THE CAPITOL - 575 guests, was embellished with evergreens and tricolored draperies. During the evening the entire Capitol building was illuminated. About nine o'clock in the evening the special ceremonies of the occasion began in the Hall of Representatives, which was densely crowded. After an invocation by Rev. Doctor James Hoge, Hon. Alfred Kelley, Senator for the counties of Franklin and Pickaway, delivered an address of welcome. In the concluding part of this address, which was brief, Mr. Kelley said : The building in which we are now assembled combines that sublime massiveness, that dignity of form and features, that beautiful symmetry of proportions, which together constitute true architectural excellence in a high degree. True, it may have its imperfections —what work of man has not? -- still it is worthy of a great and patriotic people, by whom and for whom it was erected. It is emblematic of the moral grandeur of the State whose counsels are here to be assembled, whose archives are here to be kept, and I trust safely, so long as Ohio shall be a State, or time itself shall endure. May those counsels be so wise that their beneficent influence will be as enduring as these walls. A response in behalf of the people, dealing chiefly in historical retrospect, was delivered by Governor Chase, among whose closing sentences were these : With the old State House and the old Constitution, terminated an epoch in the history of our State to which her children will ever look back with patriotic pride. Even now there seem to pass before me the forms of the noble men who made it illustrious.. . . Happy shall we be if we prove ourselves worthy successors of such men. An additional response on behalf of the General Assembly was made by Hon. T. J. S. Smith, of Montgomery County. While the exercises in the Hall of Representatives were having their course, merry feet were keeping time to jocund music in the Senate Chamber. The banquet tables in the rotunda, says a newspaper report, "were surrounded all the evening with a cordon of hungry men and women as impenetrable as a Macedonian phalanx." The General Assembly began its regular sittings in the new Capitol on the, day following the festival. During the year 1857 the work of finishing the uncompleted parts of the building, inside and outside, was actively prosecuted, and its grounds were graded. The Ohio State Journal of June 23 contained the following jubilant announcement : That venerable pile of musty pigeonholes, old documents and red tape-- the roost for years of various breeds of Ohio's officials — has disappeared, all but a part of two chimneys which are fast tottering to their fall, In a few days not one brick will be left upon another to tell where the venerable edifice once reposed in official grandeur. Men are now at work in removing the fence from around the Capitol Square, and the effect is magical. For nearly twenty years that high, rough, black mean looking fence has been an eyesore to the people of Columbus, and now that it has been taken away they all rejoice. The State House looks a story higher, and the whole appearance of the building, the grounds and the neighborhood have improved. A contract for enclosing the grounds with an iron fence at a net cost of $17,660, was awarded to N. T. Horton, of Cincinnati. The work of placing this fence in position began October 30, but was completed only half' way round. A sufficient supply of water for the uses of the Capitol being very difficult to obtain with the facilities then existing, the General Assembly authorized an attempt to test, by boring, the theory entertained by many persons that an Artesian stream existed in the strata which underlie Columbus. Accordingly a boring apparatus was put to work on July 23, 1857, in the northeastern portion of the Capitol Square. After numerous interruptions from lack of funds and other Causes, the well thus begun reached a depth of 2,775 feet, when it was abandoned. The amount spent upon it was $13,731.65. 576 - HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS. In the original design of the Capitol a serious difficulty was encountered in determining the form and proportions to be given to its exterior dome or cupola. A writer in the Cincinnati Gazette, discussing this subject in November, 1849, said The sentiment of the architect seems to have been, and we are informed that it is professedly so, to avoid a supposed anomaly in modern architecture —the erection of a spherical dome on the Grecian Done order. . . . The erection of a Gothic turret upon the massive substructure of this proposed building would strike even an untutored mind as inappropriate and incongruous. The present tower [the writer is speaking of it as it then appeared in the design] is in our judgment no less so. . . . We propose, with deference to the consideration of the architect, the substitution of an octangular tower, keeping the proportions of the base and elevation the same as at present, with an octagonal curvilinear dome, — anything but the present Chinese hat. The question thus raised as to the fashion of the " dome " has been intermittently discussed for forty years, without satisfactory conclusions. Isaiah Rogers, who was appointed architect of the building in July, 1858, proposed to surround the " cupola " with Corinthian columns,' but this plan of assuaging architectural disharmony was never executed, and the Capitol of Ohio remains to this day surmounted by an incomplete, nondescript structure, wholly out of keeping with its general style. On November 15, 1861, the building was pronounced complete. Up to that date the time consumed in its construction, not including the intervals of suspension of the work, was about fifteen years, and the expenditures upon it and its grounds amounted to $1,359,121.45. In its greatest length the building stands twelve degrees west of north. Its width is 104 feet, its length is 304 feet, its height to the top of the blocking course 61 feet, its height to the pinnacle of its cupola 158 feet, its total area a little more than two acres. In February, 1863, serious complaints of imperfection in the ventilation of the building were made. In searching for the causes of this, Doctor William M. Awl, then superintendent of the Capitol and grounds, discovered that the subterranean passages were clogged with debris, that fresh air was excluded from the lower interior by doors in the passages, and that the ventilating flues were constantly absorbing dust from the coal bins and whirling it through the building. All this was promptly remedied. In 1868 the building was supplied with new heating apparatus, at a cost of $3,000. In October, 1872, a contract for surrounding the grounds with an iron fence was awarded to Schafer & Son, Springfield, for $21,796.85. Complaints of bad ventilation and impure air' in the building were chronic down to February, 1879, when the legislative and other chambers were pervaded with an abominable stench which was, at that time, attributed to escaping gas, and to horsestables and moldy storage in the basement. The heating and ventilating arrangements were also blamed, and an appropriation of $20,000 was made for the introduction of fireplaces and other ventilative expedients. As no drawings could be found showing the course of the flues, several months were spent in trying to trace them. Finally, in November, 1884, the astonishing discovery was made that in the construction of water closets in the building, connection had been made with the ventilating flues instead of the sewers, the plan of which had been lost, and that the entire system of air ducts was clogged with filth from these closets. Thus, after much expenditure, and a great deal of unaccountable sickness, the cause of the socalled " Statehouse malaria" was explained. The extent of the nuisance may be judged by the fact that 150 barrels of filth were taken from the ducts which supplementary architecture had planned for the purpose of ventilation. THE CAPITOL - 577 The State Government has already outgrown the accommodations of the Capitol, and various expedients for the reconstruction and enlargement of the building have been proposed. When, as sooner or later must happen, a reconstruction shall take place, or, still better, a new Capitol shall be built, doubtless care will be taken to forecast the work in all its details, and an edifice will rise which shall be chaste and harmonious in style, and which, bearing out the purpose of all true art, shall unite grace, strength and majesty with cheerfulness, comfort and convenience. NOTES. 1. The quarry tract, containing fifty acres, was afterward — April 11, 1845 — purchased by the officers of the Penitentiary from W. S. Sullivant for $15,000, which sum was finally paid out of the Statehouse fund. 2. The exterior foundation was laid, at a depth of from six to ten feet below the natural surface of the ground, on a bed of gravel covered with a layer of broken stone and cement. At the angles the walls were made fifteen feet thick ; 'elsewhere, twelve feet. 3. Governor Bartley's annual message of December, 1845, contained the following passage : " The necessity for the construction of new Public Buildings for the transaction of the business of the State, and the safekeeping 'of the public records must be apparent to every observer. The interests of the State and public opinion alike demand that the work of the new Statehouse should be no longer suspended." 4. This appropriation was made for an enlargement of the asylum, then urgently needed. Convict service was appropriated to the amount of $25,000, reckoning the labor of each prisoner at forty cents per day. 5. This railway, crossing the Scioto near the present Midland Railway bridge, con-tinned thence to the Penitentiary whence it was extended on North Public Lane, now Naghten Street, to Third, and on Third to the Capitol Square. The engine used on this line is described as a " teakettle " affair. 6. Mr. John J. Janney, whose engagements at that time were such as to cause him to be near the Capitol and to have the opportunity to observe its daily progress, informs the author that the flues built into the walls under Mr. West's supervision were so numerous as to excite surprise. That they were not discovered by Mr. Kelley is scarcely explained by the fact that Mr. Wise took away all his working drawings, claiming them as his private property. Possibly they were covered over by an upper course of stone without the knowledge of either architect. 