STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY

    By act of the General Assembly, approved January 28, 1857, a State Historical Society was provided for in connection with the University. At the commencement, an appropriation of $250 was made, to be expended in collecting, embodying, and preserving in an authentic form a library of books, pamphlets, charts, maps, manuscripts, papers, paintings, statuary, and other materials illustrative of the history of Iowa; and with the further object to rescue from oblivion the memory of the early pioneers; to obtain and preserve various accounts of their exploits, perils and hardy adventures; to secure facts and statements relative to the history and genius, and progress and decay of the Indian tribes of Iowa; to exhibit faithfully the antiquities and past and present resources of the State; to aid in the publication of such collections of the Society as shall from time to time be deemed of value and interest; to aid in binding its books, pamphlets, manuscripts and papers, an din defraying other necessary incidental expenses of the Society.

    There was appropriated by law to this institution, till the General Assembly shall otherwise direct, the sum of $500 per annum. The Society is under the management of a Board of Curators, consisting of eighteen persons, nine of whom are appointed by the Governor, and nine elected by the members of the Society. The Curators receive no compensation for their services. The annual

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meeting is provided for by law, to be held at Iowa City on MOnday preceding the last Wednesday in June of each year.

    The State Historical Society has published a series of very valuable collections, including history, biography, sketches, reminiscences, etc., with quite a large number of finely engraved portraits of prominent and early settlers, under the title of "Annal of Iowa."

THE PENITENTIARY

Located at Fort Madison, Lee County.

    The first act of the Territorial Legislature, relating to a Penitentiary in Iowa, was approved January 25, 1839, the fifth section of which authorized the Governor to draw the sum of $20,000 appropriated by an act of Congress approved July 7, 1838, for public buildings in the Territory of Iowa. It provided for a Board of Directors of three persons elected by the Legislature, who should direct the building of the Penitentiary, which should be located within one mile of the public square, in the town of Fort Madison, Lee County, provided Fort Madison should deed to the directors a tract of land suitable for a site, and assign them, by contract, a spring or stream of water for the use of the Penitentiary. To the Directors was also given the power of appointing the Warden; the latter to appoint his own assistants.

    The first Directors appointed were John S. David and John Claypole. They made their first report to the Legislative Council November 9, 1839. The citizens of the town of Fort Madison had executed a deed conveying ten acres of land for the building site. Amos Ladd was appointed Superintendent of the building June 5, 1839. The building was designed of sufficient capacity to contain one hundred and thirty-eight convicts, and estimated to cost $55,933.90. It was begun on the 9th of July, 1839; the main building and Warden's house were completed in the Fall of 1841. Other additions were made from time to time till the building and arrangements were all complete according to the plan of the Directors. It has answered the purpose of the State as a Penitentiary for more than thirty years, and during that period many items of practical experience in prison management have been gained.

    It has long been a problem how to conduct a prison, and deal with what are called the criminal classes generally, so as to secure their best good and best subserve the interests of the State. Both objects must be taken into consideration, in any humanitarian view of the subject. This problem is not yet solved, but Iowa has adopted the progressive and enlightened policy of humane treatment of prisoners and the utilization of their labor for their own support. The labor of the convicts in the Iowa Penitentiary, as in most others in the United States, is let out to contractors, who pay the State a certain stipulated amount therefor, the State furnishing the shops, tools and machinery, as well as the supervision necessary to preserve order and discipline in the prison.

    While this is an improvement upon the old solitary confinement system, it still falls short of an enlightened reformatory system that in the future will treat the criminal for mental disease and endeavor to restore him to usefulness in the community. The objections urged against the contract system of disposing of the labor of prisoners, that it brings the labor of honest citizens into competition with convict labor at reduced prices, and is disadvantageous to the State, are not without force, and the system will have no place in the prisons of the future.

