(Photo by Calvin Shepherd - Use By Permission)
Alderson West Virginia - A History
Federal Reformatory for Women
Located
less
that
a
mile
west
of
the
town
limits
is
the
Federal
Reservation
of
517
acres,
principally
within
Summers
County
and
a
small
section
in
Monroe.
Here
is
the
nation's
first
model
prison,
the
Federal
Reformatory
for
Women.
(Click on photo for larger view)
In
the
early
1920's,
widespread
agitation
began
for
prison
reform.
Women
Federal
prisoners
were
scattered
all
over
the
country,
frequently
under
very
poor
conditions.
Twenty-two
national
women's'
organizations
urged
a
Federal prison for women.
In
1921
Mrs.
Mabel
Willebrandt
became
the
first
woman
Assistant
Attorney-General,
and
she
recognized
the
need
and
actively
worked
for
such
a
prison
for
women.
In
June
1924,
the
first
Enabling
Act
to
establish
such
an
institution
became
Federal
law.
The
recommendations
were
for
a
prison
for
women
only,
near
the
geographic
center
of
prison
population.
I
was
to
have
a
capacity
of
about
700,
a
minimum
of
500
acres
of
land
to
be
know
as
Federal
Industrial
Institution
for
Women,
and
to
built
of
the
"cottage
plan", and to have a woman warden.
A
site
with
the
following
qualification
was
desired:
close
to
Washington,
with
good
climate
and
water
supply,
good
land
for
building
and
agriculture,
and
close
to
railroad
transportation.
Several
sites
were
inspected
by
Attorney-General
Harlan
F.
Stone,
Secretary
of
Interior
Hubert
Work,
and
Secretary of labor James J. Davis. Mrs. Willebrandt and other officials made inspections. The Alderson site was chosen January 25, 1925.
The
newly
organized
Alderson
Chamber
of
Commerce
had
gone
to
work
to
give
the
Rose
farm
of
202
acres
valued
at
$30,000.00
to
the
U.
S.
Government.
Tom
Woodson,
E.
Chase
Bare,
J.
N.
Alderson
,
the
J.
Albert
Rigg
headed
the
solicitation
for
the
town.
The
drive
was
successful
although
there
was
some
opposition
to
the
prison's
being
located
near
Alderson.
(Some
apparently
thought
the
Government
was
going
to
rake
up
several
hundred
female
criminals
and
dump
them
in
peaceful
Alderson.)
The
prison
over
the
years
has
been
a
major
economic
asset
of
the
community.
In
1924
Congress
appropriated
$909,100.00
to
finance
the
Reformatory
and
on
July
3,
1926,
appropriated
$1,509.300.00
to
finish
the
project.
March
12,
1925
is
one
of
the
most
remarkable
dates
in
the
Reformatory's
history.
Dr.
Mary
B.
Harris,
Ph.D.,
took
her
oath
of
office
as
warden.
It
is
hardly
conceivable
to
have
obtained
a
better
public
official.
Dr.
Harris
was
a
remarkable
woman.
She
had
a
brilliant
mind,
a
splendid
education,
remarkable
talents,
a
wide
influential
acquaintance
with
great
national
leaders,
a
passion
for
service
to
humanity.
She
advocated
and
believed
in
precisely
the
purposes
advocated
for
a
Federal
prison
for
women
-
reform,
not
punishment,
rehabilitation,
training
and
education.
She
went
to
work
and
the
administration of the reformatory took shape.
In
1926
the
Nash
farm
of
300
acres
adjacent
to
the
original
Rose
farm,
was
purchased
by
the
Government
for
$48,000.00
and
the
much
smaller
Meadows
farm
was
secured
for
$2,700.00
in
1927.
Male
prisoners
were
transferred
to
custody
of
the
West
Virginia
State
Prison
from
Federal
prisons
at
Atlanta
and
Leavenworth.
There
was
established
a
Federal
Prison
camp
of
about
250
men.
These
prisoners,
using
Stat
of
West
Virginia
equipment, cleared the site and built the roads.
The
first
two
employees
of
the
staff
began
working
April
26,
1926.
They
were
Miss
Anna
Kestor,
using
men
prisoners
from
the
prison
camp,
raised
a
crop on the farm.
