Iowa
Old Press
The Centerville Citizen
Centerville, Appanoose county, Iowa
Saturday, March 9, 1872
We regret to announce the death of Mr. George P. Cole, of this
place, last Monday. His remains were taken to Johns township and
buried by the Masons. He leaves a wife and two children to mourn
his loss. The family and friends have the sympathy of the
community.
J. J. Cummings, formerly a resident of Centerville, was
re-elected Mayor of Fairfield, last Monday, as we learn from the
Ledger.
Wm. R. Davison and Luke P. Spooner, south of Centerville, removed
to Poweshiek county this week.
The Iowa Penitentiary.
A correspondent of the Sigourney News writes concerning
the State Penitentiary, as follows:
It is located, as most of your readers are aware, near Fort
Madison, on the Mississippi river, just above the town, and
divided from it by a small creek. The river runs nearly west
here, and the institution is built on the ridge running down from
the bluffs, which are quite abrupt. The east wall is nearly on
the line of the ground owned by the State, and is flanked by a
deep ravine. North, which is back in the hill, it had to be dug
down twenty-five feet to give a level yard for the prison. The
walls enclose something over three hundred feet each way, to
obtain which, three sides had to be filled in and the fourth side
excavated.
The cell rooms occupies the south side, and contains 318 cells.
Inside of the walls, and occupying three sides are also the
kitchen, dining-room, chapel and shops. The walls are twenty-two
feet high, with a tower on each corner for wall guard. Each cell
is 8 1/2 x 7 feet, and 7 feet high, bails of solid masonry, and
grated iron doors. About daylight in the morning the day guards
take their places on the walls armed with breech loaders. The
turn-key then opens the cell doors, and the convicts step out on
the gangway; at a signal from the guards who are in full view
from the floor below they commence marching.
As they close ranks each man places his right hand on the
shoulder of his neighbor in front. In this way they are marched
off in squads of about twenty to the wash room. Their breakfast
consists of all the good coffee, beef and light bread they may
want. At the table no word is spoken; if a man wants coffee he
holds up the cup or his plate, and the cook soon waits on him.
After breakfast they are marched to their respective shops, and
work diligently and silently till dinner, when they are put
through the same drill.
Their dinner consists of bread, meat, beans, potatoes, varied
occasionally with soup and fish, and pork in the place of beef.
Supper consists of bread and coffee only, which is taken to the
cells and eaten there. Their food is simple in quantity, well
cooked, and is wholesome and nutritious—the small number in
hospital
bearing out this statement.—On Sunday at 10 A.M., all who
are well, assemble in the chapel and listen to a sermon from the
chaplain, and at 2 P.M., all who desire can attend Sunday School.
Nearly all avail themselves of this privilege, as it is given
them the only opportunity they have to talk. Judge Beck, of the
Supreme Court, and a large number of the Christian men and women
of Fort Madison take an active part in this good work. After
Sunday School each convict is furnished with a printed catalogue
of books in the
library, and makes his selection for the next week. The chaplain
on Monday collects the books in the cells, and distributes the
new selections.
The discipline is strict and is rigidly enforced, but with
kindness and humanity. No corporal punishment is inflicted. If a
convict is refractory, or refuses to work, he is put into a dark
cell and his food is bread and water till he "comes
down." A book is also kept of their conduct, and if good,
they have a scale by which their term is diminished. A majority
are inspired by this hope, and men on their good behavior. Some
seven or eight are in for life, and of course have no such hope.
To the credit of the gentler sex be it said there is only one
female convict, and her offense was only larceny—or an
obtuseness of her perceptive faculties in relation to the
ownership of sundry articles. The matter was referred to the
District Judge, and he ordered the State to furnish her quarters
and subsistence for a matter of two years or so. She is engaged
in repairing clothing for the men, and is as contented as could
be expected, and will depart a sadder, and I hope, a wiser woman.
I have thus tried to give your readers a short sketch of the
prison life, and while it may not be so dark and gloomy as some
might imagine, yet it is severe enough, God knows. The disgrace
in itself, the deprivation of liberty, seeing nothing of the
outside world, separation from friends and relatives, and the
denied
privileges of social entercourse. And while abhorring the crimes
which brought these poor frail mortals here, I could not but pity
their unhappy condition, and sad fate; and while no doubt
civilized society is responsible for many of the circumstances
that brought these victims here, yet from conversation with both
convicts
themselves and officers of the prison, if I was to name the
principal cause of crime I would unhesitatingly say—whisky.
[transcribed by P.E., December 2006]