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    It is right that the convict should labor. He should not be allowed to live in idleness at public expense. Honest men labor; why should not they? Honest men are entitled to the fruits of their toil; why should not the convict as well? The convict is sent to the Penitentiary to secure public safety. The State deprives him of his liberty to accomplish this purpose and to punish him for violations of law, but, having done this, the State wrongs both itself and the criminal by confiscating his earnings; because it deprives his family of what justly belongs to them, and an enlightened civilization will ere long demand that the prisoner in the penitentiary, after paying a fair price for his board, is as justly entitled to his net earnings as the good citizen outside its walls, and his family, if he has one, should be entitled to draw his earnings or stated portion of them at stated periods. If he has no family, then if his net earnings should be set aside to his credit and paid over to him at the expiration of his term of imprisonment, he would not be turned out upon the cold charities of a somewhat pharisaical world, penniless, with the brand of the convict upon his brown, with no resource save to sink still deeper in crime. Let Iowa, "The Beautiful Land," be first to recognize the rights of its convicts to the fruits of their labor; keep their children from the alms-house, and place a powerful incentive before them to become good citizens when they return to the busy world again.

ADDITIONAL PENITENTIARY

Located at Anamosa, Jones County.

    By an act of the Fourteenth General Assembly, approved April 23, 1872, William Ure, Foster L. Downing and Martin Heisey were constituted Commissioners to locate and provide for the erection and control of an additional Penitentiary for the State of Iowa. These Commissioners met on the 4th of the following June, at Anamosa, Jones County, and selected a site donated by the citizens, within the limits of the city. L. W. Foster & Co., architects, of Des Moines, furnished the plan, drawings and specification, and work was commenced on the building on the 28th day of September, 1872. May 13, 1873, twenty convicts were transferred to Anamosa from the Fort Madison Penitentiary. The entire enclosure includes fifteen acres,with a frontage of 663 feet.

IOWA HOSPITAL FOR THE INSANE

Mount Pleasant, Henry County.

    By an act of the General Assembly of Iowa, approved January 24, 1855, $4,425 were appropriated for the purchase of a site, and $50,000 for building an Insane Hospital, and the Governor (Grimes), Edward Johnston, of Lee County, and Charles S. Blake, of Henry County, were appointed to locate the institution and superintend the erection of the building. These Commissioners located the institution at Mt. Pleasant, Henry County. A plan for a building designed to accommodate 300 patients, drawn by Dr. Bell, of Massachusetts, was accepted, and in October work was commenced under the superintendence of Mr. Henry Winslow. Up to February 25, 1858, and including an appropriation made on that date, the Legislature had appropriated $258,555.67 to this institution, but the building was not finished ready for occupancy by patients until March 1, 1861. The Trustees were Martin L. Fisher, President, Farmersburg; Samuel McFarland, Secretary, Mt. Pleasant; D. L.

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McGugin, Keokuk; G. W. Kinkaid, Muscatine; J. D. Elbert, Keosauqua; John B. Lash and Harpin Riggs, Mt. Pleasant. Richard J. Petterson, M. D., of Ohio, was elected Superintendent; Dwight C. Dewey, M. D., Assistant Physician; Henry Winslow, Steward; Mrs. Catharine Winslow, Matron. The Hospital was formally opened March 6, 1861, and one hundred patients were admitted within three months. About 1865, Dr. Mark Ranney became Superintendent. April 18, 1876, a portion of the hospital building was destroyed by fire. From the opening of the Hospital to the close of October, 1877, 3,584 patients had been admitted. Of these, 1,141 were discharged recovered, 505 discharged improved, 589 discharged unimproved, and 1 died; total discharged 2,976, leaving 608 inmates. During this period, there were 1,384 females admitted, whose occupation was registered "domestic duties;" 122, no occupation; 25, female teachers; 11, seamstresses; and 25, servants. Among the males were 916 farmers, 394 laborers, 205 without occupations, 39 cabinet makers, 23 breweries, 31 clerks, 26 merchants, 12 preachers, 18 shoemakers, 13 students, 14 tailors, 13 teachers, 14 agents, 17 masons, 7 lawyers, 7 physicians, 4 saloon keepers, 3 salesmen, 2 artists, and 1 editor. The products of the farm and garden, in 1876, amounted to $13,721.26.

    Trustees, 1877.— T. Whiting, President, Mt. Pleasant; Mrs. E. M. Elliott, Secretary, Mt. Pleasant; William C. Evans, West Liberty; L. E. Fellows, Lansing; and Samuel Klein, Keokuk; Treasurer, M. Edwards, Mt. Pleasant.