The
Virginia
Engineering
Company,
Newport
News,
Va.,
won
two
bids
to
construct
the
large
number
of
buildings,
cottages
and
power
plant.
The
first
bid
by
them
was
accepted
November
1,
1925.
The
C.
&
O.
put
in
a
siding
and
ran
a
railroad
through
the
construction
areas.
Hundreds
of
workmen,
many from Alderson, went to work.
On
April
30,
1927,
the
first
tree
prisoners
were
transferred
from
the
Reformatory
for
Women,
Rutland,
Vermont.
The
total
weight
of
these
women
was
649 pounds! One was West Virginian, and she was assigned number 1-W. The formal opening was on Saturday, November 24, 1928.
Dr.
Harris
assembled
her
staff
and
she
accomplished
her
objectives.
The
reformatory
was
shaped
and
administered
to
reform,
train,
educate,
and
it
was
the
Nation's
model.
She
sought
and
obtained
wide
publicity
for
the
prison,
and
many
magazine
and
newspaper
articles
described
the
institution.
Dr. Harris was enormously popular in the Alderson community as she actively engaged in all kinds of civic and social functions.
The
name
of
the
institution
was
later
changed
to
Federal
Reformatory
for
Women.
Through
the
years,
the
original
objectives
have
been
unchanged.
A
prisoner,
if
she
stays
long
enough,
can
come
in
illiterate
and
leave
with
a
high
school
education
recognized
by
the
West
Virginia
State
Board
of
Education.
Prisoners
work
eight
hours
a
day
at
dozens
of
skilled
occupations
such
as
sewing,
cooking,
beauty
culture,
baking,
laundry
work,
farming,
clothing
manufacturing,
custodial
work,
nurses
aide,
x-ray
technician,
storekeeping,
painting,
butchering,
dairy
operation,
landscaping,
weaving,
IBM
machine
operation,
calculating
machine
and
other
business
machine
operation,
photography,
library
work,
and
others.
Federal
Prison
Industries,
Inc.,
operates
the
laundry
and
garment
factory
where
shirts,
pajamas,
shorts,
aprons,
medical
gowns,
and
other
garments
are
made
and
sold to other Government agencies.
Three
warden
have
followed
Dr.
Harris;
Helen
Hironimus,
Nina
Kinsella
and
Gladys
V.
Bowman,
the
present
warden.
Miss
Bowman,
a
native
of
Hinton,
W.
Va.
is
a
career
Civil
Service
employee
who
entered
the
prison
service
in
1946.
She
has
a
M.A.
degree
from
the
University
of
Southern
California in Sociology and was appointed Warden July 1, 1961. Virginia Wood McLaughlin, an Alderson native, is Assistant Warden.
The
1963/64
fiscal
year
appropriation
is
$1,609,000.00.
(7-1-63
through
6-30-64.)
The
average
number
of
employees
is
212.
The
number
of
inmates
averages
600.
At
nearly
any
given
time
there
are
women
serving
sentences
from
every
state.
The
largest
number
comes
from
the
cities.
Of
course,
only
violators
of
Federal
laws
serve
sentences
there.
to
date
nearly
16,000
women
have
served
sentences
from
three
months
to
life.
They
have
ranged in age from 15 to 70 years. None has ever escaped permanently but one did star away for two years.
Recently the Reformatory abolished its dairy and farm operations.
The
staff
and
buildings
do
not
make
a
prison
-
prisoners
do,
and
the
Reformatory
has
had
its
share
of
notorious,
infamous
and
criminal.
Some
of
these women have attracted national and international attention to Alderson.
The most infamous prisoner the Reformatory ever had was Mrs. Iva Toguri D'Aquino, better known as "Tokyo Rose".
Another
inmate,
Mildred
Elizabeth
Gillars,
was
Hitler's
singing
propagandist,
know
in
the
European
theater
by
American
troops
as
"Axis
Sally."
The
Reformatory
has
been
the
host
of
several
other
spies
and
traitors
among
them
a
Nazi
spy,
Lillie
Stein,
about
whom
a
movie,
"House
on
92nd
Street"
was filmed.
During
the
gangster
days
of
the
30's
several
women
connected
with
various
gang
were
sentenced
to
Alderson.