7. This residue was donated to the Female Benevolent Society. 8. Mr. Rogers also proposed " a projecting portico in front." 37*  Society was organized in the city to provide means for supporting one. The effort was not successful, and appeal was CHAPTER XXXVI THE PENITENTIARY. The first penitentiary was located and built under supervision of the State Director. Its general dimensions, and the materials of which it should be composed were specified by joint resolution of the General Assembly, passed February 20, 1812.' Its " proportion " was left to the discretion of the Director, under instructions to follow the best models he could obtain from other States. On December 9, 1812, State Director Joel Wright submitted his plans for the building to the General Assembly. They were accompanied, by a report of his investigations pursuant to the instructions given him, and by copies of the rules and regulations of the State prisons of New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The location chosen for the prison was a tenacre tract in the southwestern part of the borough, fronting on Scioto Lane.' A contract for the building was made during the summer of 1812, but the necessary excavations and the collection of materials, were the only steps taken in its execution during that year.' " The unsettled state of public affairs and the drafts of the military " were the reasons assigned for the lack of further progress. During the year 1813, the prison building was erected under the supervision of State Director William Ludlow. Benjamin Thompson was contractor for its masonry, Michael Patton for its carpentering. Martin's History thus describes it as completed It was a brick building fronting on Scioto Street or lane, sixty by thirty feet on the ground, and three stories high, including the basement, which was about half above and half below the ground. The basement was divided into cellar, kitchen and eatingroom for the prisoner's, and could he entered only from the inside of the yard. The next story above the basement was for the keeper's residence, and was entered by high steps from the street ; and the third or upper story was laid off into cells for the prisoners — thirteen cells in all — four dark and nine light ones. The entrance to the upper story or cells was from the inside of the yard. The prison yard was about one hundred feet square, including the ground the building stood on, and was enclosed by a stone wall from fifteen to eighteen feet high. Colonel McDonald, of Ross county, was the contractor for the building of this wall. In 1818 an additional brick building was erected and the prison yard was enlarged to a total area of about 160 x400 feet. This area descended by terraces to the foot of the hill near the canal, and was surrounded by a wall three feet thick, twenty feet high, and surmounted by heavy plank flooring, with a handrail at its inner edge. Within this enclosure workshops were erected. The new building, 34x 150 feet, and two stories in height, stood with its gable to the street. On its lower floor were the kitchen, diningroom and fifty-four cells, besides five underground dungeons which were accessible only by a trapdoor in the hall. Two rooms adjoining one another on the second floor were used for the hospital. The [578] THE PENITENTIARY - 579 old building, stripped of its prison fixtures, was reconstructed as a residence for the keeper. Pursuant to an act of January, 1815, the General Assembly chose five inspectors whose duty it was to appoint the keeper and make rules for the government of the prison. An act of January, 1819, substituted a State agent for the inspectors and provided that both the agent and the keeper should be chosen by direct vote of the General Assembly. The first keeper appointed was Captain James Kooken, of Franklinton, who entered upon his duties August 1, 1815, and appointed Colonel Griffith Thomas as clerk. The State agent was charged with the custody and sale of all articles manufactured by convict labor, and was required to make weekly returns of his cash receipts to the Treasurer of State. The first agent was Griffith Thomas. In 1822 the office was abolished, and Barzillai Wright, of New Jersey, was chosen keeper in lieu of Kooken. The appointment of Wright evoked much criticism on account of his nonresidence, which, it was claimed, made him constitutionally ineligible to assume the office. During the summer of 1823 Wright died and was succeeded by Nathaniel McLean, appointed to the vacancy by Governor Morrow. Byron Leonard displaced McLean in 1830 and was in turn displaced by W. W. Gault in 1832. Gault continued in office until the convicts were removed to the new penitentiary in 1834. Martin says : During the whole term of business at the old Penitentiary, a store of the manufactured articles was kept connected with the institution, and a general system of bartering was the policy adopted. Blacksmithing, wagonmaking, coopering, shoemaking, gunsmithing, cabinetmaking, tailoring and weaving were carried on in the prison, and the work and wares of the institution were sold or exchanged for provisions and raw materials such as sawed lumber, staves, hooppoles. coal and firewood, etc., or sold for cash as cases might offer. Mrs. Emily Stewart informs the writer that her mother had her carpets woven in the prison, and that when she delivered the raw material she always took with her a large basket filled with cakes, pies and doughnuts, which she gave to the prisoners to insure good work. A considerable proportion of the prisonmade goods seems to have been disposed of on credit. On February 20, 1817, " James Kooken, Keeper O. P.," made the following appeal : 4 The time has arrived when the subscriber finds himself under the necessity of calling all those who are indebted to him for articles purchased from the Penitentiary to make immediate payment. His indulgence to them has been at his own risk and injury, and he now has express orders from the board of inspectors to put all notes and accounts in suit, which shall remain unpaid on the tenth day of March, next. It is sincerely hoped that gratitude as well as a sense of justice on the part of those who have been so repeatedly accommodated by the subscriber will save him the unpleasant duty of resorting to legal measures. An advertisement of 1826 stated that pork would be received at the prison in exchange for manufactured articles. Discipline in the original penitentiary was lax, its walls soon became infirm and the escapades of its inmates were numerous.5 It was also overcrowded, and as early as 1826 suggestions of enlargement began to be heard. Occasional fires broke out within the walls, and were suppressed with great difficulty. The annual deficiency of its receipts below its expenditures ranged from $3,500 to $7,000. A legislative commission appointed in 1831 reported in favor of removal of the establishment to Zanesville. This commission also recommended that but one prison should be built rather than an additional one, as had been proposed. In December, 1831, a standing legislative committee reported exhaustively as to the condition of the old prison, and recommended that a new one be built in the vicinity of Franklinton. This report was accompanied by a proposition from W. S. Sullivant offering to convey to the State eight acres of land " lying north of and adjoining to the town of Franklinton," the gift to be conditioned upon the erection 580 - HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS. of a penitentiary upon the ground donated within two years. Pursuant to this report the General Assembly, on February 8, 1832, passed an act providing for the erection of " a new penitentiary of sufficient capacity to receive and employ five hundred convicts, to be confined in separate cells at night," the entire cost of the establishment exclusive of convict labor not to exceed $60,000. A board of three directors, to be chosen by the General Assembly, was empowered to purchase for the site,at a cost of not more than two thousand dollars, a tract of not more than twenty acres to be situated within one mile and a halt' of the Statehouse, the contract of purchase to include the right to " take and conduct into the new penitentiary, for' the use thereof any spring or watercourse they," the directors, might " deem necessary." A superintendent of construction was provided for and the plan of the building was required to follow, so far as might seem best, that of the Connecticut State Prison at Wethersfield. The act made a building appropriation of $20,000 and allowed to the directors a salary of one hundred dollars each. The appointment of the keeper, whose official title was changed to that of warden, was vested in the board of directors, and his compensation was fixed at $1,000 per annum. Pursuant to this act Joseph Olds, of Circleville, Samuel McCracken, of Lancaster, and Charles Anthony, of Springfield, were appointed directors and on December 7, 1832, submitted a report recommending selection of the site on the east bank of the Scioto " about half a mile north of Columbus." The tract thus preferred contained about fifteen acres. Its title was in a complicated condition, but this difficulty was overcome by contract with the senior and junior Joseph Ridgway, Otis and Samuel Crosby and D. W. Deshler, citizens of Columbus, who in consideration of a cash payment of $750, and the site subscriptions, then amounting to $1,170, undertook to and, at an expense of about $2,000, did obtain a good title to all the ground, and on October 17, 1832, conveyed it to the State free of all encumbrance. An additional strip was bought of John Brickell for fifty dollars, making a total cost to the State for the entire tract, of eight hundred dollars. Nathaniel Medbery was appointed superintendent, and submitted a plan for a building with a frontage of four hundred feet,6 surrounded by a wall twenty-four feet high, and containing seven hundred cells. The gross estimated cost of the entire work was $78,428.51 ; exclusive of convict labor $58,744.61. The stonework, measured