    Resident Officers: — Mark Ranney, M. D., Medical Superintendent; H. M. Bassett, M. D., First Assistant Physician; M. Riordan, M. D., Second Assistant Physician; Jennie McCowen, M. D., Third Assistant Physician; J. W. Henderson, Steward; Mrs. Martha W. Ranney, Matron; Rev. Milton Stone, Chaplain.

HOSPITAL FOR THE INSANE

Independence, Buchanan County.

    In the Winter of 1867-8, a bill providing for an additional Hospital for the Insane was passed by the Legislature, and an appropriation of $125,000 was made for that purpose. Maturin L. Fisher, of Clayton County; E. G. Morgan, of Webster County, and Albert Clark, of Buchanan County, were appointed Commissioners to locate and supervise the erection of the Building. Mr. Clark died about a year after his appointment, and Hon. G. W. Bemis, of Independence, was appointed to fill the vacancy.

    The Commissioners met and commenced their labors on the 8th day of June, 1868, at Independence. The act under which they were appointed required them to select the most eligible and desirable location, of not less than 320 acres, within two miles of the city of Independence, that might be offered by the citizens free of charge to the State. Several such tracts were offered, but the Commissioners finally selected the south half of southwest quarter of Section 5; the north half of northeast quarter of Section 7; the north half of northwest quarter of Section 8, and the north half of northeast quarter of Section 8, all in Township 88 north, Range 9 west of the Fifth Principal Meridian. This location is on the west side of the Wapsipinicon River, and about a mile from its banks, and about the same distance from Independence.

    Col. S. V. Shipman, of Madison, Wis., was employed to prepare plans, specifications and drawings of the building, which, when completed, were submitted to Dr. M. Ranney, Superintendent of the Hospital at Mount Pleasant, who suggested several improvements. The contract for erecting the building

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was awarded to Mr. David Armstrong, of Dubuque, for $88,114. The contract was signed November 7, 1868, and Mr. Armstrong at once commenced work. Mr. George Josselyn was appointed to superintend the work. The main buildings were constructed of dressed limestone, from the quarries at Anamosa and Farley. The basements are of the local granite worked from the immense boulders found in large quantities in this portion of the State.

    In 1872, the building was so far completed that the Commissioners called the first meeting of the Trustees, on the 10th day of July of that year. These Trustees were Maturin L. Fisher, Mrs. P. A. Appleman, T. W. Fawcett, C. C. Parker, E. G. Morgan, George W. Bemis and John M. Boggs. This board was organized, on the day above mentioned, by the election of Hon. M. L. Fisher, President; Rev. J. G. Boggs, Secretary, and George W. Bemis, Treasurer, and, after adopting preliminary measures for organizing the local government of the hospital, adjourned to the first Wednesday of the following September. A few days before this meeting, Mr. Boggs died of malignant fever, and Dr. John G. House was appointed to fill the vacancy. Dr. House was elected Secretary. At this meeting, Albert Reynolds, M. D., was elected Superintendent; George Josselyn, Steward, and Mrs. Anna B. Josselyn, Matron. September 4, 173, Dr. Willis Butterfield was elected Assistant Physician. The building was ready for occupancy April 21, 1873.

    In the Spring of 1876, a contract was made with Messrs. Mackay & Lundy, of Independence, for furnishing materials for building the outside walls of the two first sections of the south wing, two first sections of the south wing, next to the center building, for $6,250. The carpenter work on the fourth and fifth stories of the center building was completed during the same year, and the wards were furnished and occupied by patients in the Fall.

    In 1877, the south wing was built, but it will not be completed ready for occupancy until next Spring or Summer (1878).

    October 1, 21877, the Superintendent reported 322 patients in this hospital, and is now overcrowded.

    The Board of Trustees at present (1878) are as follows: Maturin L. Fisher, President, FArmersburg; John G. House, M. D., Secretary, Independence; Wm. G. Donnan, Treasurer, Independence; Erastus G. Morgan, Fort Dodge; Mrs. Prudence A. Appleman, Clermont; and Stephen E. Robinson, M. D., West Union.

RESIDENT OFFICERS

    Albert Reynolds, M. D., Superintendent; G. H. Hill, M. D., Assistant Physician; Noyes Appleman, Steward; Mrs. Lucy M. Gray, Matron.

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