USA > Ohio > Franklin County > Columbus > History of the city of Columbus, capital of Ohio, Volume II > Part 78
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In former years, on this corner had been a platform and a box for a sentry. But as the guard was over women not given to attempted escapes, and as the sentry was subject to a continuous volley of abuse from the female wards below, the guard had been removed. Aided by the corner, that served as a support, the human ladder succeeded in reaching the top of the wall, and the men clambering upon it with their improvised rope, made it fast. One by one all of the fourteen came out. hand over hand, and the rope was dropped on the outside, and in a few minutes the entire party found themselves free.
Here of course they were met by their sympathizing friends. My informant, on this part of the business, was silent. Who guided the escaped prisoners to a place of refuge and gave each a change of elothing-warm overcoats, cloth traveling caps and carpetbags -will probably never be known.
John Morgan selected one of his officers, now an eminent Judge in Kentucky, a man noted for his cool selfpossession and courage, as his companion and separating from the other
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.
twelve, the two walked into the depot at Columbus at the moment the eastern express train was about to start for Cincinnati. They had no time to procure tickets, and boarding the cars, General Morgan purposely selected a seat by a Federal officer. In a few seconds the cars were dashing into the night, towards Cincinnati. Shortly after, General Morgan's com- panion pointed with his finger through the window next which he sat and said :
" That, sir, is our Penitentiary, and just now, you know, it is the residence of the famous John Morgan."
"Indeed, it's there, is it?" responded Morgan. "Well, let us drink to the strength of its walls," and pulling from his breast pocket a flask of old whisky the officer joined in the toast.
The conductor collected his fare, and the passengers nodded and slept, and among the rest General Morgan's Federal officer, who, having taken several draughts from Morgan's flask, and doubtless being fatigued by his many labors of the day, snored in the deepest sort of slumber. Daylight, and the twain were approaching Cincinnati together when Mor- gan, leaning over, whispered to his companion that it was about time to get off. Putting his valise under his coat, he went quietly to the rear platform. In a few minutes after his com- panion followed. Fortunately the brakeman was at the other end of the car. Morgan directed his friend to throw his might and strength upon the brakes when he, Morgan, should pull the bellrope, that signals a stop. This was done. The shrill scream of the locomotive was heard, followed by the rasping noise of brakes along the train before it came to a full stop, but after it had ceased to run so as to be dangerous to jump off, the two fugitives jumped from the platform and immediately hid in the bush that lined both sides of the road. They heard the train come to a full stop; they heard the voices of the conductor and brakemen crying to each other with much profanity; then the bell rang, the locomotive screamed and the train moved on. They waited until the last faint roar died away in the distance, and then emerged from their hiding places to fall almost into the arms of five gov- ernment soldiers traveling along the track.
" What the devil are you about here ?" cried one, facing Morgan and his companion.
"Rather," replied Morgan quietly, but firmly, "what are you doing from camp at this hour?"
The question was embarrassing, for the men were laden with an admirable assortment of dead poultry and conspicuous among the lot an infant pig lately sacrificed.
"We'ere out buyin' provisions for our Colonel," was the prompt reply, with some stress on the word that indicated the purchase.
"Does your colonel send you out to purchase poultry after night-and who is he?"
"Yes, he does, 'cause, you see, we're fightin' all day ; and his name's Squibob, Colonel Squibob of the One Hundred Ninetysixth Ohio Volunteers," was the response as the chicken thieves moved on.
The two arrived in Cincinnati as the day began to break. At that hour the police waken ; cats steal home, and at intervals milk carts and meat wagons can be heard rattling over rough streets. The few they met regarded them as early travelers seeking the depot, and unobstructed they found themselves upon the banks of the Ohio. The ferry boats were preparing their daily rounds, but the two hesitated trusting themselves to this sort of con- veyance, for they saw a squad of infantry under command of a sergeant hurrying to one of the landings. They did not know but what their escape had been discovered, and were well aware that in an hour the guard would take their rounds through the prison and immedi- diately thereafter the telegraph wires would fairly hum with the startling news of John Mor- gan's escape. While they hesitated and thought a small boat rowed by a boy shot in near the spot where they stood. Morgan approached the lad and asked what he would charge to row them to the Kentucky side of the river. The boy eyed the two inquiringly as well as he could in the dim light of the early morn, and then responded that he thought fifty cents apiece would not be too much. This compensation was immediately agreed to, and then the moneygetting gamin said he must have it in advance. The shrewd boy suspected the two men calling for a rowboat when the ferryboats were flying between the shores and the information that he gathered cost subsequently some money and no little bloodshed. The only track the authorities had of General Morgan, after he left the Penitentiary until he struck the Ohio, was from this ohservant little Yankee, and the proof of his shrewdness was in the fact that he collected his fare in advance.