in the wall, was contracted for at $1.48 per perch ; the brickwork at $2.40 per thousand. The contractors were to be provided with the labor of as many convicts as they could employ, not exceeding thirty-six, the guarding to be done at their expense. During the season of 1833 the work progressed rapidly until the violent outbreak of the cholera in that year compelled its suspension for the summer. From 80 to 100 convicts were employed. Nathaniel Medbery was appointed first warden of the new prison on October 27, 1834, and during the next two days the convicts were transferred from the old prison to the new. On March 5, 1835, the directors appointed Isaac Cool deputy warden, H. Z. Mills clerk, Rev. Russell Bigelow chaplain and Doctor M. B. Wright physician. The new prison was thus opened under a new law, with new officers, new rules, and a new system of hiring out the labor to contractors instead of selling the manufactured articles in behalf of the State. At first the system of discipline in the new institution was very severe but gradually it gave way to more humane methods. The humiliating lockstep and the cruel punishments known as the " showerbath " and the " cat " have all been successively abandoned. A separate department, with eleven cells, for female convicts was constructed in 1837. By December 12 of that year the new prison was fully completed, its aggregate cost up to that date having been $93,370. The law providing for a chaplain having been repealed, a Young Men's Prison THE PENITENTIARY - 581 made to the General Assembly to provide a moral instructor for the convicts. In their report delivered in January, 1837, the directors say : During another year the penitentiary buildings and all necessary fixtures in and about the prison can be completed, after which, as we fully believe, no appropriation from the treasury will be required to sustain the institution, unless the labor of the convicts shall be applied in erecting other buildings for the State and in that case appropriations equal to the .value of the labor thus applied will be sufficient. We go still further and predict that the institution properly managed will not only sustain itself but will annually refund to the treasury a sum equal to the interest upon the cost of the building. When the penitentiary was removed from its original site, a question arose as to whether the title to the ten acres of ground which had been donated for its use and occupancy remained in the State or reverted to the original proprietors of the town. In the General Assembly committees reported at two different sessions in favor of the State's title, and on March 17, 1838, the Governor was authorized by law to have the ground platted and sold. Proceedings pursuant to this act rested with the discretion of the Governor and nothing was done until March, 1847, when Elijah Backus brought suit to recover the ground from the State. In June, 1851, Backus obtained judgment, by default, and was given possession of the property. In March, 1852, the State brought suit to regain its title, but in, the ensuing November a verdict was rendered against its claim. On appeal taken, this judgment was reversed in September, 1854; the State again came into possession of the ground, and in 1857 a portion of it was sold. During the session of 1857-8 the General Assembly authorized the payment of one thousand dollars of the proceeds from the sales to the widow of Alexander McLaughlin, one of the original proprietors of the city. On June 9, 1841, James Clark, a convict sentenced from Scioto County for highway robbery, atrociously murdered Cyrus Sells, a prison guard, by stealing upon his victim from behind and beating him down with an axe. The murderer's motive was revenge for some rebuke or punishment he had received. Sells, whose age was twentytwo, was a resident of Columbus and a member of the Columbus Guards. Within a few months of the time when this tragedy occurred, Esther Foster, a negress then serving a term in the prison, beat a white female convict to death with a fire shovel. On February 9, 1844, Clark and Esther Foster expiated their crimes on the same gallows, erected at the southwest corner of Mound and Scioto streets. The execution, says Martin, "called together an immense crowd of people, both -male and female," and the occasion was one of "much noise, confusion, drunkenness and disorder." Sullivan Sweet, a wellknown citizen, was pushed over in the crowd and fatally trampled by a horse. The visitations of the prison by cholera in epidemic form on different occasions have been described in Chapter XXXV of Volume I. Worse for the prison than cholera, so far as its discipline and general usefulness are concerned, has been its frequent subjection to partisan " reorganization." In 1839 Nathaniel Medbery, a valuable warden, gave place to W. B. Van Hook, who, in turn, was superseded in 1842 by Richard Stadden. In the current chronicles of 1843 we read of a meeting of citizens held to protest against the removal of Mr. Stadden, who was declared to be " a faithful officer, a respected citizen and an upright man." His successor, appointed in 1843, was John Patterson, .who, in turn, gave place in 1846 to Laurin Dewey. Such are a few of the changes, mostly on partisan account, which, at intervals, have disturbed the management of the institution from 1822 until the present time' A newspaper paragraph of 1843 contained the following suggestive statements: 582 - HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS. If half we have heard on good authority is true, the walls of the Ohio Penitentiary, could they speak, would disclose prisonhouse secrets" that would make the blood curdle. We are against flogging in the army, navy, madhouse or penitentiary, if it can be dispensed with. . . . If the managers of that institution [the Ohio Penitentiary] could substitute such a persuasive as cold water for the cats and other instruments of torture and bloodletting heretofore employed, we are certain they would elicit an expression of universal commendation from the community.' In the current chronicles of 1851 we read of the arrival of three or four boy convicts sentenced to the Penitentiary from Cleveland. They were brought in manacles and " as they hobbled from the cars to the omnibus," wrote an observer, " they laughed about their awkward fix and looked hardened and indifferent to the terrible punishment awaiting them." "The sight," adds this writer, " was sickening." One of these boys was only ten years of age. incidental to his incarceration among adult offenders a loud demand was raised for a " house of refuge " for juvenile offenders.' A law transferring the appointment of penitentiary directors from the General Assembly to the Governor was passed in April, 1852. Additional legislation providing for the appointment of a board of three directors and otherwise affecting the organization of the management, was enacted in 1854. Alleged inhuman cruelties inflicted upon Toliver Coker, a negro convict, by Deputy Warden Watson, was, in that year, investigated by a legislative committee which made a report attributing to Watson almost incredible barbarities, and demanding his resignation. During the same year, J. M. King, a prison guard, was arrested on charges of embezzlement, and assisting convicts to escape. Advertisements of convict labor for hire appeared in the newspapers of the fifties. Attempts to classify the prisoners ckassifyg to age, crime, second convictions and other standards, were made in 1854 but were not successful. George H. Wright and Joseph Deemer, prison guards, were arrested in March, 1855, for an alleged attempt to aid the escape of a prisoner named Charles Freeman. On September 10, same year, two female convicts escaped by climbing over the prison walls. The warden's report for the year 1855 declared that the provisions of law requiring the warden to classify the convicts according to their age and disposition had been carried out as far as "practicable with existing contracts." Alleged malpractice by the prison physician by which a convict named Shannon became entirely blind was investigated in 1857 by a legislative committee which reported recommending that the charges against the physician be subjected to a judicial examination. Shannon had been sentenced for one year on pleading guilty to manslaughter, consisting, it was said, in dealing a death blow to the assailant of a woman who called fbr his assistance. Hisforse awakened a great deal of popular discussion and sympathy. On May 27, 1857, Bartlett Neville, aged 27,from Athens County, was brutally murdered by a fellow convict named Albert Myers, from Clark County, who came up behind Neville while he was helping to carry a bucket across the yard, and struck him down with an axe. Neville was a harmless individual, not believed to be of sound mind or judgment. Myers was convicted of this crime before Judge James L. Bates, who sentenced him to be hung on September 3, 1858. On account of alleged insanity he was respited by Governor Chase until December 17, 1858, when he was hung at the Franklin County Jail. His remarks and conduct, both at his sentence and at his execution, were of the most brutal and revolting character. In October, 1859, one half of the lots on the Old Penitentiary tract were sold by order of Governor Chase. On April 4, 1859, the General Assembly, by joint resolution, authorized the Governor to appoint a commission to inquire' and report as to the necessity for enlarging the institutional capacity of the State for penitentiary punishment, and to suggest whether, should such enlargement be deemed necessary, it should be THE PENITENTIARY - 583 made by adding to the prison at Columbus or by building a new one in some other locality. The members of the commission appointed pursuant to this resolution were Thomas Spooner, of Cincinnati, Nelson Franklin, of Circleville, and Kent Jarvis, of Massillon. In November, 1859, these commissioners met at Columbus, received proposals for the new penitentiary from fortyone different towns, and started on a tour of inspection. Two female convicts escaped from the prison during the night of November 1, 1860. They were retaken near Worthington. Of twenty-one convicts in the female department in April, 