Want to keep up with all the latest Library news and events? 
W. Va. Penitentiary, 1900
W. Va. Penitentiary, 1900PENITENTIARY
From the Moundsville Daily Echo, Jan. 12, 1900
THE RESPONSIBLE MAN
For Some Prison Wrongs -- A Convict Paints in Town.
Moundsville, W. Va., Jan. 11, 1900.
Editor, Echo.
Sir: Some time ago I saw an article in your paper headed "What is the Power behind the Prison Throne that keeps an overbearing being like Reese Capt. of the Guards at $15.00 dollars more per month that the balance of the forces gets?" Now Mr Editor, after enquiring into this matter we find that the power that is so great behind the throne is the director from Ohio county that the governor appointed over a large protest of the best republicans of Ohio county. Is it any wonder that he keeps his nephew the big I Am captain of the force under a protest from the colored republican club from this place. Will the old soldiers and colored club be ignored by these protested so called republicans that are determined to rule or ruin? Is it any wonder that the people are up and after some of the things that almost daily take place?
I saw by the Herald tonight where the mayor of Cameron criticizes the management of the county jail because he allowed a man in his charge to go to McMechen. Is it not worse to have U. S. prisoners sent to prison from Washington D. C., then put a citizen suit on him and allow him to go out in town day after day and paint, taking the work that honest citizens should have which is the worse?
But still we protested ones that are after all there is in it will rule or ruin. The asylum board proves how determined the present administration are.
---Facts.
From the Moundsville Daily Echo, Jan. 13, 1900
A BRUTAL AND COWARDLY ASSAULT.
Captain Reece of the Penitentiary Came Into the Echo Office With a "Billy" and
Another Man and Knocked the Local Editor Down Three Times
Because the Latter Would Not Tell the Name of a Writer.
About half past two oclock this afternoon Capt Reese and Guard Henry of the penitentiary came into the Echo office and Reese asked S C Shaw the name of the author of a communication that appeared in the Echo yesterday concerning penitentiary affairs, and made a threat of what he would do if his name were ever again printed in the paper. The newspaper man refused both to promise not to print the name again or give the name of the author, whereupon Reese knocked him down, drew a billy, brandished it at J D Shaw, the editor, and at others of the office force who sprang forward, and knocked down S C Shaw twice more. The other guard also menaced the editorial force.
Then both sides started out. S C Shaw started for the mayors office and as he was starting down the steps into that office Reese struck him again.
Reese is a giant of a man compared to the man he unprovokedly and wholly unexpectedly attacked. He weighs probably over two hundred pounds.
|W. Va. Penitentiary
Service provided by the staff of the Ohio County Public Library in partnership with and partially funded by Wheeling National Heritage Area Corporation.
