Norwich bulletin., 1921-06-13
ODD INCIDENTS IN AMERICAN
 HISTORY
THE xkwaArE OF CONNECTICUT

One of the most unique prisons ever devised in the United States was the converting of . mining shaft in Connec- ticut for such purposes about the begin hing of the Revolutionary war. The copper mines of simsbury were discover ed about 17t5 and furnished the copper for the first United States coinage. Tie working of the mines, however, ruined a number of successive propriAtors, and the shaft was finally converted inte . state prison.
 Mining in Sihneoury closed In 1775 and the colony spent about 3515 in fitting up the mine for it's new purpose. The main shaft ~as near the top of small hill. and the buildings At the mouth, the walls surrounding them and the naked hill sopink down in front of 1t, must have Added a shade Of horror to the unknown future in the mind Of the Tory, who
 was approaching 1t for confinement Ger tainly it Is that hardly anything was so 1 dreadful to the Tory mind as the pros
 pect of incarceration at simsbury. In 17s1 congress applied for pernnis- sion to use 1t as prison for state of lenders; but the almost immediate ces-
 sation of hostifities relieved the nation al authority from any such necessity. The number confined here, both cf or
 Ginary offenders and of Tories, probably never exceeded thirty at one time; but l the number of insurrections and escapes | was disproportionately great.
 The shaft was nearly a hundred feet deep, but the cells were in the galleries, nonA of them more than sixty feet be- | low the surface. In spite of the ire
 quent escapes. public confidence in the
 security of the place was unimpairei. and it was the ordinary state prison
 from 17s0 to 1927. when the new prison at Wethersaeld took It's place.
 | In defense of the establishment of | the prison in such a location, It may be urged that such a step was not con
 sidered improper anywhere at the time 1 that the terrors of the place were more in | imagination than in reality; that the ] health Of the prisoners was good and cation and that special practices of thai ltime must not be judged by the mors civilized theory of A later era.
 So late as 1907 traveller visiting tho Simsbury Newgate, as 1t was called after Newgate. the famous prison ir England, could go no further in reprc.
 hensicn than to say: For myself. ]
 cannot get rid of the impression that
 without any extraordinary cruelty in i-. ' actual operation, there Is something ve-J like cruelty tn the device and design HOW mQCn more lcnfent must nave Deef
 the Judgment Of a sound Whig Of TIT.
 when he saw Tory consigned Co tht
 Simsbury SeWgate.
 The fact of its being underground
 na turally added 10 the terrors of a con
 fsaement. The dArkness made only tn. darker by the dim hSekeFing light of ta, low candles, the water persetualIy drip
 ping frsrn the rotky eeiling. and th, \ utter iAoiatioh at it's inmates from tn living world made it. to the comm 7l mind very like the "Inferne" of Dante But there k no evidence that prison ers were moro severely treated in thes l dungeons than in any othr prisons Q the time Among the Tories confined 2 Neweate. was a clergyman, the Rev. Si mon Baxter. who wae a most uncom , promising ieyaiist. and made no conceal : meAt et his sniAisa. He preached } sermon to his feflo+e eFisbners which va , Afterwards nrihtsd h L6nden. It ad vocated in the stroneask rhanner the as : ssssinaffn of Washington and the xshol ! Continental Congress.
 In 179o Newgate was the srene of : aesver9es esaAset. attended with blood