Anamosa State Penitentiary Museum and History Archive

Historical Milestones

150 Years And Counting - A Chronology

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1868 — State Prison Visiting Committee reports Fort Madison is no longer large enough to handle Iowa prison needs.

1870 — Governor Samuel Merrill recommended a new penitentiary in Northern Iowa. Sen. John McKean seeks the selection of Anamosa.

1872 — April: The 14th General Assembly approves "additional penitentiary" at Anamosa. A commission meets at Anamosa to select the site and tours possible quarry locations. Blueprints approved; construction starts on wooden stockade, temporary buildings, and a small cellhouse.

1873 — Work starts at the quarry using hired help. Acting Warden Martin Heisey requests 40 able-bodied men from Ft. Madison. May 13: 20 inmates transferred from Fort Madison (only 16 physically fit for hard labor); 12 assigned to the quarry, others to prison yard grading. June 2: Three inmates escape from the quarry. September: Work starts on the first large building. George Williams records the first inmate death; he is buried at the original prison cemetery location, a site now known as Farm 1.

1874 — Construction starts on the first cellhouse (5/8/1874), under roof by 1/1/1875 (50ft x 120ft, two stories with basement). Features 72 cells built of 6-inch flagstone securely dovetailed together, measuring 4'6" wide, 7'6" high, and 8' long. Doors purchased in 1872 are moved in 1881 to the finished south cellhouse; the 72 cells are removed and the structure is repurposed for a kitchen, dining hall, library, chapel, and offices. Rebuilt as power plant / "Shop #1" after burning in 1896.

1875 — Second Biennial Report notes south wall construction commenced May 13, 1875. 712 carloads of stone shipped from quarry (half sold privately). General Assembly makes no initial allowance for a physician, deputy warden, chaplain, or teacher; a local physician is retained on credit and a guard is appointed acting deputy warden. To secure fresh provisions, 5 acres of the yard are cultivated under clerk supervision, yielding over 1,000 bushels of potatoes alongside tomatoes, onions, beans, beets, and turnips.

1877 — The foundation for the new south cellhouse is placed under construction.

1879 — January: Ten inmates break out of the stone shed and rush the west railroad gate; eight make it outside. Four are shot, one fatally, marking the first killing at the penitentiary.

1880 — Report to the Joint Committee indicates construction work on the new cellhouse is progressing rapidly.

1881 — 3rd Biennial Report notes the south cellhouse was completed and opened on 2/19/1881, praised as "one of the very best cellhouses in the United States." Architect William Foster reports the 7-year-old wooden stockade requires replacement, urging completion of the center rotunda, guard halls, north cellhouse front wall, and the rear service buildings.

1882 — Electric lights are introduced and utilized for the first time in December.

1883 — Annual report highlights unexpected foundation expenses in the northwest corner wall due to quicksand, requiring 20-foot pilings to reach solid ground. Request issued for 160 more electric lights to provide one for every individual cell. Inmate count reaches 239 on June 30.

1884 — Legal institutional name changed from the "Additional Penitentiary" to the "State Penitentiary".

1885 — Census count on June 30 records 281 inmates.

1886 — Four inmates attempt an escape through an unfinished gate; three are shot (two fatally) and all are recaptured within the hour. Warden A. E. Martin is compensated $166.67/month with officers receiving $50/month. Facility count is 282 male and 13 female inmates.

1887 — C. W. "Nosey" Williams is shot by tower guard Martin McCarty while threatening the deputy warden with a knife inside the prison yard.

1889 — Insane Ward building completed south of the main yard to house both women and mentally ill prisoners. Foundation for the female department building is finished, and stone cutting begins for its first floor.

1890 — Wesley Elkins, age 11 (standing 4ft 7in tall), arrives to serve a life sentence.

1891 — Three inmates fall to their deaths during the construction of the new Female Department south of the main yard. The structure is enclosed the following year but remains unfinished until December 1900.

1892 — Ground broken for the "center building" to connect the south and projected north cellhouses, extending outside the walls to contain the entrance, administration offices, and warden's residence. Plans upgraded from wood finish to fireproof construction. Warden P.W. Madden assumes duties on April 1.

