Description: Before the Ohio Penitentiary’s closing in 1979, the execution chamber within the facility housed and displayed photographs of many of the prisoners sentenced to death throughout the state’s history. This portrait of Walker Brown of Hanford Village, Columbus is one of them. Brown was the youngest member of a gang led by another Columbus resident, Henry Loudermilk. On December 10, 1931 Loudermilk’s gang invaded the home of John and Sarah Kidney in Monroe Township with the intent of stealing roughly $60,000 that was rumored to be hidden within. In actuality, the robbers were only able to find $446. John Kidney, an elderly farmer and blacksmith, age 75, was violently beaten and killed by the assailants. Sarah, his invalid sister, age 70, was beaten and tortured. Although there were multiple men involved in this violent crime, Brown was identified by each of the accomplices as the one responsible for the actual murder of John Kidney. However, Brown continually denied being involved. He was the first person in the group to be executed for Kidney’s murder. The caption at the bottom of the photograph reads, “Walker Brown, of Pickaway County, electrocuted June 3rd, 1932, for the murder of John Kidney of Pickaway County, Ohio.” Brown was executed at the age of 24. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL08224
Subjects: Ohio History--State and Local Government--Corrections; Ohio History--State and Local Government--Law; Ohio History--State and Local Government--Corrections; Capital punishment--Ohio--History; Electrocution; Death row; Ohio Penitentiary (Columbus, Ohio)
Places: Pickaway County (Ohio); Columbus (Ohio)
 

Description: This photograph from the Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus is of 30-year-old Walter Wilson, a laborer from Cleveland. His formal attire suggests that the photograph was taken during his trial or sentencing. Wilson was the 298th individual to be executed via the electric chair in Ohio. The caption at the bottom reads: “No. 298 Walter Wilson Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Legally Electrocuted July 13, 1956, for the Murder of Joseph Fena.” In 1885 the Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus, Ohio, became the location for all executions, which previously took place in the various county seats. In 1896 the Ohio General Assembly mandated that electrocution replace hanging as the form of capital punishment. The Ohio Penitentiary regularly offered tours as well as souvenir photographs and postcards of the building and prisoners on death row. A total of 315 prisoners, both men and women, were executed in the electric chair known as “Old Sparky” between 1897 and 1963. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL08350
Subjects: Ohio History--State and Local Government--Corrections; Ohio History--State and Local Government--Law; Capital punishment--Ohio--History; Death row; Electrocution; Ohio History--State and Local Government--Corrections; Ohio Penitentiary (Columbus, Ohio); Prisons--Ohio
Places: Columbus (Ohio); Franklin County (Ohio); Cleveland (Ohio); Cuyahoga County (Ohio)
 

Description: This photograph from the Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus is of 43-year-old Walter Byomin. His formal attire suggests that the photograph was taken during his trial or sentencing. Byomin, convicted of murdering a Wellington police officer, was the 308th individual to be executed via the electric chair in Ohio. The caption at the bottom reads: “No. 308 Walter J. Byomin Lorain County, Electrocuted July 3, 1959 for the Murder of Police Officer Edmund G. Smith” In 1885 the Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus, Ohio, became the location for all executions, which previously took place in the various county seats. In 1896 the Ohio General Assembly mandated that electrocution replace hanging as the form of capital punishment. The Ohio Penitentiary regularly offered tours as well as souvenir photographs and postcards of the building and prisoners on death row. A total of 315 prisoners, both men and women, were executed in the electric chair known as “Old Sparky” between 1897 and 1963. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL08360
Subjects: Ohio History--State and Local Government--Corrections; Ohio History--State and Local Government--Law; Capital punishment--Ohio--History; Death row; Electrocution; Ohio History--State and Local Government--Corrections; Ohio Penitentiary (Columbus, Ohio); Prisons--Ohio
Places: Columbus (Ohio); Franklin County (Ohio); Lorain County (Ohio); Wellington (Ohio)
 