1862, two were sisters who had been sentenced for shoplifting. One of these was the mother of seven children ; the other had left at home a babe about three weeks old. In May, 1861, Samuel Groff, a convict in the saddletree shop, was shot by a guard named Taylor and fatally wounded. Groff had struck Taylor and attempted to incite a mutiny. In June, 1863, a negro convict from Cleveland, named Stephens, concealed a hammer in his clothes and with it struck and killed a fellow negro convict named Howard. In 1864 an annex for insane convicts was completed at a cost of $15,000. In January, 1865, Daniel Heavey, an old guard, was fatally stabbed with a shoeknife by a convict named Edward A. Drew. An attempted mutiny in November, 1865, was suppressed by use of some violence, without fatal results, by Deputy Warden Dean. In January, 1866, James McDonald, an old prisoner who had been recently discharged, returned to the prison by scaling its walls. He was suspected of an attempt to release a former comrade in crime, and was committed to the city prison. On recommendation of Warden Walcutt and Governor Hayes, the General Assembly, by resolution of May 16, 1868, authorized the purchase of ten-acres of additional ground contiguous to the northern boundary of the establishment. On the first of October next ensuing this land was purchased of the Lincoln Goodale estate for $20,000; in 1871 it was enclosed by a wall twentyfour feet in height. During the Civil War the Ohio Penitentiary was used, by consent of the General Assembly, as a United States military prison. In consequence of this it became the receptacle, during that period, of many prominent Confederates and abettors of the rebellion. Most conspicuous among this class of its occupants was General John Morgan and his associates, whose capture and commitment to the prison have been described in the tenth chapter of this volume. Morgan and the Confederate officers taken with him, numbering about seventy in all, were confined in the ground range of cells, and the one next above it, in the interior cellblock of the east wing. Here they were isolated from all the prisoners committed for civil crimes. In going to and from their meals they marched across the prison yard ; with this exception their daily exercise was limited to promenades in the galleries which coursed around the cellblock. Two military sentinels patrolled the corridor in front of the cells, a turnkey was constantly on the watch, and frequent tours of inspection were made by the prison officials and guards. No newspapers were allowed to reach the captives, their correspondence was subjected to rigid inspection, and between sunset and sunrise they were all locked within their cells. Nevertheless, on the morning of -November 28, 1863, the discovery was made that during the preceding night Morgan and several of his companions had escaped from the prison. The story of this wonderful exploit has been frequently told, with many variations of statement, but perhaps never more authentically than by Colonel Donn Piatt as he gathered it from the lips of a Confederate participant, and communicated it to his paper, the Washington Capital. According to this account, General Morgan managed to communicate with friends outside the prison by means of trusted convicts who were permitted to go into the city on errands. His original design was to organize a general convict revolt and blow up the prison, but while he was meditating this scheme he learned that 584 - HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS. a large sewer passed under the prison directly beneath the cells occupied by himself and party. This information was communicated to him through the ventilator of his cell by a convict who had been one of a gang engaged in cleaning obstructions from the sewer. Morgan at once adopted new plans. What they were, and how executed let Colonel Platt narrate, as he gathered the story from his Confederate informant: The cell appropriated to the General was in the second tier above, reached by a stairway and a gallery ; so he selected the one occupied by his brother in which to make the attempt. Their first object was to obtain tools with which to work. This they accomplished by taking from the convicts, dinner table as they passed —and not from their own, as this would have excited suspicion — the short, strong, dull knives ground square off at the end, so as to rob them of danger as weapons. Every day added a knife to the Confederates until fourteen were secured. Their first effort was to remove the stone pavement beneath the cot of the cell selected. The pieces were broken into small fragments and deposited in the ashes of the huge stoves used to warm the halls. This had to be done slowly and cautiously, for the appearance of any large quantity or large fragment would at once arouse inquiry. After the stone pavement was removed a layer of cement was found. This too was broken up and divided between the stoves and the mattress, from which the stuffing was removed and burned as the material increased. The bed of the cell consisted of a cot, reared during the day against the wall and when down covered the hole at which the men were digging. They took turns at this slow, tedious process, and at the end of three weeks reached the sewer, arched with brick. Through this a hole was opened large enough to admit the body of a man. Had the brickwork, cement and pavement been honestly executed the prisoners would not have so readily opened the way. But like all the government work, it was found to be rotten and easily removed. To lower one of their number into this foul receptacle and explore the same came next. Owing to its size, and the fact that water was flowing through continuously, the air was not so poisonous as they feared ; but they found at the lower end where the sewer leaves the prison for the river, a heavy iron grating that defied all efforts made to break through. Driven from this end, the prisoners tried the other. It terminated at a wall. They attacked this wall. Their first impression was that getting through this obstacle, they would find themselves in the open country. Close but cautious questioning of guards and convicts — such convicts as I have said before, being near the close of their terms, were therefore used as messengers—with such observations as their indomitable leader could make, convinced them that this wall was between them and, not liberty, but a court surrounded partly by a prison and partly by a wall some thirty feet in height. There was nothing left them, however, but to dig through. It seemed an endless work, certainly no light one, for the wall was found, when pierced, to be fourteen feet from outside to outside. This work again was facilitated by the dishonesty of the government contractors in building the prison. After penetrating the shell of solid masonry the interior was found to be rubble held together by a mortar of sand. One day a messenger convict who had been trusted by the Confederates in carrying written messages to their friends outside, produced from one leg of his pantaloons a slender pick such as miners use, and from the other a short stout handle. This was repeated until more picks were furnished than could be used. And then followed — this time from his bosom — a shovel ; after that came bits of candles, and continued until Morgan ordered the man to desist, fearing that he might be discovered. The fellow gave over with much reluctance, for the receipt signed by Morgan for each article delivered brought him a hundred dollar greenback, and he was rapidly and easily accumulating a fortune. The heavy wall was pierced at last and quite an excavation was made in the earth of the courtyard, when the conspirators turned their attention to constructing openings into the thirteen other cells. As the escape was to be made in the nighttime each cell, of course, had to be tapped. After careful measurements and calculations, the precise places were designated and working from below, the arch was broken and the earth removed, all but the stone pavement; that was left so that a few blows would open the way at the moment when escape was determined upon. In the meantime other necessary preparations were being made. A rope was constructed of the sheets of their beds torn into strips and twisted together. At seven every night the prisoners were locked in their cells, and as an hour after, there was an inspection which consisted of a lantern being thrust through the door so that the the officer in command could see that his prisoner was in bed, it was necessary to get substitutes. To this end paddies were constructed out of their underclothes, stuffed with the filling of the mattresses. After this Morgan's men slept with their heads covered, so that their inanimate substitutes might not be discovered. For awhile the officer would call the prisoner, but found THE PENITENTIARY - 585 it so difficult to awake him that this was abandoned, the puzzled guard saying that Kentucky " rebs " slept like "niggers," with their heads covered, and "sound as whiteoak wood." All was ready for the desperate attempt, and the leader was waiting for a stormy night, when one day he received through their trusted messenger a bit of paper. On the paper was written,. " Warden of the prison changed tomorrow." John Morgan was not slow to learn the meaning of this. A new commandant meant a new broom, new regulations, an inspection and perhaps discovery. Morgan did not know that this change was the result of an anonymous letter received by Secretary Stanton, written and mailed in Columbus, that hinted darkly at a revolt in the State's prison and the destruction of the State's capital. But he did know that the attempt was to be made that night or abandoned. During the winter almost a perpetual twilight reigns within the gloomy walls of the State Prison at Columbus. Sometimes this deepens into night, and then the unhappy inmates know that a storm is raging without. The eventful day forced on them for the attempt so long in preparation was lighter than usual and it was resolved to fight their way out should that way be obstructed by guards. To this end their blunted knives were sharpened to a point, and fourteen of these deadly weapons, deadly in such hands, were distributed to