The boat was small and the two heavy men sunk it to the gun'els, but it carried Cæsar, and his fortunes, or rather, I should say, carried Cæsar to his fate. Could the daring raider who sat with arms folded in the stern of that frail craft have had the present darkness sud- denly lifted and the future revealed, I doubt if he would have cared whether the boat sunk or floated! He would have seen that his brilliant career had already ended, and in the future was only the applause given a popular actor as be leaves the stage while the ignoble death that began with treachery and ended in a few shots, and a body thrown upon a wag-
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oner's borse, would make that found in the quiet waters of the wintry Ohio far more pleasant and dignified.
While slowly breasting the swift current, the ruddy couriers of the early dawn began to brighten up the east, while night hung dark and gloomy in the west. In this dim and clondy quarter, high upon the Kentucky bank of the river, Morgan saw a bright light and asked the boy what it was. "That." answered the little boatman, looking over his shoulder without ceasing his efforts, "why, that's widow Ludlow : she keeps her house lit up all night, 'cause they say she's feared of ghosts." "Land me there and I'll give you another dollar." "Fork over," was the brief response, and getting his money, he turned his boat more with the current and in a few moments landed the fugitives near the widow's house.
Getting once more upon Kentucky soil, John Morgan drew a long breath, filling his lungs with not only to him free air, but giving to his heart a fresh impulse of courage for the cause he had helped to make immortal. He and his comrade found refuge in Mrs. Ludlow's house. What followed I have not the space to tell nor is it my province. I sat down only to detail the heretofore unknown history of Morgan's escape from the Ohio prison. All that followed is already known and belongs to the history of our country.
Possibly encouraged by the recollection of Morgan's exploit, four prisoners undertook to effect their escape in October, 1867, by digging an underground pas- sage from the engineroom of the Ohio Tool Company towards the main sewer. This effort was detected and arrested before the sewer was reached.
Of the freaks, anomalies and adventures developed in criminal experience and temperament, the annals of the prison afford many curious examples. By way of illustration one or two may here be given. The following strange history of William Campbell, who died in the prison November 12, 1867, is taken from the Ohio State Journal .
In 1838 he [Campbell] was sent to the penitentiary from Muskingum County under sen- tence for three years for burglary. He was discharged in August, 1841, but was returned to prison in July, 1842, from Coshocton County, sentenced for a long term. He was pardoned by Governor Ford in July, 1849, but was returned to prison from Muskingum County under sentence for six years, in 1850, and was discharged in March, 1856, by expiration of sentence. In June of the same year he was returned to prison under the name of Sheldon Campbell from Morgan County, under sentence for fifteen years for horsestealing. He was pardoned May fifth, 1866, on the certificate of the physician of the prison that he was in the lowest stage of con- sumption, and should be sent home to die. The veteran horsethief did not go home to die, but to resume his calling, and in February, 1867, was returned to the Penitentiary for the fifth time. He came this time from Allen County, convicted of horsestealing, and sentenced under the name of William Martin, alias John Hess, for six years. There was a rich scene at the prison when he was recognized, and as his pardon had been revoked, the old fellow resigned him- self to his fate, and commenced his fifth term in about his usual spirits. He was a straight, tall man, had mild grayish blue eyes, an easy manner, a good disposition, and was always a good man in prison. For some weeks the old disease (consumption) made him an inmate of the hospital. Though scarcely able to speak, he insisted to the last that he would get well, and died without one evidence of a change of heart in any sense of the word.