1893 — the institution periodically houses Federal prisoners, including members of "Garza's Army".

1895 — 12th Biennial Report notes that the walls for both the center building and the "Warden's house" (administration building) are completed, except for towers and turrets.

1896 — A destructive fire guts the main building housing the kitchen, dining hall, library, chapel, and offices; cooking operations shift outside to large vats. The current center building was near completion at the time of the blaze.

1897 — Biennial Report notes a 2,011-ft. well was sunk, testing at 15,000 gallons of excellent water over 15 hours, supported by a new 50-ft. tower holding a 45,000-gallon tank. Fire monetary losses are finalized at $13,000. 75 men are stationed at the quarry, delivering 413 cars of stone. The new chapel is dedicated on Sunday, August 29.

1900 — January 1: American Cooperage Co. contract marks the first lease of convict labor, employing 20–25 men to turn out 600–1,000 butter tubs daily. February: Grading system fully implemented, providing better fare and replacing stripes with gray suits for high-grade compliance. Prison night school established to combat illiteracy, averaging 172 enrolled.

1901 — Administration building, rotunda, and connecting corridor are near completion. Hanging self-supporting stone stairs and railings are built using distinct grain stone hauled from Jackson County for $215, polished using scrap marble from Chicago. Wood finishes are processed by the internal prison planing mill. Female building completed Dec 20, 1900. 100-ft stone-walled hog house and 25'x40' greenhouse erected. 22 yard acres and 24 quarry acres are cultivated for vegetables. Inmate trained in photography shoots 1,200 entry pictures.

1902/1903 — Suggestion made to officially rename the site a "reformatory". Dec 20, 1901: Old administration building stockade removed; offices occupied Dec 26. Warden residence occupied Feb 1, 1903. Female department occupied Feb 1902. South cellhouse plaster ceiling installed on metal lathe. Two-story 60'x30' stone barn built. March 26, 1902: Cooperage building burns down; replaced with a new 200-ft frontage stone shop. Truss bridge built to quarry. Historic 1855 safe brought from Des Moines. Inmate suicides noted: Carter McComsey (7/8/1902) and Christina Behrens (6/13/1903).

1904/1905 — Shop #2 built for tin and cooperage, contracting 15 inmates to make corncob pipes. North House roof and stone floors installed. Cold storage, hot house, and quarry kitchen structures completed. Cut stone shipped out to build facilities at Fort Madison, Eldora, and Marshalltown.

1906/1907 — Act effective July 4, 1907 officially converts the penitentiary into a Reformatory for young men under 30 without prior felonies. North House work moves slowly due to limited labor pools. Power plant expanded with a foundry and blacksmith shop. Printing, binding, and tin shops modernized.

1907 — The much-hated lockstep method of group inmate movement is officially abolished.

1908/1909 — Two 125-hp boilers installed for $1,000. Printing department scales up work volume. North House completed and prepared for occupancy.

1910/1911 — School building addition measuring 52'4" x 28'6" is built for $1,503.31. Shirt and garment manufacturing lines established in the women's wing.

1912/1913 — Warden salaries fixed at $210/month with residential utilities and 3 domestic inmate workers. Board of Control abolishes contract labor; July 1, 1914 the state buys out the American Cooperage Co. to continue butter tub manufacturing. Quarry operations phased down due to soft dolomite quality losing money. Deputy Warden's house built for $3,370.20. Inmate road camp sent to Ames to lay foundations at Iowa State College without guard supervision.

1914 — Prison cemetery is moved from its initial location near the Buffalo River to its present location due to needed space for farming fields. Approximately 35 bodies were moved.

1914/1915 — Board purchases 200 acres (36 containing granite deposits) in Lyon County to establish an inmate road stone crushing camp, but operations prove too distant and expensive and are scaled back. Stone horse barn and ice house built. $23,758 spent on adjacent land acquisitions.

