The Portland daily press., 1881-02-03


deed to the county of this lot of Al rods o
Back street for els lawful moneys paid by Jo
seph Mcclellan, Treasurer of Cumberlan
county. 1t is described as the "sonth corner o
the three acre lot I lately bought OF Rev
Thomas Smith," The lot was granted in 172
to the first settled minister, and extended t
Back Cove. The lot then conveyed to tn
county is the central part of the site OF thi
building. Moses Plummer, who sold this land
kept store and obtained the nickname o
odd Way" from his rigid adherence t
the barter system of dealing When all other
We're abandoning it. On this small lot of abou
Tour rods square wooden court house OF 40 D.
"a feet in size, with "a feet posts was commenc
| ed. Parson Smith records the raising, Oct d
1855, the Court of Genera Sessions of tn
Peace, composed of all the justices OF th
| peace IN the county, then exercised the sam
functions as our present board OF count.
commissioners They ordered 'the roof to b.
| so framed that belfry may be built upon 1t a
some future time The second story, con
talning the court room and offices, was finished
IN 1888. The belfry or cupola was soon added
1t was surmounted by a carved weathercock
st. Peters testimony in denying his maste
may have suggested to the county fathers th'
| proprety of surmouating the new temple o
Justice with representative of the historic
| bird as o caution TO the witness when ne en-
tered the portal, not to deny the truth, what
ever might be the provocation from contend
ing counsel.
The first floor of this court house was al
open hall, in which were kept in sight the gal
lows the stocks and the pillory, ready to be
erected for use. Near the front of the house
stood the whipping pest, with cross bars fol
| securing the arms and legs of the culprlt. A
| gentleman was living in this city, within two
years, who had witnessed the whipping of q
man at this post. 1t was removed to the pa
| rade ground about 1900.
In this court house, Gin 179n, Thomas Bird, a
foreigner, was sentenced to be hung for piracy
and murder, although his trial had been in the
meeting house near by. He had been confined
in the old block house Jail more than year,
waiting for the organization of the District
Court of the United States and for session to
be held here The aged Mr.. Motley, before
mentioned, described to me Birds demeanor
and habits while in prison. He (Motley) was
tive years old at the time, and with his older
brother Edward, at the request of Bird, were
often admitted by their father to the cell and
spent much time there. The prisoner made
them toy ships and boats. The execution
Grove streets, (Haggett's HilD June %, 1890.
At the time OF the execution, Mrs. Motley, the
mother of The boys etook them over back of
the Neck to be out of the sight of the gallows,
as the whole family had become interested in
the fate of Bird. The captain of the vessel
whom he killed was noted for cruelty to his
men. Bird admitted that he fired the gun
which Killed the captain, and justified himself
on the ground of his cruelty.
Birds council, Syms and rockingham,
made application for a pardon on the ground
OF its being the first capital conviction in the
United States courts, after the adoption of the
Federal constitution The petition was inn
mediately forwarded to President Washing
ton, who then resided in New York, but he de-
clined pardoning or suspending the time of
execution. The jailor Motley and his family
thought the prisoner should Hbe pardoned
and 1t was with sadness that he was surren-
dered to Sheriff Waite to be executed who
was the father of Mrs. Motley. Gen. Henry
Dearborn OF revolutionary memeory, was the
marshal and superintended the execution. 1t
is rare circumstance in historical investiga-
tion to find man with clear intellect aud
memory who is able to describe prison, and
the life led by prisoner,9l years after his exc
cution. 1t is the minute description which l
obtained from the very aged Mr. Motey-the
last of distinguished family, which leads me
to dwell so long on the old block-house Jail.
