Teaching Guide
for 1859 Jail
Marshal's Home & Museum
217 North Main Street, Independence, MO
(816) 252-1892
The property is owned and operated by the Jackson County Historical Society
of Missouri.
Educational Resources— Student Tours
The Marshal's Home
The Marshal and his
family lived in a home next to the Jail. A marshal certainly didn't get
rich—his salary was about $50.00 per month plus the use of the home for his
family. The house had two front doors. One door led into the office and was
used for business. The other led into the family portion of the home. The
marshal's wife often prepared meals for the prisoners, as well as her family,
in the small kitchen.
Discussion questions:
Why do you think it was important to have two front doors to this house?
Why do you think the kitchen was in the small one story part attached to the
back of the house?
Was electricity available when the house was built?
Where do you think they kept their food?
Where did they get water?
How would they have cooked in 1859 when the house was built?
What kind of jobs would children have had around the kitchen in those days?
Parlor
The parlor was a room used by the whole family. They would receive guests and
entertain here. Perhaps they would have played the piano, written letters,
read, and listened to the music box. In this room you will see paintings and
needle work on the walls. You will also see a picture with a wreath of brown
flowers around it. This is called a "hair wreath" and is made of
human hair, which has been woven into a design. The desk in this room is a
very special one. You may notice that it is a "stand up" desk. It
was owned by Henry Clay, a famous and important Kentuckian, who was at the
forefront of American politics for 50 years.
Discussion Questions:
What would you call this room in your home today?
The rectangular instrument in the parlor is a pianoforte. Why was it called
that and what would it be called today?
Why would someone choose to make a wreath out of human hair?
Henry Clay was instrumental in passing the Compromise of 1850. How did this
legislation affect Missouri?
Second Floor
There are three bedrooms upstairs. Each family that lived in the Marshall's
home used the rooms as needed for the size of their family. The museum has
interpreted the rooms as though a small family lived there. One was the
parent's room, one a child's room, and the other perhaps a guest room. Things
you should look for are: rope beds, a spinning wheel, a boot jack, a
melodeon, chamber pots, a pot belly stove, and toys.
Discussion Questions:
What was the purpose of each of these items?
How did they keep warm?
Why would there be an extra door between the parents and child's room?
Which things are the same as your room? What things are different?
Where is the bathroom?
Marshal's Office
The Marshal's Office is a single room used for business. The marshal would
process newly arrested or transferred prisoners and information about them would
be recorded in a journal. The office had three doors so a person could enter
from the street or from the Marshal's home and enter the cell block. In this
room you will find: a water bucket and gourd dipper, a desk, a picture of
Andrew Jackson, a print of the George Caleb Bingham picture "Order
Number 11", and a log book.
Discussion Questions:
What is the significance of the things found in the office?
What things would you find in today's offices that would replace some of
these items?
Why would Andrew Jackson's picture be in this room?
Jail
Old Jail
The marshal spent some of his time taking care of prisoners in the jail. The
old jail was built in 1859 at the same time as the house. The jail has six
cells down stairs, and six more up stairs. There used to be an iron staircase
to the second floor. The two-foot-thick walls are made of limestone blocks,
some of which are six feet long. Each cell has a grated iron door and a solid
iron door. Not much light came through the iron shutters covering the windows
covering the windows during the day. There was no glass so the wind could
blow through. At night, a kerosene lamp was lit in the hall. During the Civil
War, there were as many as 20 prisoners placed in each cell. The cells are
only six-by-nine-feet and are made to hold three prisoners.
Discussion Questions:
What kinds of crimes were people arrested for?
Were there different crimes in the early days of the jail than there are
today?
Why were so many people in jail during the Civil War?
Who was put in jail? Men? Women? Children?
What do you think they used for beds?
What would they use for toilets?
How did they keep warm in winter?
Prisoners
With the hostilities provoked by the slavery issue, marshals were confronted
with keeping law and order in the midst of guerilla raids from both Kansas
and Missouri. William Clark Quantrill, leader of a pro-Confederate guerilla
band, was once arrested and put in the Jail. Under influence from Quantrill's
friends, he was released. The marshal claimed he had "never truly
arrested Quantrill but had taken him into protective custody." (Pricilla
Jackson Evans)
When the Union garrison occupied the Jail, they demanded loyalty oaths of the
citizens. Citizens who refused the loyalty oath, or refused to disclose the
whereabouts of sons or father, were imprisoned in the Jail. "After the
2nd battle of Independence in 1862, the cells were so packed with prisoners
that here was no room to lie down." (Evans)
Another famous occupant of the Jail was Frank James, brother of Jesse James.
Obviously, receiving great sympathy for his southern leanings, this famous
accused bank and train robber and murderer was accorded deluxe treatment. His
cell had a Brussels carpet, fine furniture and paintings. Frank was allowed
to leave his cell and visit freely with other inmates. Card games were a
nightly affair in James' sumptuous cell. Frank James was held in the Jail for
the crime of murder. He was acquitted and lived the rest of his life in the
area.