Description: This photograph from the Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus is of 43-year-old Lester Nichols. His formal attire suggests that the photograph was taken during his trial or sentencing. Nichols was convicted of murdering his father-in-law, Rev. Lewis Whitaker, and wounding others in a home invasion. The caption at the bottom reads: “No. 266 Lester Nichols of Allen County, Legally Electrocuted March 4, 1949 for the Murder of Lewis Whitaker.” In 1885 the Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus, Ohio, became the location for all executions, which previously took place in the various county seats. In 1896 the Ohio General Assembly mandated that electrocution replace hanging as the form of capital punishment. The Ohio Penitentiary regularly offered tours as well as souvenir photographs and postcards of the building and prisoners on death row. A total of 315 prisoners, both men and women, were executed in the electric chair known as “Old Sparky” between 1897 and 1963. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL08318
Subjects: Ohio History--State and Local Government--Law; Capital punishment--Ohio--History; Death row; Electrocution; Ohio History--State and Local Government--Corrections; Ohio Penitentiary (Columbus, Ohio); Prisons--Ohio; Ohio History--State and Local Government--Corrections; Death row
Places: Columbus (Ohio); Franklin County (Ohio); Allen County (Ohio)
 

Description: Photo of Lewis Harmon of Franklin County; Electrocuted October 28, 1904, for the Murder of George Geyer. Harmon was charged with robbing, shooting and killing Gever, a farmer in Alton, Ohio. Miles Wallingforth, who aided Harmon in Gever's murder, committed suicide in a Texas jail before authorities were supposed to rerun him to Ohio. On August 8, 1903, Harmon and three other prisoners escaped from the county jail but was caught and returned later that day. Harmon died by electric chair October 28, 1904. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL08071
Subjects: Ohio History--State and Local Government--Law; Capital punishment--Ohio--History; Death row; Electrocution; Ohio History--State and Local Government--Corrections; Ohio Penitentiary (Columbus, Ohio); Prisons--Ohio; Ohio History--State and Local Government--Corrections; Death row
Places: Franklin County (Ohio)
 

Description: Portrait of Winthrop Sargent by Gilbert Stuart. Winthrop Sargent (May 1, 1753 – June 3, 1820) was a United States politician, soldier and writer. He was born in Gloucester, Massachusetts, and graduated from Harvard University in 1771. With the outbreak of the American Revolution, he joined the Continental Army and attained the rank of major by the war's end. In 1786, Sargent helped survey the Seven Ranges of townships in what is now eastern Ohio. Using the knowledge that he had attained while surveying parts of the Ohio Country, he helped organize the Ohio Company and Associates. He also was one of the principal shareholders of the Scioto Company. He became secretary of the Ohio Company in 1787 and assisted Manasseh Cutler in securing land from the Confederation Congress. That same year, the Congress appointed Sargent as the secretary of the Territory Northwest of the River Ohio. He accompanied some of the first Ohio Company settlers to Marietta in 1788. During the late 1780s and early 1790s, Sargent played a major role in the governance of the Northwest Territory. Governor Arthur St. Clair was commonly away from his position, and Sargent served as de facto governor in his absence. He also served under St. Clair in his expedition against the American Indians living in western Ohio in 1791. At St. Clair's Defeat on November 4, 1791, Sargent was twice wounded but survived. In 1798, Winthrop Sargent resigned as secretary of the Northwest Territory to accept an appointment as the first governor of the Mississippi Territory. Sargent was a devoted member of the Federalist Party. In 1801, Thomas Jefferson, founder of the Democratic-Republican Party, became President of the United States. Jefferson removed Sargent from the governor's seat due to their differing political views. Sargent then retired from public life. He died in 1820 in New Orleans or aboard a steamboat on the Mississippi Rivers at Natchez, according to varying accounts. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL07518
Subjects: Ohio History--Military Ohio; American Revolutionary War, 1775-1783; Ohio Company (1786-1795); Northwest Territory--History; Ohio--Politics and government
 

Description: Picture of a white horse with a harness attached to it. A man rides in the seat in front of the horse stable. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B13F02_026
Subjects: Urbana (Ohio)--History; Champaign County (Ohio)--History; Harness racing--Ohio--History; Ohio--History--Pictorial works; Federal Writers' Project.
Places: Urbana (Ohio); Champaign County (Ohio)
 