The ease of Mary Garrett, a Medina County murderess, who with her infant child, arrived at the prison, under sentence of execution, on October 5, 1888, was one of the most distressful in the Ohio annals of crime. Mrs. Garrett and child reached Columbus on a stormy, dismal day in October. The event was thus described :1º
The mother alighted from the train with the babe in ber arms and followed the sheriff through the masses [of people assembled to see her]. She was unconcerned, and seemed to care for nothing except her babe. . . . The sheriff held the baby while Mrs. Garrett alighted from the carriage, but she immediately took it. . . . They passed immediately through the guardroom and the corridor to the annex. The babe acted like a hero and was very good, not even uttering a sound as he passed behind the bars. It was a sorrowful and touching sight to see the mother and babe enter the execution room. . . . . The little habe simply cooed as it passed the scaffold, and the warden conducted the mother to a chair in the annex cage. She was visibly affected when she hade Sheriff Dealing goodbye. Holding the bahe to her bosom with her left, she shook his hand and uttered the words, " Goodbye Sheriff," while her eyes filled with tears. She was left to herself then. and it is probable that her little boy furnished her sufficient company to prevent her from giving full vent to her feelings.
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.
Of Mrs. Garrett's history very little is known. She has been twice married, her first husband's name being Geoffrey Iflinger, by whom she had two daughters who are still living. Three years ago she was married to Alonzo Garrett, a well-to-do widower at Elyria. He had two daughters, Anna and Eva, aged 26 and 42 respectively, who were always a great eyesore to the new wife. It is said that she married Garrett for his money, and she plotted vigor- ously against the lives of his daughters for several reasons. She had one of them sent to the Imbecile Asylum in this city for a time, and at another time both of them sent to the poor- house. The crime for which Mrs. Garrett is sentenced to be hanged January 4, 1889, was the burning to death of these idiotie stepchildren on the night of November 1, 1887.11
On June 13, 1869, a female convict, Mary Williams, hid out until night, when she raug the bell for the outside gate, at the opening of which she knocked down the female guard who had opened it, rushed out, leaped over the picket fence and made off towards Dublin, near which she concealed herself in a cornerib. On the following day she was detected in the crib, and brought back to the prison. In September, 1872, Ida May attempted the murder of Maggie Williams, a sister convict, whom she severely injured. In July, 1869, William Carroll struck Frank Rauth, a fellow convict, with an iron ladle, inflicting a dangerous wound. On January 30, 1875, Naney Jane Scott and Thomas L. Miles, both convicts dis- charged on that date, were married at the prison, in the presence of about five hundred persons, including members of the General Assembly and State officers. Both parties to the marriage had shortened their period of confinement by good behavior.
In the spring of 1870 the General Assembly appropriated $1,000 to provide the prison with a circulating library. A new chapel was sufficiently advaneed to be used for religious services in 1875. In 1874 a legislative committee investi- gated and condemned the arrangement and ventilation of the cells, and recom- mended their reconstruction. The committee also advised the ereetion of a new building to contain 500 eells. The foundations of this building were laid in 1875 on ground previously oceupied by the prison cemetery, from which the remains of deceased convicts there interred were transferred to a spot near the State quarry. Apparatus for the manufacture of gas was introduced in the prison in 1873. A plan for supplying the prison with water by means of its own pumps and a stand- pipe was broached in 1882. In 1885 the standpipe was completed.
By legislation of 1884 and 1885 a plan of graded punishments was intro- duced, and the entire system of penitentiary management was recast on a reform- atory basis. First in this series of statutes was that of March 24, 1884, which vested the general control of the Penitentiary in a board of five managers to be appointed by the Governor, to serve for a term of five years, to have authority to make rules for the prison and to appoint and remove its warden. Two of these managers, the law required should be " practical and skilled mechanics," and not more than three of them should " belong to the same political party." By this same statute the contraet labor system was abolished and in lien thereof it was provided that the prisoners should be employed by the State, that those under twentyone years of age should engage in handiwork solely for the purpose of learning a trade, and that artieles made in the prison for the State institutions should be paid for at the market prices. The law provided for a classification of the prisoners in different grades, for their advancement or degradation according to behavior, for their conditional release on parole, and for the gradual and com- plete recovery of their liberty by meritorious conduct. To the warden was entrusted the appointment of the employés, guards and subordinate offieers of the prison. As to the warden's qualifications it was required that he should be a person of executive ability and practical experience, His removal from office " for political or partisan reasons " was forbidden.