Prior to the Civil War, a person could be given a jail sentence for one of
the following crimes: Horse racing on public streets, firing guns in town,
operating a gaming house, assault and battery, disturbing the peace,
disturbing a religious meeting, or building a privy "not over a
pit."
Jail Expansion
The need for additional prison space in 1900 necessitated the addition of a
two story brick building directly behind the limestone Jail. This was
designed to house minimum-security prisoners. Many of these prisoners made up
the "chain gangs" that worked on nearby roads and other public
projects. One can only imagine the sight of a group of such men working under
the scrutiny of the ever-vigilant deputies. This addition now comprises the
Museum exhibit area.
Howard School
Located in the courtyard of the Jail site is a one-room schoolhouse. The
school was built in the early 1870's by William and Mary Howard for the
education of their children. Originally it stood behind the Howard family
home in Lee's Summit and was moved to its present site in 1959, The 12-by-16
foot frame building is completely restored and is a perfect example of an
elementary school from that day. The school was given to the Jackson County
Historical Society by William T. Howard, a grandson of the builder.
There is a historical connection between the Jail and the Schoolhouse. At the
time of the Civil War, Mr. Howard was a prominent landholder in Jackson
County and was a known Southern sympathizer. He was arrested by a Union
officer in command in Independence and, with his brother-in-law, spent one
month in the old jail. His release came only after he paid a large sum of
money and agreed to move his family to Kentucky for the duration of the war.
Schools were very different from today's schools. School was held during the
winter so children could help with spring planting, summer work, and fall
harvest.
Schools were heated with a fireplace or wood burning stove. Children sitting
closest to the fire were warm "on one side." Sometimes it was hard
for children to keep their minds on their school work because they were so
cold.
The school day usually lasted from sunup to sundown. Reading, spelling,
arithmetic, and writing were the most important subjects. In many of the
early schools, children practiced reading by "reciting out loud" in
what we call "choral reading." Not only did the children study hard
at school all day, but also much additional work was done at home.
Boys and girls were often punished harshly if they did not do their school
work or if they misbehaved. School was not easy or a lot of fun, but
schooling was considered very important and a privilege to attend. Children
used slates to practice writing and "sums." Books were treasured
and passed from child to child in the family.
Discussion Questions:
How is your school different from the schools in the 1850s to 1900s? How is
it the same?
How many grades in the one-room school?
Life in the 1850s and 1860s
With the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854, Kansas, Missouri's
neighbor to the west, was given the choice of entering the Union as a slave
or free state. Kansas elected to be a free state. Missouri and Kansas were
not good neighbors. Constant border clashes between pro-slave Missourians and
free-state Kansans brought war to Jackson County five years before the
official declaration in 1861.
The burning of homes, looting of property and retaliatory killing of slavery
supporters andabolitionists caused indescribable suffering to the
average Jackson County citizen.
Priscilla Jackson Evans wrote, "It was in this environment that the old
Jail was built. Never was a building more symbolic of a community's desperate
attempt to control disorder and violence, and of its attitude toward those
who acted outside the law."
In 1861, a Union garrison occupied the old Jail, using it as a headquarters
for the Provost Marshal. Southern sympathies were strong in Eastern Jackson
County. Any citizen who voiced those sympathies could expect to spend time in
the Jail.
The attacks across the Missouri-Kansas border continued. As the guerilla
raids increased, Union forces determined to rid the area of guerrillas by
depopulating the border counties so the raiders would have no sanctuary. For
the General Ewing the last straw was Quantrill's raid on Lawrence, Kansas on
August 19, 1963. He believed that southern sympathizers were harboring the
raiders.
On August 25, 1863, Union General Thomas Ewing issues the now infamous Order
Number 11, placing all outlying areas of Jackson, Bates and Cass counties
under martial law. All residents in these counties had to prove their
allegiance to the Union by signing a loyalty oath. Those remaining loyal to
the Confederacy were given 15 days to leave the area. They could move to
temporary military station sanctuaries in Missouri, or they could move to
Kansas. Many families moved back to their homes in Tennessee and Kentucky to
wait out the war.
The order was strictly enforced. More than 20,000 people were forced to leave
their homes. Homes, crops, and livestock were destroyed or confiscated. Some
people were shot down in the act of obeying the order. Others who refused the
alternatives were incarcerated in the Jail, with as many as 20 people in a
cell. Independence virtually became a refugee camp.
George Caleb Bingham, famed Missouri artist and statesman, vented his rage at
the treatment of citizens with his rendition of martial law or "Order
Number 11," painted while he was a resident of Independence. The
painting shows General Ewing driving a family from their home. Bingham had
been an outspoken critique of border wars but believed the solution Ewing
sought was terribly unfair.
Copies of this painting were widely distributed and were instrumental in
General Ewing's defeat when he ran for governor of Ohio, after the war.
|