The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-01-18

So far as known to the writer no history
of the North Carolina penitentiary has
ever been written. What follows is not
SO pretentious as a history, but rather
a sketch.
This State was remarkably late in
establishing penitentiary. The gallows,
the branding iron, the Jail. the whipping
poSt-these were the chief punishments
up to 1868. In that year the last per-
son was whipped here, by the sheriff;
or rather was being whipped when SOL
diers by order stopped the punishment
The whipping post has, even now, no
small number of advocates, while the
penitentiary has but few, save in so far
as life prisoners are concerned, for the
popular view is that practically all con-
victs ought to be worked on the public
roads.
In August, 1867, General Daniel E.
Sickles, u. S. A., commanding this de-
partment, issued an order in which the
Governor, Jonathan WORTH Treasurer,
Chairman Virgins, of the Senate branch,
and Chairman Harper. of the House
branch of the Finance Committee, and
Speaker McAden, of the House, were ap-
pointed commission to locate peni-
tertiary, and in determining the loca-
tion to take into consideration the prob
able erection later on of permanent
penitentiary and the employment of the
prisoners therein in mining or other work
in metals, quarrying stone brick max
ing or manufacturing, whereby the pen-
tertiary may be made self-supporting ard
the convicts taught some useful work. ;"
The commission accordingly met. 1t did
not have enough information to enable
it to act intelligently and so it called on
State Geologist w. C. Kerr for informa-
tion as to 1.-The condition of the dams
on Deep River, near Lockville, with
view to using this water power to drive
machinery useful in a penitentary; the
probabilities OF obtaining coal and iron
in the vicinity and employing convicts
in mining the same. The commission
further asked all the sheriffs the number
of felons confined in their respective jails
The geologist and the sherffs made the
desired reports but these did not come
in until after General Sickles had been
superseded by General Candy
In the first message of Governor Hol-
den, IL November, 1865, he said: 1T will
be seen from the report of the commits
sioners that hey have located the peni-
Tertiary at Lockville on Deep River. in
Chatham county. Arrangements are in
progress to erect a stockade on the site
and convicts will be employed in grading
the foundations and quarrying stone for
the building The Legislature had
earlier in the year appropriated 100000
in State bonds for a penitentiary.
The report of the commission of 1865
is quite long. Its members were c. l..
Harris, chairman and superintendent of
public works; r. W. Lassiter, John A.
Hyman, Hugh Downing, ]. H. Renfrow
and James H. Harris, all Republicans,
and W. NJ. Robbins. Democrat This
commission assembled in September,
1868. Sites were offered at and near Raj
e'gh; in Orange county, at the Alpha
Wooden Mills; in Johnston, at Selma;
in Guilford, at Spans Mill and Hollis
burg; in Chatham, at Haywood and at
I.ockville. The site at the latter place
containing 5000 acres, price $780, 900. was
offered by John M. Heck. The majority
of the commission in it's report declared
that without hesitation" it accepted the
Lockville location, including a site of %
acres for the building, the water power
and 5000 acres of timber land. contain
ing granite, also iron and coal. The COM
mitee said it had bought all and pair for
it 100000 in State bonds taken at par.
1t declared that the water was worth
$4,000 and the land as much. 1t set fJcth
that in 1867 State Geolopist Kerr had
made a report to Governor Worth in ia
vor of the Lockville site, which the Gov
ernor strongly approved The commits
profitable business was the manufacture
of iron for the railroads in the State;
that materials could be brought ~ wa
ter to the penitentiary and hoisted in or
out of it by derricks. etc.
Major Robbins dissented. He said the
5000 acres of land was 10 miles from
Lockvillc, and that transportation of ma
terials thence to the penitentiary would
entail a vast expense; that the site at
Lockville was uneven and costly to
grade: that another question was as to
whether there was an abundant supply
of coal or not. He favored a simpler
and cheaper plan for the penitentiary,
preferring to have it at or near Raj
eigh.
But the view of the majority of the
commission was of course adopted, no
heed being paid to Robbins, who proved
TO be an accurate prophet, however.
The commission bought the land, site,
etc. from j. NJ Heck and d. j. Pruyn.
1t also contracted with Pruyn 10 build
a stockade. of pine posts one foot square
and % feet long, set feet in the ground
Pruyn got in his fine work again and it
seems got some $4,000 or more for the
stockade. The commissioners published
a letter from S. Adams, of the Tradegar
Iron Works, at Richmond, in which he
said the iron ore at Endor was OF very
high quality and so was the Egypt coal.
The sale of these lands made a great
stir and the Democratic press ''roas;-
ed" the commission. So at the session
of the Legislature of 1869 the commits
sion sent it communication in which
it declared that it was annoyed to find
that assertions have been made and partly
gained credence in the public mind until
it is freely charged that the commission
had acted from corrupt motives and was
accused of acting in hot haste in max
ing the purchase, when the laws required
the penitentiary located at once that it