Pursuant to this law the board of prison managers proceeded to classify all the prisoners into three grades, uumbered from highest to lowest, as first, second
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and third. The entire body of convicts in the prison at the time of the adoption of these grades, and all new arrivals, were assigned to the second grade, with the possibility of falling by bad conduct to the third, or of rising by good condnet to the first. The prisoners of the first grade were clothed in a snit of mottled blue, those of the second in one of mottled gray. The third grade continued, as before, to wear striped clothing. In the first and second grades the lockstep was abol- ished. A system of promotion and degradation in the grades, such as had been in successful operation in the New York reformatory at Elmira, was established. Under this system, which is described as " simply a substitution of a task for a time sentence," the prisoner may, by good conduct, gain a monthly deduction from the full period of his sentence, as follows : Five days during his first year, seven days during his second year, nine days during his third year, and ten days per month after he shall have passed, without fault, the first three years of his sentence. In apportioning credits, the prisoner is charged for each month nine marks; three of these he may earn by labor, three by behavior and three by study. To afford facilities for study a school was established, and during the first year of its operations five hundred illiterates then in the prison became " quite proficient in reading, writing and arithmetic."" Each prisoner is furnished a conduct book in which he receives monthly credit for the number of marks gained, and is charged with all offenses reported against him.
The results of this system have been highly gratifying, and would doubtless be still more so if reinforced, encouraged and protected by such legislation as would contribute to the prison management of the State a corps of trained experts, wholly exempt from partisan or personal interference.
The socalled " piece or process plan" of prison labor was introduced in the Ohio Penitentiary by an act of February 27, 1885. The use of the " duckingtub " as a means of punishment was discontinued on January 1, 1889.
On April 29, 1885, an act was passed which provided that " when any person shall be sentenced by any court of the State, having competent jurisdiction, to be hanged by the neck until dead, such punishment shall only be inflicted within the walls of the Ohio Penitentiary at Columbus, Ohio, within an inclosure to be pre. pared for that purpose." In pursuance of this act "a suitable building and scat- fold " were erected, and all executions for capital offenses in Ohio have since taken place at the Penitentiary.
While the location of the State Prison at Columbus has undoubtedly bene- fited the city in some, though not all, material respects, it has also carried with it some moral disadvantages. One of these is the steady contribution by the prison of unregenerate lawbreakers to the population of the capital. This evil has fre- quently been a subject of legislative as well as local discussion, but no satisfactory remedy for it has yet been found. That the frequency of capital punishments, in any community, is promotive of refined tastes or delicate moral sensibilities, can scarcely be admitted. Familiarity with the operations of the gallows is neither a preventive of crime nor a refining influence.
The most important fact in the history of the Ohio Penitentiary is the effort which has been and is still being made to convert it into a reformatory institution. Should this effort be successful to the full extent of its deservings or its possibili- ties, the prison may become an unqualified blessing both to the State and to its capital.
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.
NOTES.
1. See Chapter XIII, Volume I.
2. An old eitizen informs the author that this ground was originally a dense pawpaw thieket. 3. The brieks of which the original Penitentiary was composed are said to have been made, in part, of elay taken from the ancient mound on South High Street.
4. Western Intelligencer.
5. The conviets, it is said, were allowed to amuse themselves with ballplaying, and trained a dog to bring the ball baek to them when it happened to fly over the walls. Another story of that period represents that a drunken eonviet, while roaming the streets, met Gov- ernor Lucas and implored his pardon, much to the Governor's disgust. During one of the numerous escapades, in 1830, a conviet named Smith Maythe seized and held one of the guards while his confederates, about a dozen in number, made their escape. Pursued by guards, the fugitives betook themselves to the mound on South High Street, whenee they retreated to Stewart's Woods, where they were retaken. Maythe, the leader in this adven- ture, was one of four brothers then confined in the prison. On being brought back, one of the brothers reproached him for his conduet, saying, "how could you so disgrace our family!" During the cholera epidemic of 1833 Maythe earned and obtained his pardon by faithful service in earing for the sick and dying on that occasion. He was subsequently returned to the prison on conviction of horsestealing, and was finally hung by a mob in Ken- tueky for attempted murder.