as many men. The first difficulty to be overcome was to get General Horgan from the cell in the upper tier to one of the cells communicating with the sewer. He selected his brother, not only because of the personal resemblance, but for that he thought it just for others that the punishment following the discovery should fall on himself through the one nearest to him. Night came and the brother hurried into the General's cell, while the General placed himself in the one vacated below. The change worked well, when, at the moment the guard was about leaving, having locked in the prisoners, one appeared at the cell door so lately occupied by the General, thrust a lantern in at the opening, and, just as the younger Morgan was giving up all as lost, demanded a rattail file loaned the General the day before. "What file ?" thought the young man. He had not heard of the article, borrowed under pretense of making a ring for a lady from a bone. He had, however, enough presence of mind to betray no confusion, but began, with his back to the door, an active search for the misera- ble file. As luck had it, his -hand fell on the article where it had been left upon the bed. Covering his face with his hand, as if the light hurt his eyes, he gave the file to the guard and then listened with throbbing heart to the footsteps that died away in the distance. The clang of the iron grated door as it swung to was the signal for immediate action. The pavements above the sewer at the designated places were broken through, and fourteen men dropped into the foul receptacle. The candles were lighted and the work began. Five feet of earth had-to be removed before midnight, and taking turns they worked as probably men never labored before. Rapidly, as the earth was loosened, it was passed back into the sewer, their wooden cups being used for this purpose. At last an opening was made, enlarged sufficiently to admit the passage of a man, and John Morgan pushed his way through and stood upon the ground of the court. He found the sky overcast and a drizzling rain slowly falling. The place seemed deserted. The man on guard had evidently sought shelter from the inclement weather. One by one these resolute men emerged from the hole. Grasping each other by the hand and led by their General, they moved slowly and quietly toward the wall that divided the female prison from that which they so lately occupied. The wall was reached, and the stoutest bracing himself against it with his hands, another mounted to his shoulders ; then a third climbed above the two, and a fourth was making his way up when the second man missed his footing and all fell to the ground. This mode of scaling a perpendicular wall is successfully practiced by French zouaves and acrobats. But it requires strength and dexterity, .a dexterity that comes of long practice, and this practice had been denied Morgan's men. General Morgan then shifted from the dividing wall, after listening a minute to find whether the noise of the unhappy tumble had been heard, to the corner furthest from the prison. 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 clothing—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 self possession and courage, as his companion and separating from the other 586 - 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 companion 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 Morgan, 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 companion 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 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 government 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 fighting all day ; and his name's Squibob, Colonel Squibob of the One Hundred Ninety-sixth 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 conveyance, 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 immediately thereafter the telegraph wires would fairly hum with the startling news of John Morgan'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 observant 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 Caesar, and his fortunes, or rather, I should say, carried Caesar to his fate. Could the daring raider who sat with arms folded in the stern of that frail craft have had the present darkness suddenly 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 he leaves the stage while the ignoble death that began with treachery and ended in a few shots, and a body thrown upon a wag- THE PENITENTIARY - 587 oner's horse, 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 cloudy 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 passage 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 sentence 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 Jong 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 consumption, 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- himself 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 case 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 : 10 The mother alighted from the train with the babe in her 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 babe 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 bade Sheriff Dealing goodbye. Holding the babe 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. 588 - 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 vigorously 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 poorhouse. The crime for which Mrs. Garrett is sentenced to be hanged January 4, 1889, was the burning to death of these idiotic stepchildren on the night of November 1, 1887.11 On June 13, 1869, a female convict, Mary Williams, hid out until night, when she rang 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 corncrib. 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, Nancy Jane Scott and Thomas L. Miles, both convicts discharged 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 advanced to be used for religious services in 1875. In 1874 a legislative committee investigated and, condemned the arrangement and ventilation of the cells, and recommended their reconstruction. The committee also advised the erection of a new building to contain 500 cells. The foundations of this building were laid in 1875 on ground previously occupied 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 standpipe was broached in 1882. In 1885 the standpipe was completed. By legislation of 1884 and 1885 a plan of graded punishments was introduced, and the entire system of penitentiary management was recast on a reformatory 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 contract labor system was abolished and in lieu thereof it was provided that the prisoners should be employed by the State, that those under twenty-one years of age should engage in handiwork solely for the purpose of learning a trade, and that articles 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 complete recovery of their liberty by meritorious conduct. To the warden was entrusted the appointment of the employes, guards and subordinate officers 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 hoard of prison managers proceeded to classify all the prisoners into three grades, numbered from highest to lowest, as first, second THE PENITENTIARY - 589 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 conduct to the first. The prisoners of the first grade were clothed in a suit 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 abolished. 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." 12 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 so called " 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 c. 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 lire pared for that purpose." In pursuance of this act "a suitable building and scaffold" 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 benefited 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 frequently 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 punishment's, 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 possibilities, the prison may become an unqualified blessing both to the State and to its capital. 590 - HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS. NOTES. 1. See Chapter XIII, Volume I. 2. An old citizen informs the author that this ground was originally a dense pawpaw thicket. 3. The bricks of which the original Penitentiary was composed are said to have been made, in part, of clay taken from the ancient mound on South High Street. 4. Western Intelligeneer. 5. The convicts, it is said, were allowed to amuse themselves with ball playing, and trained a dog to bring the ball back to them when it happened to fly over the walls. Another story of that period represents that a drunken convict, while roaming the streets, met Governor Lucas and implored his pardon, much to the Governor's disgust. During one of the numerous escapades, in 1830, a convict named Smith May the 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, whence they retreated to Stewart's Woods, where they were retaken. Maythe, the leader in this adventure, was one of four brothers then confined in the prison. On being brought back, one of the brothers reproached him for his conduct, saying, "how could you so disgrace our family!" During the cholera epidemic of 1833 Maythe earned and obtained his pardon by faithful service in caring 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 Kentucky for attempted murder. 