Worcester County jail records at AAS uncover hidden lives

Newly donated archive at American Antiquarian Society uncovers forgotten stories of punishment, poverty, and survival

By Julieane Frost, American Antiquarian Society

Posted to: Worcester Guardian

WORCESTER—Today, a kid with an attitude might get grounded or lose privileges. In the 19th century, however, incorrigibility could have landed that child behind bars.

Worcester County Jail records from the late 1800s now at the American Antiquarian Society (AAS) reveal that dozens of minors living in the county were arrested for “stubbornness” and sent to jail for one to six months.

Larceny, assault, and vagrancy also resulted in jail time for children as young as age eight.

Earlier this year the Worcester County Sheriff’s Office delivered to AAS approximately 100,000 records, dating mostly from 1860 to 1900. They include boxes of tied bundles of writs and mittimuses, legal documents specifying court orders or warrants for people taken into custody for a crime.

The collection also includes 45 ledger books containing the register of “Prisoners Confined to the Worcester Jail,” as well as solitary confinement and medical records. The oversized pages include details, such as name, age, sex, race, literacy, crimes committed, height, complexion, and sentence, for thousands of individuals―written in elegant cursive script.

For decades, the records had been stored in an unused building on the Worcester County House of Correction grounds in West Boylston. When the Sheriff’s Office decided to renovate the building last year, they needed to do something with the dozens of boxes of aged papers and ledger books.

“Fortunately, through a serendipitous connection, the Sheriff’s Office contacted me to ask if we would be interested in taking the records,” said Ashley Cataldo, curator of manuscripts at AAS. “Of course, I said, ‘Yes!’ This is a collection we don’t see every day.”

“We recognized the significance of the records and were committed to locating an appropriate home for them,” said Worcester County Sheriff Lew Evangelidis. “Following initial discussions with the Society, it became evident that their organization possesses the capability to effectively process and safeguard these documents.”

According to Cataldo, the jail records are a window into the world of crime and punishment, as well as to everyday life in the community. “With information that might not be available anywhere else, they uncover lives of common people, including the poor, immigrants, and people of color,” she said.

The records show, for example, that 40-year-old Ellen Keegan, who could not read or write, spent three months in the jail for “nightwalking”; Ann Horton, 30 years old, married, and not an American citizen, was in jail for common drunkenness; 19-year-old Emma F. Brown, who was Black and lived in West Brookfield, committed the crime of burning; and Patrick Clark, 33 and living in Milford, spent a month behind bars until he paid a fine of $54.60 for opening his shop on Sunday.

This information is interesting to anyone studying life in America during the late 1800s, including childhood, the treatment of women and immigrants, poverty, attitudes towards drinking and work ethics, incarceration practices, or what was happening in central Massachusetts during the Civil War, said Cataldo. In addition, genealogists find the records useful in researching family histories.

The mittimus orders―formal court commands instructing the sheriff to apprehend and convey individuals to the jail and hold them there―include more details about offenders and victims. One dated Sept. 3, 1864, and signed by Trial Justice Luther Hill, states that Patrick Carey of Spencer assaulted Anna Goss of Spencer on July 7, 1864, “feloniously to ravish and carnally know, by force and against her will.” The sheriff was ordered to deliver Carey to the jail and keep him there until he was to appear before the Worcester Superior Court a month later.

From another mittimus, we learn that Jane Gallaghar of Shrewsbury was to be held until her upcoming court hearing for charges that she stole “one fine shirt of the value of two dollars and one coarse shirt with the value of one dollar and one table cover with the value of one dollar fifty cents” from the home of Solomon Bathnek of Shrewsbury.

By cross-referencing with the inmate lists and other records, researchers can learn more about people like Patrick Carey and Jane Gallaghar, including their ages, incarceration histories, and sentences.

The records also inspire lots of questions. For example, why was Patrick Carey not fighting in the Civil War still being waged in the south? What happened to Anna Goss? Was Jane Gallaghar employed by Solomon Bathnek? What other circumstances in her life might have led her to steal? “These entries reveal details about individuals and communities that allow us to build a more complex picture of life in the 1800s,” said Cataldo.

The next priority for the American Antiquarian Society, a national research library located at 185 Salisbury St., is to make the jail records available for the public to use. After many years of non-climate-controlled storage, the fragile documents and ledger books must be cleaned and given conservation treatment, if necessary, to ensure they can be safely handled. Then AAS staff organizes the material and create catalog records, so researchers can easily access the documents.

“Processing such a large new collection is a big job and will take time, but we’re committed to making the jail records accessible as quickly as possible,” said Cataldo. “This is a fabulous addition to AAS, and we’re so grateful to the Sheriff’s Office for helping to preserve it for future generations.”

“I am eager to see the discoveries that the American Antiquarian Society will make and anticipate future opportunities for collaboration regarding this valuable information,” said Evangelidis.