best, as the low death rate in the face of so many disadvan- tages attests.
The food of the prisoners is plain, nourishing, abundant, and well cooked. It is carefully se- lected with a view to its quality and variety, that in dietary, as in other matters, the health of the prisoners may be preserved. That this is done is sufficiently attested by the fact that, while the prisoners largely represent the idle classes and are required to work hard and submit to confine- ment while in the institution, the average increase in weight between commitment and discharge is six and one-half pounds.
Warden Howard is certainly entitled to great credit for his humane, careful, and wise adminis-
-
468
HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.
tration, which has resulted in placing the institu- tion upon so excellent a footing in point of health, discipline, and expense, though so much of his labor has been in the face of so serious obstacles. That his efficiency is appreciated is evident from the fact that though opposed in politics to the present administration of the State, no one has desired to disturb him in his tenure of an office sufficiently important and profitable to be regarded as a very desirable acquisition by the place-hunters.
The Southern prison, since the adoption of the contract system, has in the main represented the average of discipline in institutions of its class. There has, however, been one notable exception, which in itself furnishes one of the strongest arguments in favor of a system which involves some form of hard and nearly constant labor. The panic of 1873 and the great finan- cial stringency which followed, was so disastrous to business men that some of the contractors for the labor of the prison became insolvent, and others, so fast as their contracts expired, refused to renew them. Hence the labor of the prison went begging, and, during the year 1876, with a daily average of five hundred and thirty-one prisoners, there was no employment for any, save such as the routine work of the prison afforded. This, with cell accommodation for only about one-half the prisoners, made the temptation to escape and the opportunity for perfecting plans to that end, quite exceptional. This state of affairs soon began to bear fruit in repeated and well organized attempts to escape -attempts so well organized as to leave no doubt in the mind of Captain A. J. Howard, then newly installed as warden, that a constant and systematic communication was being kept up among certain prisoners. The further fact that whenever such an attempt was made, the men engaged were well armed and equipped, pointed beyond a doubt to a conimunication with the outer world as well. Captain Howard resolved, at whatever cost of time and trouble, to make himself master of the situation by solving the mystery. At last, upon searching a convict who was about to go out on the expiration of his sen- tence, a cipher letter was found concealed under his shirt, and this, after infinite pains, the warden succeded in deciphering. Its contents were such as to clearly show that the suspicions of the
prison officers were well founded, and that Bill Rudifer, a professional bank robber and one of the most desperate men in the prison, was at the head of the conspiracy. Rudifer had, previously, in July, 1875, made an effort to escape, which was only frustrated after he had been shot in two places. For this and subsequent breaches of discipline he was, at the time of the discovery of the letter in question, confined in a cell by himself, securely chained, and, as the prison au- thorities supposed, deprived of all writing ma- terials.
The warden discovered that Rudifer had made the convict boy who carried water to the cells his messenger, and under threats of punishment this boy was compelled to deliver each letter to the clerk of the prison. It was then kept long enough to permit of its translation, when it was returned to him and delivered. In this way the facts were developed that many convicts, includ- ing Kennedy, Ryan, Applegate, and Stanley, who killed a guard in an attempt to escape during that year, were interested in the scheme-that Rudifer had invented and taught to the others and to persons outside, no less than twelve separate and very ingenious alphabets, and that the communication between convicts and their friends without the prison was kept up by the writing of cipher letters in invisible ink made of onion juice and water, on the inside of the envelopes which enclosed the ordinary letters which inmates of the prison were allowed to write to and receive from their friends. In the manner indicated no less than thirty-two letters were intercepted and read, before Rudifer be- came aware that his operations were known, and a number of bold and ingenious plans for escape were frustrated. Rudifer was the originator of all the projects and the inventor of all the alpha- bets, and the accomplishment of so much by a man heavily ironed, confined in a solitary cell and closely watched, makes the series of occur- rences sufficiently notable to entitle them to rank among the celebrated cases of prison conspiracy.
Of the prisoners confined in the penitentiary during the present year (1882) about eighty per cent. are at work for contractors and are con- stantly contributing to the income of the State. The contractors are: Peren, Gaff & Co., manu- facturers of shelf hardware; the Southern In- diana Manufacturing company, boots and shoes;
469
HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.
Rider & Hyatt, cooperage; and J. R. Gathright, horse collars.
Following are the present directors and officers of the prison : Thomas Shea, J. J. Finney, P. L. D. Mitchell, directors; Andrew J. Howard, warden ; John Craig, deputy warden ; Matthew I. Huette, clerk ; W. F. Sherrod, physician ; Thomas G. Beharred, moral instructor ; William Royce, captain of night watch ; David M. Allen, store- keeper ; Jesse D. McClure, hospital steward.
CHAPTER XXXI.
JEFFERSONVILLE-BIOGRAPHICAL.
Captain James Howard-John Zulauf-Dr. Nathaniel Field -James G. Reed-Joseph W. Sprague-The Shelby Family-Mayor L. F. Warder-James W. Thomson- Reuben Dailey-Dr. H. H. Ferguson-William G. Arm- strong-William Keigwin-William H. Fogg-James S. Whicher.