6. The author of this plan is said to have been Doctor 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 conyicts. Were that man to write today he might have something to say about political 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 fact that imprisonment serves only as a punishment., 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 cited against the exercise 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 city 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 McLean ; 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. Dimmock ; 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 care 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 unanimous 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 enforced custody. Harmless lunatics were placed under the care of the overseers of the poor ; dangerous ones were committed to the county jail. In January, 1821, the General Assembly appropriated $10,000 to establish a " Commercial Hospital and Lunatic Asylum" to be located at and supported by " the town of Cincinnati." This institution, afterwards styled the " Ohio Medical College and Lunatic. Asylum," was intended for the relief of " sick and destitute river traders." For the insane generally 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. The condition of the unfortunate persons of unsound mind who were committed to the crude and often heedless if not cruel guardianship which the earlier resources of the counties provided for their paupers and criminals, was truly pitiable. One of those who most fully appreciated it, and were most profoundly touched by it, was Doctor William Maclay Awl, M. D., of Columbus. Doctor Awl was a native of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, born May 24, 1799. After having studied medicine with Doctor Samuel Agnew at Harrisburg and received an honorary professional degree from Jefferson College, he shouldered his knapsack at the age of twentyseven, and set out on foot for Ohio. First settling at Lancaster, in 1826, he removed a year or two later to Somerset, Perry County, whence, in the spring of 1833, he transferred his residence and professional labors to Columbus. During the first year of his residence in the capital, says his biographer,' He had an opportunity of proving his professional zeal and knowledge in combating an epidemic of cholera which raged during July, August and September. He, in common with the other physicians of the city, was kept busy night and day during this period of suffering and alarm ; among other things he tried saline venous injections in one case, but relied mainly on calomel. [591] 592 - HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS. On January 5, 1835, a convention which Doctors Awl, Drake and others had invited " all the regular and scientific physicians of the State " to attend, met in the First Presbyterian Church. Its attendance numbered about seventy. Its president was Peter Allen, of Trumbull ; its secretaries were M. Z. Kreider, of Fairfield, and William M. Awl, of Columbus. Among the subjects discussed were these: Erection of commercial hospitals by the National Government on the Mississippi, the Ohio and Lakes ; propriety of petitioning the legislature to legalize the study of anatomy ; vaccination ; intemperance ; medical ethics, and, as the event proved, most presageful of all, the establishment of a school for the blind and an asylum for the insane. Consideration of these two latter subjects was the principal purpose which Doctor Awl had in mind when he became the leading spirit among those who had summoned the convention and it was chiefly at his instance that the assembled physicians decided to memorialize the General Assembly to establish the two public charities in behalf of which he had taken such an active interest. The memorial, as it was afterward presented, was signed by Doctors R. Thompson, T. D. Mitchell, William M. Awl, John Eberle and E. Smith as members of a committee, and by Doctor Peter. Allen as President and Doctor M. Z. Kreider as secretary of the. State Medical Convention. So strong was the argument made by the memorialists that, on March 7, 1835, the General Assembly passed " an act providing for the erection of a Lunatic Asylum," to be erected on a tract of not less than fifteen nor more than thirty acres of land, distant at least one mile and not more than four miles from the city of Columbus. For the purchase of the site the act authorized an expenditure of not more than two thousand dollars. The duty of acquiring the necessary grounds was lodged in a board of three directors, who were further required to obtain, by visiting the best institutions for the insane in other States, or otherwise, all needful information as to the best plan for equipping and organizing such an institution, and to report the results of their investigations, together with estimates of cost, to the next General Assembly. The directors appointed were General S. T. McCracken, of Lancaster, and Doctors William M. Awl and Samuel Parsons, of Columbus. These gentlemen, after visiting Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, Boston and other cities signed a report on December 10, 1835, recommending for the Ohio institution the general plan of" the Massachusetts Lunatic Hospital at Worcester." In setting forth the details of the plan proposed for adoption the report says: The structure will consist of a centre building and two wings, all extended upon the front, and measuring 266 feet. The centre, or principal edifice, will be eightyone feet long by fortyfive feet in width, three stories and an attic in height, and ornamented in front with a plain portico supported by four Ionic columns. The wings will extend to the right and left of the centre building. They are each ninety feet six inches in front by one hundred feet in the rear, thirtynine feet wide and three stories high. They recede twenty-four feet from the front line, and are so united to the opposite ends of the centre structure, by one half their width, that the corresponding half, or nineteen feet six inches, will fall beyond its rear. This arrangement disconnects half the end of each wing from the rear of the centre of the building, entirely. permitting, by means of a large window, the free circulation of the external air throughout the long wings. . . . The centre edifice, together with the wings, is to be built of brick, upon a basement of stone work seven feet high. The cooking and laundry departments and the workshops for patients were assigned to the basement, the offices, medical dispensary, library and reception rooms to the central building, the dining rooms to the rear part of each floor in the wings. Through the centre of each wing extended a corridor fourteen feet wide, with apartments for patients on each side. Heat was derived from furnaces in the basements. Arrangements for ventilation, including ready facilities for communication with the external atmosphere, were carefully planned. A separate CENTRAL ASYLUM FOR THE INSANE - 593 stairway from the corridor of each wing communicated with a courtyard enclosing about onethird of an acre. The grounds selected and purchased for the site comprised an area of thirty acres, now known as East Park Place' The report of the directors thus described it : The site for the asylum is in the immediate vicinity of this city, about one mile in a northeast direction from the State House; the grounds are within full view and command a handsome prospect of the surrounding country. 3 The price paid for this ground was $66 per acre ; the aggregate, $1,980. The central building was set back about 200 yards from Broad Street toward which it fronted, looking south. The estimated cost of the entire structure was $40,767, of which sum about $18 000, the directors believed, could be saved by the labor of convicts. A reason given for locating the institution at no greater distance from the city was: " To enable the patients in certain states of disease to have ready access to objects and scenes that may interest them, and such as are calculated to induce a new train of thought and consequent change in the operations of the mind." Pursuing this subject the directors say: Solitude not only disposes to insanity, but enables the mind, when deranged, to dwell upon the original cause of alienation, and thereby to perpetuate the disease itself. In recent or violent cases of mania the location is not material ; the patients in such cases require a more active medical treatment, and need no other accommodations as to insulation, than safe, commodious and well-ventilated apartments. But after the acute stage of the disease is past, and the patients are convalescent, or the disease has assumed a chronic form, or in cases of partial derangement, in all which the treatment will be chiefly moral, such a situation as before named is found from experience of the best institutions to give additional effect to the ordinary occupations and amusements of the patients in exciting and permanently impressing new ideas upon their minds. Considering the subject of a location in this light, the directors procured a site for the asylum in the vicinity of the city instead of one more remote in the country. Thirty years later, fortunately for the city, and also for the institution, the progress of medical science with respect to the treatment of insanity justified a view just the opposite, in most respects to that here taken. In March, 1837, the General Assembly granted, by almost unanimous vote, an appropriation to erect the asylum buildings in substantial accord with the plans and recommendations submitted by the directors. N. B. Kelley, afterwards architect of the Capitol, was appointed superintendent of construction. Excavation began at once, and on April 20,1837, the first stone of the foundation masonry was laid by one of the convict laborers from the Penitentiary at the northwest corner of the west wing. Doctor William M. Awl was appointed superintendent and chief physician of the institution in the spring of 1838, and spent the ensuing summer in a study of hospitals for the insane in the Eastern States. On November 10, 1838, the asylum buildings were declared to be complete, and final settlement was made with the superintendent of their construction. Their total cost up to that time had been a little over forty thousand dollars. So pressing had been the need for the institution, owing to the condition of the insane throughout the State, that the General Assembly humanely gave it preference over the Capitol in the appropriation of surplus convict labor. The number of the insane in Ohio at the time the asylum was first opened was about 300 ; the institution had capacity for but 140. More than half of those who needed care were therefore still left in the poorhouses and jails. A necessity for enlargement of the buildings was therefore felt almost from the beginning. Accordingly, the west wing was begun in 1843, and completed in 1845, The east wing, begun in 1844, was completed in 1846. In 1847 the con 38* 594 - HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS. tral wing was erected. These additions increased the frontage of the building to 370 