1916/1917 — Inmate labor camps sent to assist grading at the new Women's Reformatory in Rockwell City prove unsatisfactory. Total staff payroll is reduced by $30,000 via roster cuts rather than wage decreases to cope with economic pressures.

1918/1919 — Central dining room remodeled. Pure-bred Holstein dairy herd scales up to 200 head with support from Iowa State College. Farm perimeter fencing projects are temporarily deferred due to high wartime material costs.

1921/1922 — 39th General Assembly appropriates $52,000 to purchase 260 leased acres east of the Reformatory. Slaughterhouse, silos, and stone hog facilities built for $8,000. Tile floors and wainscoting placed in the kitchen and rotunda. Forced draft burners and stokers added to power house boilers for $10,300, cutting coal needs by 25%. Creamery paper transitions suppress butter tub demand.

1923/1924 — General plant overhaul includes comprehensive institutional rewiring and adding toilets/lavatories inside individual south cellhouse units. Total inmate average tracks at 1,355. Construction begins on a modernized license plate manufacturing plant. Creamery cheese factory established, producing 62,787 lbs of cheese sold to other state institutions for $20,445.22.

1925/1926 — Appropriations requested for a canning factory ($5,000), dairy barn ($15,000), and northern farm land. Furniture shop expanded by 20%. $20,000 soap factory built, slated for a January 1, 1927 launch. Blacksmiths manufacture steel-and-wood park benches for state conservation boards. Severe storms destroy orchards and crops. 14–20 inmates farm 781 state acres at Clive, generating annual profits up to $10,000.

1928/1930 — Inmate count registers at 1,073 on June 30, 1928. New dairy barn and a two-room administration building extension completed. Construction commences on a new cellhouse to alleviate severe housing overcrowding that forced inmates to sleep in main corridors. June 30, 1930 census records high density levels.

1929 — Massive prison barn is completed, standing as the largest agricultural barn in the entire state.

1930/1932 — Inmate count registers at 1,452 on June 30, 1932. New cellhouse finished at a cost of $194,495.19. Main industrial building destroyed by fire; replaced with a cement block facility built entirely via inmate labor. Screwdriver manufacturing industry is formally discontinued.

1933/1934 — Warden C. H. Ireland passes away June 27, 1933; W. H. Frazer is appointed to succeed him, assuming duties September 1. Apron factory closed, idling 60 men; school enrollment scales up from 20 to 250 as a result. Educational tracking extended to 8th grade, adding manual training, mechanical drawing, art, typing, and bookkeeping. Canning industry launched to pack vegetables for all state institutions. Industrial coal bunkers built. 1934 census records a historic peak of 1,489 inmates.

1935/1936 — Old Insane Ward dismantled; construction starts on a new hospital building, which moves slowly over several years due to a lack of funding. Shop reorganization places all inmates in active labor across license plates, cheese, tailoring, print, canning, and quarry lines. Shops capped at 7 hours daily to increase yard recreation and sunlight. Inmate ages range from 16 to 80; zero deaths recorded from disease during this period.

1936 — Guard Charles Strickel is killed when an unruly inmate throws him off the upper floor of a facility cellhouse block. Criminally insane inmates begin being housed at the Anamosa facility.

1937/1938 — Hospital construction halts at a roofed stone shell due to funding shortfalls, requiring $125,000 to finish. School program transitions into vocational trade training. Recreational department added with athletic fields and hobby support. Kitchen remodeled into 7 separate sub-kitchen units. Officer training school established on Tuesday nights; employee "Officer's Manual" and inmate rule books published.

1939/1940 — Warden William Frazer retires; Foss Davis assumes command July 1, 1939. Construction resumes on the perimeter walls and the hospital shell. Roster counts highlight inadequate guard numbers relative to the physical size of the grounds. Institution structures require paint and North House cellblocks need repairs.

1940/1942 — Census count drops to 941. 60 inmates assigned to out-camps at 3 state hospitals; 25 sleep and work at the institution farms. $4,000 addition built for the canning factory, generating $71,043 in sales. Perimeter wall construction nears completion while the hospital continues at a slow pace.