Although it was used as the county Jail twelve
years after the courthouse was erected on this
spot theH History of Portland makes it one
story building, and does not mention the pur-
chasing of the block-house by the county
for prison, although the one story part was
Joined to it,
This was the first capital trial in a United
States Court. Prisoners frequently escaped
from the wooden Jail and it needed fre quent
repairs In 1872 a committee of the courtare-
ported that it would be more expensive to re-
pair the old Jail, than would be the erection of
a lew one, and thereupOn it was decided to
build a stone Jail for the use of the county. A
committee reported that the town wanted the
land on which the old Jail stood for "market
place" and would purchase a piece of land ad-
joining the court house lot for the Jail in ex-
change. In 1895 the County Treasurer took
deed O. another piece Of the Plummer lot in
the rear OF the court house, five rods wide and
ten rods deep. The consideration was E2O,
which was paid by the town, which received a
deed of the old Jail lot restricting its use for
market purposes"
The county treasurer reserved the buildings
and the right to occupy until the new prison
was completed. The building committee We're
directed to use the iron work and other mate
rial in the old Jail in the construction of the
new one.
On the new lot in the rear of the courthouse,
after several postponements for the lack Of
money, was built in 1877 cut stone Jail. The
building was 90 by "a feet in size and two sto-
ries high with gambrel roof and rooms in the
attic. Granite was not then the manageable
material that it now is, which made the erec-
ton of such building then a formidable job
This was the first dressed stone building
erected In the county and / think, in the
State. The building committee were Samuel
Freeman and William Gorham, both mem
bers OF the court of sessions. sThe superintend-
ent OF the building was John Park of Groton
Mass, who had recently erected a similar pris-
mer windows on the front roof. A gentleman
now dead, who built these windows, related to
me the talk which he had with the building
committee. He inquired if he should finish
the back roof in the same style when they re-
pied, NO, make it entirely plain; there new
er Will be any settlement oD that side." The
cost OF the building was about $4,000. From
the prison in 1903 Joseph Drew of Saccarappa
walked to the gallows, near the Observatory, a
fnll half mile, with the sheriff on one side and
Parson Bradley of Stroudwater on The other
He was executed for the murder of Ebenezer
Parker, deputy sheriff of Westbrook The
row of elms planted in front of the court
house and jaillot were the work of Joseph NJ
Gerrish, who was jail keeper under Sheriff
Hunnewell whose term expired in 1921. Only
two now remain and a proposition has been
made to remove one of them. This Jail of
1877 was taken down in 1859 after the erection
OF the present county Jail. Over the principal
door was an inscription cut in the Intel giving
the date OF its erection. At the conclusion is
an odd character of which the meaning in late
years has not been known. That it is part of
the inscription is shown by its being separated
from the date by semi-colon only and is fol-
lowed by a period. This Intel is built
into the partition wall of the basement of the
county wing of this building, and has the
original iron door yet swinging beneath it. In
communication to the Portland Transcript a
few years ago [ called attention to the un-
known character. The publishers procured
an engraving of it for the paper, but no one
answered the inquiry.
The next building erected on this lot was a
Jail keepers house. 1t was called the county
house," and was built in 1899. 1t was of brio
and two stories in height. 1t stood between
the court house and the Jail With my grand
father L dined in it at the invitation of Mr..
Gerrish, the jailor, when 1 was about nine
years OF age. After dinner we were shown
through the jail. The old fashioned ''dun-
geon," with its chains, shackles and rinobolts,
impressed me deeply. The debtors rooms in
the attic were not so repulsive, yet those who
were then confined in them, for no crime but
poverty, did not appear as if they were happy.
Imprisonment for debt was then common.
In 1916. for 5000, the county purchased the
right to lay drain from the Jail through the
Plummer lot to Back Cove. Seven years
later l recollect that there was the same COM
plant of this single sewer. which had its out
let on the flats, as there has been of late years
of the "Back Bay nuisance During the en-
barge and the endless law suits which were it's
results the old wooden court house proved too
small for the county business. After the peace
OF 1915, commercial business wore brighter
aspect, and the county ventured to erect a
more spacious and elegant court house. The
old one was sold to the Free Will Baptist Soci-
ETY. for house Of worship, and in 1916 it was
hauled with oxen 10 the south side of Court u
now Exchange street, between Congress and
| Federal streets The centre of the second
story floor was removed and rallied around
leaving gallery on each of the four sides. In
1927 the society vacated it for the then new