feet, its depth to 218 feet, the total number of its rooms, exckusive of the basement to 440, and its total cost to $153,821.84. The number of its rooms at the disposal of patients was 219 besides twentynine lodges. The building in its enlarged form was quadrangular, and covered precisely an acre of ground. The completeness of the institution, and its efficiency under Doctor Awl's management, at this time attracted wide attention. On reading its report for 1842, Lydia Huntley Sigourney, the New England poetess, was inspired to write the following : ADDRESS TO OHIO. Hail! Sister, of the beauteous West,' Throned on thy river's sparkling :tide, Who still seeks, with pitying breast, The sick to heal, the lost to guide. Still o'er thy wounded children bend, With bounteous hand, and kindness true, Intent thine utmost skill to lend The broken mind to build anew. The care, the cure to thee are dear, Of ills to which the world is blind, Or, sunk in apathy severe, To torture and despair consigned. Clothed and restored to Reason's sway Thou joy'st thy suffering ones to see, And hear them pour the votive lay To Heaven, and happiness, and thee. Say, is a nation's truest praise In pomp of lordly power to shine, The o'ershadowing pyramid to raise, Or hoard the treasure of the mine ? No, no ! with sympathising heart From sorrow's grasp the prey to wrest ; And thou hast chosen that better part ; God bless thee, Sister of the West ! The asylum received further commendation from Miss Dorothea L. Dix, the Massachusetts authoress and philanthropist, who visited and inspected it in 1844. On Tuesday, November 17, 1868, the board of trustees met at the asylum and received reports from its different departments. According to these reports the condition of the institution at that time was superb. The system of administration was admirable, and the success in treatment very gratifying. Pleased with the condition of things, the board adjourned and its members departed to their homes. 4 On Wednesday evening it was usual for the patients to assemble in the amusement hall for recreation. They were thus engaged on Wednesday evening, November 18, and the last quadrille in the customary dance bad been called, when, a little after nine o'clock, an attendant came into the hall and informed the superintendent, Doctor Peck, that a fire had broken out in the sixth ward. Hastening to that ward, which was in the northeast part of the east wing, Doctor Peck found it already filled with dense smoke, forbidding all entrance. An alarm CENTRAL ASYLUM FOR THE INSANE - 595 was at once telegraphed, and about fifteen minutes later the three steam fire-engines then owned by the city were throwing water from the cisterns. The steam pump at the asylum was also at work. One of the city steamers, the John Miller, had been engaged with the fire but a short time when it was disabled. The Ridgway, an old engine lately from the repair shop, took the Miller's place, but soon failed and was also retired. Within half an hour after the pumping began the water in the asylum cisterns gave out. Wells and other cisterns of the neighborhood were resorted to, but in vain. The fire made steady progress along the great wing, pushing its advance under shelter of the heavily-sheathed, tin roof, and devouring everything before it. Its fierceness set the feeble resources of the fire department at defiance; its smoke repelled all who sought to penetrate its lair. The asylum contained at this time about 330 patients. The most violent of these, about sixty in number, were lodged in a hospital, detached from the main building. They were safe. The entire official and working force of the institution, together with scores of helpful citizens who came rushing to the scene, therefore bent their entire efforts to the rescue and removal of the insane from the burning building. This was accomplished in various ways. Sonic were lifted through holes cut in the roof and ceiling, others were taken out through the windows, from which the strong iron gratings were wrested. Women with hair dishevelled, almost naked, and shrieking with terror were borne by strong arms through the glare of the flames along the steep roof. A thrilling story is told of a physician who rushed to the rescue of a robust female maniac, who, as soon as he entered her room, shut the door, threw herself against it, and with the fury and strength of wild delirium, defied all attempts to open it. The flames which hissed, crackled, and darted their red tongues gave her no fear ; she scorned them with a demoniac laugh. Fortunately for the imprisoned man an attendant came to his rescue, and together they removed the frantic woman to the amusement hall, where she vented her remaining fury by dancing on the piano until it was completely ruined. The ward where the fire first appeared contained thirtytwo women. Six of these were caught in the smoke before help could reach them, and were suffocated to death.' Their lifeless bodies were snatched from the flames and stretched upon the grass, then rapidly whitening with falling snow. The patients who were assembled in the amusement hall when the fire broke out were locked up there to prevent their escape. Thus imprisoned they indulged their wild fancies in many fantastic modes. A few, not confined to the hall, escaped from custody in the confusion and broke away through the dismal night on foot for their homes. As rapidly as possible the patients confined in the amusement hall and those rescued from their rooms were removed in omnibuses and carriages to the Institution for the Deaf and Dumb. Meanwhile the fire moved resistlessly on, and on, throughout the night until it passed through the central building and reached the last extremity of the- western wing. It halted only because no further food for it lay within its reach. The central wing, midway between the eastern and western one, was saved almost entire; the rest, when morning dawned, was blackened, roofless walls. The origin of the fire was never ascertained with certainty. It was first detected in the attic at the northwest corner of the east wing. No fire was in use in that part of the building, nor were there any flues there from which ignition was at all probable. Doctor Peck thus stated his own theory : The origin of the fire was in the clothing room of the number six ward. This room contained all the clothing of thirtytwo patients, and the sudden filling of the ward with such a dense, stifling smoke was the natural result of the burning of so much clothing made of both cotton and wool. How did the fire find its way into that room ? In answer to this question 596 - HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS. I have but one theory. While the patients were being put to bed, some one of the mischievous ones must have lighted at the gas burner some combustible material like paper, or cotton, or cloth, and thrown it over the transom of the clothing room door into the clothing room. . . . While writing this article, a conversation with Doctor G. H. Stewart, who has been in charge of all the patients sent to the Newburg Asylum has established in my mind my theory of the origin and cause of the fire. One of the patients of that ward was a subject of periodical attacks of maniacal excitement. While passing through these periods her impulses were various, but she was almost always mischievous, often violent, and always perfectly reckless. At the time of the fire she was in an excited state. After she arrived at the Northern Asylum, it became necessary to use restraint by confining her hands. While Doctor Stewart was making his morning round a few days since she urged the removal of the restraint, and while he was hesitating to do so she remarked to him : " I know the reason why you do not take off these mittens; it is because you are afraid I will burn up this asylum as I did the other." She added further that he lighted paper in the gas and threw it over the door into the room. Immediate rehabilitation of the institution was universally concurred in, but with respect to reconstruction of the burned buildings there arose a wide difference of opinion. A proposition to remove the asylum for the insane to a farm somewhere in the vicinity of Columbus, and erect upon its Broad Street site an institution for the blind was ably advocated in the General Assembly by Hon. James Scott. This plan was reinforced by declaration officially adopted by the asylum trustees that it would be inexpedient to rebuild on the old site unless it should be enlarged by the purchase of at least fourteen acres of additional ground. The trustees further deckared that enlargement of the buildings and material changes in their plans would be imperatively necessary. In advocating removal Judge Scott pungently stated that on its Broad Street site the asylum was " a nuisance to the city and the city a nuisance to it." The writer of these lines and others who happened, to be at that time colleagues of Judge Scott in the House of Representatives heartily seconded this view, and did all we could to insure its acceptance, but in vain. On April 23, 1869, the General Assembly passed an act providing for the erection of a new building on the old grounds, and, so far as possible, with the old material. This act made an appropriation of $100,000, required that the now building should be large enough to accommodate 400 patients, and limited its maximum cost to $400,000. Nothing was done under this act until September, 1869, when contracts for work and materials began to be let. Levi F. Schofield was chosen as the architect, his plans were accepted, and on an inclement day in. October, 1869 — twentythird — the ceremony of breaking ground for the new building took place. The spot selected for this ceremony was that where the northeast corner of the new structure was intended to rest. A considerable number of ladies and gentlemen were present, one of the most notable members of the party being the Governor of Ohio, Hon. R. B. Hayes. After brief remarks by Doctor S. M. Smith, one of the trustees, an invocation was offered by Rev A. G. Byers. Governor Hayes then lifted the first shovelful of earth into the barrow. This act was repeated by Doctor Smith, Judge W. B. Thrall and others. Demolition of the old walls began at the