1942/1944 — Count drops to 619 on June 30, 1944. New hospital finished and occupied Sept 1, 1943, expanding overall capacity to 1,178 beds. Quarry closed in April 1944 for the war duration. Soap factory secures military contracts, leading US penal output in soap powder for the armed forces. Tailoring shop sets record production volumes handling Army, Navy, and Lend-Lease garment contracts.

1944/1946 — June 30, 1946 census records 608 inmates. Out-camps at external state institutions are discontinued. Eldora Annex program initiated. No major structural construction during this timeline phase.

1946 — John Hinz, the prison cheesemaker, is killed by inmates Hofer and Larson during a violent and desperate escape attempt inside the complex walls.

1946/1948 — Academic school program suspended during the war to meet urgent defense contract deadlines is restored. Baseball diamond, dugouts, and grandstands built using inmate commissary profits. Farms join the Farm Conservation Program, growing beef herds. Tobacco shop closed June 30, 1947. Guard recruiting remains critical.

1948/1950 — Population matches 860 on June 30, 1950. Insane ward census drops from 114 to 70. New water tower construction begins. 1950 pamphlet notes a 1,200 total count, listing shop allocations: tailoring (100), metal (60), printing (40), soap (40), carpentry (25), kitchen (150), and 15–20 orderlies per cellhouse. Garage operates 3 cars and 10 trucks. Inmate Alcoholics Anonymous group celebrates its first anniversary.

1950/1952 — June 30, 1952 population stands at 809. Fire brigade operates a hose cart and one truck. Academic school system is fully revamped for reopening. Limited funds stall farm building maintenance. Industries register average profits at 10.2%. Recommendation made to move the warden's residence outside the administration building to open up office space.

1952/1954 — Ray Purcell appointed warden June 26, 1953; population counts 803. Monthly per capita cost tracks at $88.03. Elementary school program launches with assistance from Iowa State College to train vocational instructors. Warden urges moving criminally insane inmates to proper mental health facilities, citing the difficulty of staffing a penal insane ward. Industries profits sit at 8.8%.

1954/1956 — Average population tracks at 840. Total farm operations cover 1,536 acres with 19 horses, 187 dairy cows, 283 beef cattle, and 545 hogs. Roster shops handle soap, tailoring, metalwork, printing, and canning. Full-time Catholic chaplain hired. High school program opens. Net industrial profits track at 6.6%.

1956/1958 — Institutional school program achieves official accreditation by the Department of Public Instruction. Industrial profits track at 6.02%. Roster lists Ray Purcell as warden, E. V. Hubbard as assistant warden, Roy Smith as deputy, and Rolland Brown as assistant deputy. 1958 census records 812 inmates. New powerhouse operational. 20-man 3rd-grade floating gang handles hard cinder labor. Governor H. Loveless attend the 8th annual AA banquet.

1959 — September census counts 862 inmates (788 in 1st grade, 50 in 2nd grade, 24 in 3rd grade, 8 lifers, and 87 inside the insane ward).

1958/1960 — Average population levels at 868 under Warden Purcell, Deputy Smith, and Business Manager Lloyd Hoyle Jr. Inmate labor constructs 6 replacement farm structures. Mental Health division adds specialized staff for a modern psychiatric track. Recreation programs are financed entirely via commissary store sales. Non-compulsory religious services reach 50% of the population.

1960/1962 — Roster requests clerical pool increases to relieve professional medical/psychiatric staff. Registered Nurse placed in charge of medical operations. Divinity students begin individual counseling tracks under 2 full-time chaplains. Government surplus tools equip auto body and motor mechanics trade schools. Vacant since 1918, the old female department building is renovated for academic classrooms; old powerhouse converted for recreation. Proposed construction seeks a separate warden residence, new farm barns, and exterior garages.

1958-1962 Insane Ward Crisis — Legislative reviews label the insane ward "an appalling situation," discovering untreated prisoners held up to 50 years without trial, dating back 85 years. A $375,000 grant sets up a temporary psychiatric unit under Dr. Joseph Stomel, but staff retention fails and the unit reverts to custody guards and a part-time visiting doctor. Captain Lawrence LaBarge appointed associate warden over insane ward custody. Board of Control proposes building a dedicated off-site Security Hospital.

