The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1873-04-04
Grand Jury's RepOrt-ImpOrtant to
the Citizens Of Hardeman.

youE honor LnaL tney nave onQeaNOE00 10 .
discharge the duties devoIved upon them |
to the best of th cir ability. They have
examined the bonds of the county Off !
GERS and find the security on each ample
TO cover the amount required in the bond.
In the case of the public administrator
they find the Office vacant, the sdminis-
traitor having removed his residence from
the county; and they would respectfully
represent that your honor call the attens
ton of the county court to the fact, that
another may be appointed in his seat.
In regard to the publi3 buildings, the
Grand Jury believe that prompt action is
required at the hands of the County Court
to render secure from possible loss by
fire the very valuable records and papers
now deposited in Offices prepared in this
building to keep secure the same, and now
called fre-prooE The most valuable pa
pers in the Clerks Office are secure from
such possible disaster as destruction by
fire, being securely kept in fre-proof safe
in room or vault built for their safe
keeping. The other papers in this vault
are not in the safe, from want of room to
contain them. There is no fre-proof
safe in the vault of the Record once, and
the valuable records within said vault are
protected only by thin wrought iron
door / of an inch in thickness, which is
supposed capable Of resisting so great a
degree of heatas the burning of this large
building would occasion. The walls and
arches Of the vault are thick and we'll
constructed SO as to defy any danger from
FIRE +; but Grand Jurors believe that the
doors are entirely inadequate to protect
the records from destruction, by the in
tense heat that would arise from the
mass Of burning debris that in such an
event, would be piled against them. Be.
ing made of thin wrought irOr, they would
be warped, or sprung, so as to admit sufr
fCent heat to burn every paper in said
vaults, (nOE placed in a fre>proof safe)
to charred mass. No merchant would
be willing to risk for single week his
valuable papers or money in a safe whose
doors were made of single sheet of
wrought iron one fourth of an inch only
in thickness.
Can the Grand Jury then pass over,
without warning. what they believe to be
the unsafe condition of the public bulld-
ings to protect and secure the public re-
cords they were built to secure
We believe thesevaults might be made
fire proof by putting an additional iron
door and window to each of the vaults
mentioned, on the inside of the wall oppo-
site to the present door and window SO as
to make double covering to each door and
window. In event of the Courthouse burn
ing down, should the present thin single
door be warped or sprung outward, by
the heat, the records and papers within
the vaults would inevitably be destroyed
By the addition of another door on the
inside,'s much of the heat would, in all
probability, have been exhausted before
the giving away of the outer door, that by
the time that event occurred, there would
not be sufficient heat to still further des-
troy the inner door. Should the Hon.
County Court think with the Grand Jury
that the records would be rendered more
secure by carrying out the suggestions
herein made; or should the Hon. County
Court believe the records, and papers,
would be still more secure in fire proof
safes in said vaults, then the small amount
required to render them secure, in either
manner, will doubtless be promptly APP
propriated to accomplish the same.
The Grand Jury would further respect
fully report to your Honor that the eOan-
ty Jail, in their opinion, is in very bad
condition for the reception of prisoners.
/ 1t is so poorly ventilated that those in
carcerated, therein must suffer greatly, in
summer for the want of pure air; and
from the total absence of all means for
warming it in winter, the inmates must
suffer very much from cold. We
do not believe that those sentenced to
prisonment there should undergo ply
steal suffering in addition to the
confinement and safe keeping in
tended by the law and the courts
much less can We believe that one who
has not been proven guilty of crime,
should there be made to undergo in win.
ter or in SUNNI er suffsrings, from which,
many of the incarcerated would (thsy
say) prefer to be sent Immediately to the
State Peni Tertiary The Grand Jury
thick that two more windows should be
opened in the wall of the prison build
ing, that the wall of the inner prison now
made of solid square timber and placed
touching each other, (wIth but small
aperture for the admission of fresh air,
and that above the heads of the prison
ers,) be torn away, and cage made Of
iron bars crossing each other be substi-
suted in its place; and that some mode of
warming the prison in winter by fues
or otherwise be adopted. The stencil in
the lower prison cell on the first, OF
ground floor, is so great, and the air be-
lieved to be so impure from the want of
free ventilation, that it must be very de-
leteriOus to the health Of those confined
within it. This cell is considerable dis>
tauce below the window in the outer wall
of the building, and for the chance of re-
sewing fresh air, is probably inferior to
the BLACK hole of Calcutta"
AS regards the public roads in the
county, We would respectfully report to
your honor, that there is no overseer upon
that part of the public road leading from
Vaughn's Ferry to ToOns Station which
lies between J. II. Browns and Fossett'
Bridge. That there has, for the last Il