same time, and continued during the few weeks which remained prior to the close of the season. Fortunately for the institution, and for the city, the opening of the season of 1870 brought with it an entire change of programme. On April 18 of that year the General Assembly authorized the Governor, State Treasurer and Attorney-General to sell the grounds of the old as lum, then comprising seventytwo and onehalf acres, for not less than $200,000, and to purchase a new site, in the vicinity of Columbus, at a cost of not over $100,000. Pursuant to this authority a sale was effected in May, 1870, for $200,000, the sum of $60,000 to be paid in cash down, and the residue in nine equal annual instalments. The purchasers were William S. Sullivant, Andrew D. Rodgers, John G. Mitchell, Richard Jones, John and T. Ewing Miller, Orange Johnson, Frederick J. Fay, James Watson, S. S. CENTRAL ASYLUM FOR THE INSANE - 597 Rickly, Charles Baker, D. W. H. Day, W. B. Hawkes, John Joyce, John L. Winner and W. B. Hayden. By this syndicate the grounds were handsomely platted into streets, avenues and parks, and named East Park Place. After examining various lands offered, the committee decided to purchase for the new site the farm of William S. Sullivant, west of the city. The tract contained three hundred acres ; the price paid for it was $100,000. The new institution was planned on a vast scale, and on May 16, 1870, its erection was ceremoniously inaugurated 6 Hitherto, the elevation on which the new buildings were staked out had been known as Sullivant's Hill ; at the suggestion, it is said, of Mrs. Doctor W. L. Peck the trustees decided to name it Glenwood.' On July 4, 1870, the cornerstone of the new asylum was laid, with Masonic ceremonies, conducted by officers of the Grand Lodge of Ohio. A street parade in the city, preceding the ceremonies, was participated in by the fire department, State officers and visiting Masonic bodies. Governor R. B. Hayes presided at the grounds and delivered an address. Hon. Bellamy Storer, the orator of the occasion, delivered a disquisition on Masonry. In the course of his remarks Governor Hayes made the following historical statements: Prior to the legislation of the last session of the General Assembly the law made a broad distinction between cases of chronic insanity and cases of recent origin. Those who had been insane more than two years and those who had been returned from an asylum as incurable were not entitled to the benefit of the provision made by the State for the insane, but were left to such care as their families, or the counties of their residence, were prepared to give. Last winter the General Assembly took a great step in advance of all our previous legislation on this subject. The second section of an act passed April 12, 1870, is as follows : The chronic insane shall be admitted to the several lunatic asylums of the State upon the same terms and in the same manner that other insane persons are admitted thereto, and no discrimination shall be made against those whose cases may be adjudged chronic, nor shall any preference be given to those whose cases may be regarded as curable." In order to carry out the wise and humane object of this section, extensive additions to existing asylums, and to the asylums now building, were authorized. The Central Asylum here building was required to be enlarged so as to accommodate six hundred patients at an increased cost of $200,000. . . . With this legislation a new era begins in the history of the treatment of the insane in Ohio. Hereafter the policy, the purpose will be to make as speedily as practicable ample provision for all of this unfortunate class of our people. Additional remarks were made by Doctor Peck, in the course of which he paid a high tribute to Doctor William M. Awl as the founder of this great charity. In behalf of the trustees, Henry B. Curtis presented the cornerstone, which was then laid under the direction of Grand Master Alexander H. Newcomb, assisted by Deputy Grand Master Philip M. Wagenhals. In a cavity beneath the stone various documents and other articles were deposited. The first patients regularly received by the asylum were an instalment, 180 in number, transferred to it from the Dayton institution on September 7, 1877. Doctor Richard Gundry, an eminent expert in the treatment of insanity, was the superintendent in charge. He had been transferred to the Central Asylum from the one at Athens. During the spring of 1878 Doctor W. W. Ellsbury was chosen to supersede him, but after coining to Columbus to assume his duties he resigned, whereupon Doctor Gundry was offered reinstatement, but declined it. The eminent qualifications of Doctor Gundry did not, however fail of due appreciation, for the superintendency of the Maryland Institution for the Insane at Spring Grove, near Baltimore, was tendered him, at a salary of $2,500 per annum, and was accepted. On February 10, 1881, a few months before his death, Doctor Gundry wrote to the author in response to some inquiries. His letter contained the following passage : 598 - HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS. My connection with the Central Asylum was very short, and not remarkably pleasant. I assumed charge as superintendent January 9, 1877, furnished it, opened it for patients in September of that year, and had admitted about one thousand patients when, on April 9. [1878], I was superseded by the appointment of Doctor W. W. Ellsbury who, resigning, gave way to Doctor [L.] Firestone. I left the institution, and Ohio, May 27, 1878. These examples will serve to illustrate a long series of changes in management with which this great charity has been visitsd, chiefly for partisan reasons, in the course of its history. The story is a painful one to contemplate, and we gladly turn from it to other themes. NOTES. 1. J. H. Pooley, M. D. 2. The different purchases of ground for the use of the asylum, made then and subsequently, were as follows : August 12, 1835, thirty acres and half of the width of an alley conveyed to the State by Alfred Kelley and R. Neil for $1,980; March 26, 1839, twentysix and eighty-eight hundredths acres, conveyed by Alfred Kelley for $2,925 ; nine acres conveyed at a later date by William Burdell; seven and onehalf acres conveyed in February, 1869, from the estate of Robert Armstrong. 3. A correspondent of the Cincinnati Chronicle, writing in February, 1838, described the location of the asylum, then in course of erection, as " about a mile east of the Capitol, on the north side of the old Zanesville road." 4. The members of the board at that time were Doctor S. M. Smith, William B. Thrall, Henry B. Curtis, Henry Wilson, John Hunter and Doctor William Fullerton. 5. These victims were Mrs. Caroline Corner, Miss Lizzie Herold and Mrs. C. Bradford, of Athens County ; Mrs. Murphy (over eighty years of age), of Wyandot County ; Mrs. Susan A. Parker, of Licking County, and Bridget Brophy, of Franklin County. 6. The first earth was thrown by William S. Sullivant, the next by Hon. Josiah Scott. Judge of the Supreme Court, the next by W. W. Pollard, surveyor of the grounds, and the next by Hon. A. D. Rodgers. 7. It was thus formally christened on September 1, 1870. The trustees decided at the same time to name the institution the Central Ohio Lunatic Asylum at Glenwood. It was afterwards, in much better taste, given its present title as the Central Asylum for the Insane. CHAPTER XXXVIII. INSTITUTION FOR THE DEAF AND DUMB. BY ROBERT PATTERSON, PRINCIPAL OF THE SCHOOL DEPARTMENT. SKETCH OF ROBERT PATTERSON. BY PROFESSOR ROBERT P. M'GREGOR. [Those who imagine that the loss of one of the most important senses, that of hearing, incapacitates from attaining distinction in any walk of life, or dwarfs the moral and mental attributes, find a perfect refutation in the career of the subject of this brief sketch. It is also of value as an example of what can be accomplished under the most adverse circumstances and apparently crushing misfortunes at the very outset of life, by an indomitable will and a spirit that soars above all earthly trammels Robert Patterson was born in Oakley, Fifeshire, Scotland, near Dumfermline, December 11, 1848. When about two weeks old he was carried, in the arms of his aunt Marion, mother of Attorney James Allen, of this city, to the kirk at Carnock, two miles from Oakley, to be christened. He was named after his.grandfather. His father was a miner. When Robert was three years and seven months old, his parents emigrated to this country and settled at Bloomsburg, Columbia County, Pennsylvania. At the age of six he had an attack of scarlet fever which was prevailing in that neighborhood at the time. H e grew worse and worse till at last the doctor lost all hope and, on leaving the house, one morning, happening to meet an undertaker just entering the house next door, where a child had died during the night from the same disease, he said : "There is another job for you in there. The little boy," referring to Robert, "cannot live." Robert's mother overheard this, and the indomitable spirit which she has transmitted to her son was aroused. She resolved that the doctor's ill-omened prediction should not prove true. She threw his prescriptions to the winds and, resorting to " old country " remedies and careful nursing, wrought such a change that when the doctor called next morning to, as he believed, write out the death certificate, he was astonished to find Robort alive and likely to recover. From that time he rapidly improved, but the disease, as if in revenge at being baffled of its prey, left him without his hearing and a cripple, his left leg being drawn up some six inches shorter than the other. One day while he was slowly convalescing, as he sat in the doorway enjoying the scenery, being still too weak to do anything else, he attracted the notice of a young doctor who had just come to town. He offered to cure the defect in Robert's limb for a consideration. The offer was accepted by Robert's parents and the doctor went to work, spurred on by the incredulity of the neighbors, who did not believe a cure could be effected. However, after several months of patient labor, Robert was able to throw away his crutches, the doctor's reputation was made and his success assured. [599]