Kathryn
Kelly,
wife
of
Machine
Gun
Kelly, was an inmate, and here mother, Ora Shannon was also a prisoner.
In
1960,
Rose
Robinson,
a
pacifist,
refused
to
pay
her
Federal
Income
tax
because,
she
said,
most
of
it
was
used
for
war
purposes.
She
was
sentenced
to
Alderson.
She
had
been
fasting,
and
when
she
arrived
March
1,
1960,
had
to
be
"force-feed".
Two
months
later
ten
members
of
an
organization
calling
themselves
"Peacemakers"
of
Cincinnati,
arrived
and
picketed
the
prison
by
setting
up
camp
at
the
main
gate.
This
pack
of
pacifists, principally preachers, picketed the prison for a week.
Billy Holliday, the well-known singer, was at one time an inmate of the Reformatory on a narcotics charge.
Another well-known inmate was Kathleen Nash Durant, of Hesse jewel fame.
But most inmates are serving time for common, run-of-the-mill offenses against Federal Law, and their names have no significance in this history.
The
Reformatory
has
been
the
subject
of
three
books.
The
first
was
by
Dr.
Harris,
the
first
warden,
"I
Knew
Them
In
Prison",
published
by
the
Viking
Press, N. Y., 1936. This first book told of the establishment, aims, activities and accomplishments of the Reformatory.
Helen
Bryan,
daughter
of
a
Presbyterian
minister
who
had
once
had
a
W.
Va.
Church,
graduate
of
Wellesley
College,
a
professional
welfare
and
social
service
worker
wrote
"Inside",
published
by
Houghton
Mifflin
Company,
Boston,
in
1953.
Miss
Bryan
was
sentenced
in
1948
to
three
months
in
Alderson
for
contempt
of
Congress
for
refusing
to
give
names
of
contributors
to
the
Joint
Anti-Fascist
Refugee
Committee,
an
organization
opposing
Franco
in
the
Spanish
Civil
War.
Helen
Bryan
praised
the
Reformatory,
its
work
and
officers.
She
wrote
of
the
inmates
she
lived
with,
her
warders
and officers and of her experiences, in a friendly compassionate manner.
The
latest
book
on
the
Reformatory
is
vastly
different
from
the
first
two.
It
is
"The
Alderson
Story",
by
Elizabeth
Gurley
Flynn,
published
in
1963
by
International
Publishers,
N.
Y..
Elizabeth
Flynn
entered
the
Reformatory
in
January,
1955,
when
she
was
65
and
served
28
months.
She
was
convicted
under
the
Smith
Act
for
advocating
the
overthrow
of
the
United
States
Government
by
force.
She
was
an
old-time,
dyed-in-the-wool,
Communist
and
still
is.
She
had
little
good
to
say
for
the
Reformatory.
She
was
"political
prisoner",
she
claimed.
According
to
her,
everything
is
wrong
at
Alderson
-
the
prisoners,
the
officers,
the
rules,
the
food,
the
work,
the
teaching
-
everything.
She
did
enjoy
the
scenery.
Flynn
strongly
intimated
that what the Reformatory need is a good Communist staff to operate it, then it would be heavenly.
There
is
also
a
child's
story,
"The
Christmas
Anna
Angel"
by
Ruth
Sawyer
published
in
1944
by
the
Viking
Press,
inspired
by
Anna
Kestor,
the
Reformatory's
first
staff
member
and
farm
manager.
The
author
dedicated
the
book
to
miss
Kestor
saying,
"This
is
Anna
Kestor's
story,
not
mine".
The story is of Christmas in Eastern Europe and was told to Ruth Sawyer by Anna Kestor.
_______
Ref: Scrapbook, The Alderson Saga, Federal Reformatory for Women School.
Federal Reformatory for Women, Booklet, U. S. Government Printing Office, 1962.
The contents contained in this series is copyrighted and the sole property of The Greenbrier Historical Society - Lewisburg, WV Used by permission - November 18, 2008
Main Index
Photos from the U. S. Library of Congress (Click on photos for larger view)
The History of Alderson, West Virginia
From The Journal Of The Greenbrier Historical Society On Alderson, West Virginia
Written by Kenneth D. Swope - Compiled and Transcribed by Barry Worrell