CAPTAIN JAMES HOWARD.
This well-known ship-builder was born near Manchester, England, December 1, 1814. His father, a wool-carder and cloth-dresser, emigrated with his family to the United States in 1820, and settled in Cincinnati, where he engaged in busi- ness. James worked with his father in the mill from the age of eleven until he was fifteen, when he was apprenticed to William Hartshorn, a steamboat builder in the same city, to serve until he attained the age of twenty-one. He was an apt scholar, and soon mastered the details of the business, proving an efficient workman. When nineteen years of age he came to Louis- ville, determined to make a start in the world for himself. After remaining in this place a week or two he secured a contract to build a steam- boat. He went to Jeffersonville, where was a good bank from which to make a launch. Here he procured material, employed the necessary as- sistance, and built the hull of a boat, which gave perfect satisfaction to the owners. The follow- ing spring he was importuned to return to Cin- cinnati and serve the remainder of his appren- ticeship, but decided that he could do better to remain where he was, and declined to return to Mr. Hartshorn's service.
In 1835 he commenced business life in earn- est, with no capital but his experience of a few
years, but with a strong determination to perse- vere until he should stand at the head of the boat-building industries of the interior rivers. Being possessed of industry, energy, and ability, he overcame all obstacles, and time brought the distinction in his line of business that he de- sired.
A few years spent on the river as an engineer gave him an insight into the working of boats, and proved where the strength was most tried. In 1836 he went to Madison, Indiana, where he remained several years, and in that time built sixteen boats. In 1846, at Shippingsport, Ken- tucky, he was engaged in the building of six steamers. The flood of 1847 swept his yard clean. From Shippingsport he went to Louis- ville, and, in company with John Enos, was in business a year, during which time they built several boats. Mr. Enos died, and in order to settle his estate the property was sold. Mr. Howard, not feeling able to purchase the mill and yard, came to Jeffersonville, where, in 1849, in company with his brother Daniel, he engaged in ship-building, at which. they continued un- interruptedly until 1865, when Daniel Howard withdrew from the partnership, and James as- sociated with him his younger brother, John, and his son Edward, the firm being James Howard & Co.
From the year 1848, when the first extensive boat-building was engaged in, most of the steam- ers built were designed for the cotton trade on the lower Mississippi, and its tributaries, though boats were also built for Ohio river and upper Mississippi river service.
The outbreak of the civil war was a heavy blow to the Howards, much of their means being invested in boats that proved a total loss, or at best brought in at the time no returns. The business was continued, though with reduced ca- pacity, for some years, but the building interests soon increased and the yard was busied to its fullest capacity.
Before the change in the firm by the with- drawal of Daniel Howard, some fifty boats had been completed and launched, and during his life Captain James Howard saw two hundred and fifty of his boats floating on the inland rivers, engaged in all branches of the carrying trade, and transporting a large part of the wealth of the country to profitable markets.
470
HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.
The death of Captain Howard was a peculiarly sad one. October 14, 1876, he left home to drive to Louisville. He reached the ferry safely, drove on the boat, where his team became un- managable, caused by another team crowding them, and the gate being unfastened his carriage was run back precipitating him into the river, where he was drowned.
On the occasion of his funeral a large proces- sion was formed on First street, Louisville, the workingmen taking the head, then followed the pall bearers, the hearse, and the long line of car- riages. The procession marched silently up First street, Market, Jackson, and Broadway, to Cave Hill cemetery, where the remains were de- posited. The procession numbered fully fifteen hundred persons. From the time it left First street until the cemetery was reached the bells of the fire department tolled the knell of death.
The funeral services were conducted by Rev. J. Craik, rector of Christ church, who says:
It was the grandest and most imposing funeral I ever wit- nessed. There were no societies, no music, no military dis- play, the usual trappings of an imposing funeral, to mark the obsequies of this boat-builder. We have buried from this church the commander in chief of the United States. And all that the power and majesty of the great Government could do to make the occasion grand and honorable was done, but it was nothing in comparison with the funeral solemnities of the simple, untitled citizen, James Howard.
The Courier-Journal said of James Howard :
He was a man of medium height and good figure. His head was large and long, with a high, broad forehead, and all the other features prominent and expressive. In his man- ners he was unassuming and cordial to all persons. He was strong in purpose and action. The whole energy of an ac- tive, comprehensive mind, and of an almost tireless physica organization was given to whatever scheme or duty he ever had in view. His battle in life has been no easy one, but he stood true throughout to the principles of honor and integ- rity, and, having an industry and mechanical knowledge which he has suffered no man in his occupation to excel, he gained both success and distinction.
JOHN ZULAUF.
John Zulauf, deceased, of Jeffersonville, was born in Thurgan, Switzerland, on the 27th day of December, 1818. His father was a miller. He gave his son a good education in the public schools of his native country and in the college of Murten, Switzerland. After graduation Mr. Zulauf spent several years performing clerical duties in some of the largest manufacturing
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