Description: General Jacob D. Cox served as governor of Ohio from 1866 to 1868. From "Howe's Historical Collections of Ohio" by Henry Howe, 1907. Cox also served with the Union Army during the Civil War. Originally from Montreal, Canada, Cox emigrated to the United States, and attended Oberlin College. After several pre-war political positions in Ohio, he joined the Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Cox fought at Antietam, South Mountain, and Atlanta, and eventually became military supervisor for the District of Ohio and the District of Michigan. He went on to become the 28th Governor of Ohio. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL04231
Subjects: Governors--Ohio; Ohio History--State and Local Government; Ohio History--Military Ohio, United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865
Places: Columbus (Ohio); Franklin County (Ohio)
 

Description: In 1772, David Zeisberger, a missionary of the Moravian Church, established the village of Schoenbrunn on the Tuscarawas River, near present-day New Philadelphia. The word Schoenbrunn means "beautiful spring" in German. The purpose of this community was to provide Moravian missionaries a place to teach Christianity to Native Americans residing in Ohio. At its greatest size, Schoenbrunn had a population of four hundred Christian natives, mostly Delaware Indians, and more than sixty buildings, including the first school and Christian church built in Ohio. During the American Revolution, facing harassment from both the English and the Americans , Zeisberger and his followers abandoned Schoenbrunn in early 1778. They held a final service in the church, after which they tore down their house of worship to prevent its desecration. Schoenbrunn has since been rebuilt and is administered as an historic site by the Ohio Historical Society. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B14F02_005_001
Subjects: Building, Wooden--Conservation and restoration; Schoenbrunn (Ohio)--History; Log Cabins; Tuscarawas County (Ohio)--History; Ohio--History--Pictorial works; Federal Writers' Project
Places: Tuscarawas County (Ohio)
 

Description: This is postcard of Hotel Onesto in Canton, Ohio. Hotel Onesto was created by Francis A. Onesto in 1930. He wanted a hotel design to rival those in large cities. Today the hotel is home to luxury apartments. In 1982, the hotel was added to the National Register of Historic Places. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B13F07_010_001
Subjects: Hotels--History; Postcards--Ohio--Canton; National Register of Historic Places; Canton (Ohio)--Buildings, structures, etc.; Canton (Ohio)--History; Ohio--History--Pictorial works; Federal Writers' Project.
Places: Canton (Ohio); Stark County (Ohio)
 

Description: Caption reads: "Foundations for new bridge on Turkey Foot Road near Massillon, Ohio." The town of Massillon, located along the Tuscarawas River in Stark County, was named in 1826 by landowner James Duncan after Jean Baptiste Massillon, the Court Preacher to Louis IV of France. The new town incorporated the town of Kendal, located in the northeast section of Massillon, which had been founded by Thomas Rotch in 1812. In 1853, Massillon was incorporated as a village. Massillon was known as the "wheat city" for many years, exporting wheat after the Ohio-Erie Canal opened in 1828. When the railroad came in 1852, industrial growth brought Pig-iron, glass, and coal mining industries. Another industry was developed by Joseph Davenport, the inventor, who founded the Massillon Bridge Company. Massillon became known for its steel and metal working activities and continues today in these areas. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B01F16_001_001
Subjects: Transportation--Ohio--History.; Architecture--Ohio--Pictorial works.; Bridges Ohio; Massillon (Ohio)--History; Ohio--History--Pictorial works; Federal Writers' Project
Places: Massillon (Ohio); Stark County (Ohio)
 

Description: This photograph from the Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus is of 57-year-old Willie Johnson. His formal attire suggests that the photograph was taken during his trial or sentencing. Johnson was the 240th individual to be executed via the electric chair in Ohio. The caption at the bottom reads: “No. 240 Willie Johnson of Cuyahoga County, Legally Electrocuted March 10th, 1944, for the Murder of Margaret Wilson.” In 1885 the Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus, Ohio, became the location for all executions, which previously took place in the various county seats. In 1896 the Ohio General Assembly mandated that electrocution replace hanging as the form of capital punishment. The Ohio Penitentiary regularly offered tours as well as souvenir photographs and postcards of the building and prisoners on death row. A total of 315 prisoners, both men and women, were executed in the electric chair known as “Old Sparky” between 1897 and 1963. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL08294
Subjects: Ohio History--State and Local Government--Law; Ohio History--State and Local Government--Corrections; Capital punishment--Ohio--History; Death Row; Ohio Penitentiary (Columbus, Ohio); Electrocution; Prisons--Ohio
Places: Columbus (Ohio); Franklin County (Ohio); Cuyahoga County (Ohio)