1962/1964 — Annual per capita cost is $1,500. Focus shifts toward rehabilitation via social services, psychological tests, and sports. Over 500 men pursue structured hobbies (leatherwork, painting, writing, ceramics). 330 men attend night school taught by Cedar Rapids instructors. Heavy equipment operation school added. 40-bed minimum-security Luster Heights camp opens at Yellow River State Park in July 1963 for reforestation work. Anamosa Chamber of Commerce tours the site Sept 1963. Salary scales remain marginal.

1963 — October: A severe inmate disturbance causes heavy layout damage. Fires are set inside the tailoring shop, the canning facility is damaged, and inmates seize the motor school to crash two trucks in the yard. Order is restored after several hours with zero loss of life. Warden Ray Purcell announces retirement effective the following May.

1964 — Following the retirement of Warden Purcell, Charles Haugh is appointed the new warden, bringing a progressive correctional philosophy to the regular programming. Roster averages 440 inmates with 260 full-time staff. The central theme shifts to a "team approach" with a behavior modification orientation, emphasizing inmate responsibility. Inmates are permitted to wear personal clothing, and the practice of stamping identification names and numbers onto clothing is discontinued. Formalized grievance procedures are established, and structured inmate organizations (Jaycees, Phoenix, Check Writers Association, Indian Culture, Black Culture) are permitted. Additionally, the Level Incentive Program launches, rewarding responsible conduct and programmatic involvement with increased privileges and reduced supervision. Temporary warden assignment for Benjamin Baer also concluded in June of this year.

1968 — The North Cellhouse is officially condemned. Director of Treatment role assumed by John Sissel earlier in April.

1969 — the criminally insane, who had been housed at Anamosa since 1936, are moved permanently to the specialized Oakdale medical facility.

1964/1966 — Monthly per capita cost tracks at $170.98; population on 1/1/66 is 918. Shops focus on license plates, furniture, soap, tailoring, tires, and print. Trade training runs motor repair, auto body, meat cutting, and machine shops. Roster tracks 5 counselors in social services. Varsity sports teams play civilian groups outside. Writers, art, pinochle, and chess clubs expand. Legislature funds guard uniform allowances and salary raises. Planning shifts toward the new Iowa Security Medical Facility at Oakdale.

1966/1968 — Richard Kurtz named business manager Aug 1, 1967. Roster expansions inside social services reduce caseloads for individualized counseling. Tire recapping and print shops switch to formal vocational programs. Work Release program officially authorized by passed legislation in 1967, providing a crucial community transition period for public offenders where they pay taxes, room, and board. Dining room tables are replaced with modern 4-man units, shifting to a leisurely open-interval feeding system. Farms manage 1,442 acres of corn, oats, and hay with beef and dairy cattle herds.

1975 — Inmate Ron Brewer escapes the facility and kills two Anamosa citizens: a prison school employee and her husband. Brewer is later captured in Arizona, given additional life sentences, and eventually dies in prison.

1978 — February 1: Following a comprehensive renovation utilizing only the original outer structural walls of the condemned North Cellhouse, the institution opens a modern Infirmary, Social Services/Clinical Services, a Visiting Room, Central Records, and Vocational Rehabilitation offices directly where the old cellhouse stood.

1980 — The three lower floors of the old hospital building are completely remodeled to open the new Housing Unit H (Level Five). As the Reformatory population continues to climb, a full remodeling of Living Unit North is completed in September, creating space for 57 new inmates and formally replacing Cellhouse A (North House).

1982 — The institution becomes the official Reception Center for all incoming inmates entering the Iowa Department of Corrections (DOC). This specialized intake function terminates in September 1984.

Tour Destination

The Anamosa State Penitentiary Museum

Located right outside the institution's walls in Anamosa, Iowa, the museum houses a vast physical collection of original uniforms, structural artifacts, handmade inmate weapons, and detailed structural exhibits.

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