6. The author of this plan is said to have been Doetor J. P. Kirtland, of Trumbull County.
7. The Ohio State Journal of December 9, 1878, in discussing a change in the warden- ship then pending. said editorially :
" When the present bastile [State prison ] opened, a prominent writer said that the failure of the old Penitentiary, both in a pecuniary and reformatory view, had generally been attributed to the insufficiency of the buildings and the lax government of the institution, and high expectations were entertained that under the new system a revenue would be produced and a moral reformation wrought upon the convicts. Were that man to write today be might have something to say about politieal influence and the division of spoils as well as lax government. The Columbus police might also give him some information as to the moral reformation wrought on convicts. It is a faet that imprisonment serves only as a punish- ment. Its reforming effects are all in the mind's eye. Those who have been reformed are very exceptional cases, though there are some good ones. But exconvicts, as a rule, are bad elements in society, and they are eited against the exereise of the pardoning power. Very many convicts who are discharged at the expiration of their terms are arrested again before they get out of the city, and on charges that send them back. There are a dozen, or more, of the hardest holes in this eity kept by exconvicts."
8. Ohio State Journal.
9. In April, 1851, this boy - James Murphy - was released on pardon and taken to the Clermont County farm of Mahlon Medary.
10. Ohio State Journal.
11. On recommendation of the Board of Pardons, Governor Foraker, on January 18, 1889, commuted Mrs. Garrett's sentence to imprisonment for life.
12. Manager's Report.
KEEPERS AND WARDENS FROM 1815 TO 1892.
Keepers. - 1815 1822, James Kooken; 1822.1823, Barzilla Wright; 1823-30, Nathaniel MeLean ; 1830-1832, Byram Leonard ; 1832-1834, William W. Gault.
Wardens : - 1834-1838, Nathaniel Medbery ; 1839-1841, W. B. VanHook : 1841-1843, Richard Stadden ; 1843-1846, John Patterson ; 1846-1850, Laurin Dewey ; 1850-1852, D. W. Brown ; 1852-1854, A. G. Dimmoek ; 1854-1855, Samuel Wilson; 1855-1856, J. B. Buttles ; 1856-1858, John Ewing; 1858-1860, L. G. VanSlyke; 1860.1862, John A. Prentice ; 1862_1864, Nathaniel Merion ; 1864 .1866, John A. Prentice; 1866-1869, Charles C. Walcutt ; 1870-1872, Raymond Burr ; 1873-1875, G. S. Innis; 1876-1878, John H. Grove ; 1879, J. B. Mcwhorter ; 1879-1880, B. F. Dyer; 1880-1884, Noah Thomas; 1884-1886, Isaac G. Peetry ; 1886-1890, E. G. Coffin ; 1890-1892, B. F. Dyer.
CHAPTER XXXVII.
CENTRAL ASYLUM FOR THE INSANE.
-No State Institution for the eare of the insane existed in Ohio during the first thirtyfive years after her admission to the Union, The first action of the General Assembly having any important relation to the specific purposes of such an institution was taken in February, 1815, when an act was passed authorizing justices of the peace to summon a jury of seven men to make inquest as to the sanity of any person who might be brought before them " on the application of relations or by any overseer of the poor." Upon the unanimons finding of such a jury that any person brought before it in the manner prescribed was an idiot, " non compos, lunatic or insane," it was made the duty of the justice to issue a warrant for the commitment of the person so adjudged to enforeed custody. Harmless lunatics were placed under the care of the overseers of the poor ; dan- gerous ones were committed to the county jail. In January, 1821, the General Assembly appropriated 810,000 to establish a " Commercial Hospital and Lunatic Asylum" to be located at and supported by " the town of Cincinnati." This insti- tution, afterwards styled the " Ohio Medical College and Lunatic Asylum," was intended for the relief of " sick and destitute river traders." For the insane gen- erally throughout the State no refuge other than that of the jail or the poorhouse was provided, down to the opening of the institution the general history of which it is the purpose of this chapter to narrate.
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