}1 32
THE PRISGiTTsEWS
tj. BroUB''ton
VOL. VI
PUBLISHED MONTHLY, BY THE STATE PRISON DEPARTMENT j_
THE STATE’S PRISON, RALEIGH, N. C. OCTOBER T7
19*?Г
»
• •'
UNEMPLOYED GET EMPLOYED
ON CALEDONIA PRISON FARM
IN VARIOUS & SUNDRY WAYS
Vivid Picture Location and Vast
Operations Taking Place Through¬
out the Entire Year
Autumn
%
A haze on the far horizon,
The infinite tender sky,
The ripe, rich tint of the cornfields
And the wild geese sailing high;
And all over upland and lowland
The charm of the golden-rod —
Some of us call it Autumn,
And others call it God.
— William Herbert Carruth.
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HISTORICAL FACTS RELATED
IN INTERESTING SEQUENCE
BY N. C. STATE HISTORIAN
Ponce de Leon First in All History
To Land in America Not
Christopher Columbus
Geo. R. Ross, Director State Owned Farms.
There are a certain number of things to be
done in any community and we often wonder
what people do with their time. Perhaps it
would be interesting to see what tb2 men
do at Caledonia, as shown on reports from
Capt. Ranes to Superintendent Pou’s office,
and then guess how an individual farmer
ever gets around to do all his odd jobs.
For those of you “prisoners and free
folks”, who have never been to Caledonia
Prison Farm, located in a bend of the
Roanoke River between Halifax and Scot¬
land Neck, I will tell you what it looks like.
As you enter, only from the south or west
side, there is before you great open fields
gently rolling with miniature bluffs here and
there and in the center buildings, many
wooden, some of galvanized iron and the
large central building of brick with a steel
. towef and black tank nearby, giving all the
appearance of the approach to a country
village just budding into town size. From
the center of the village open spaces con¬
tinue with their gradual slope to the
Roanoke River, and there, as tho it were a
mighty forest, bordering the north and ,
east, is the river dyke which gives the
appearance of higher land with a great
forest beyond, but as a matter of fact,
hidden behind the dyke the red river flows
through the white sycamore trees. In and
around the village there are about twelve
hundred people, the employees with their
families live in cottages grouped in three
units known as #1,
Й
2 and t 3. In the
central farm unit and nearby the main
building and not far from the central office,
the flour mill, the cotton gin, the saw mill
and the garage, there is located the home
of the Physician and “The Mayor of the
Town”. In these two homes the Prison
Board and officials or other special guests
who have cause to visit the farm are pro¬
vided foT, and the only thing missing is
there are no tourist’s homes. Caledonia
(Continoed on pose three.)
EDUCATIONAL DEPARTMENT
Edw. W. Ruggles, Director
The fall term of the Central Prison
School under the directon of Edw. W.
Ruggles, of the State College Extension
Division, recently appointed Educational
Director by Supt. Geo. Ross Pou, began its
work Sept. 26th and the interest shown [
both by the competent inmate teachers
and pupils is most gratifying. Fifty-three
have been enrolled in regular classes and
twenty-five in special classes at Central
Prison. The enrollment at Camp Polk Farm
is thirty-four.
Director Ruggles stated that his first
effort would be to teach as many as possible
to read and write, not denying however any
others seeking improvement along these
lines. So far pupils are being taught up
through the seventh grade. He said that
the school at Camp Polk Farm was moving
along nicely and he believed that many
boys were being benefited. As soon as
practicable it is his intention to begin the
same work at the Caledonia Farm, located
in Halifax County.
The Prison News takes this opportunity
to urge every inmate within reach of either
of these schools not to pass up this splen¬
did chance to better themselves. Attending
is absolutely optional.
DAD
That word “Dad” brings to mind many
beautiful thoughts. If we will stop for a
minute and gaze into the past we can not
but feel that many times his companion¬
ship and tender care have guided our foot¬
steps away from numerous pitfalls into
which we most likely would have fallen.
Different from Mother, his emotions have
not been outspoken, but nevertheless far-
reaching, profound and unalterable. To
face the hard tussles of the world it has
always been natural to look to him in a
(Continoed on pose two)
By Col. Fred A. Olds
People often speak of Christopher Co¬
lumbus as the “Discoverer of America,”
while really he never saw America at all.
Ponce de Leon, in 1613, obtained a royal
grant from the King of Spain to “Discover
and organize the Island of Bimini.” He
was in fact a health-seeker, after he had
been told the Indians (really Caribs) de¬
clared there was a “magical fountain which
restored youth,” which he craved, though
he was only 52, so he landed in America
for the fiYst time in all history, then went
back to Spain and in 1521 returned as
“President of all Florida, “Adelantado,” as
the Spaniards called his title. Soon after
his arrival he had a battle with the Caribs,
and a little later sailed for Cuba, where he
died at the age of 61, utterly disappointed
by never finding the “Fountain of Youth.”
It is important to say here that all the
territory of North America was first claim¬
ed by King Henry the Seventh of England,
as a “British possession,” because Sebastian
Cabot, sent out by him, made the first real
discovery and landed in what is now Canada,
in 1497, which was five years after Co¬
lumbus had landed on an island in the
West Ihdies, October 12, 1492.
It- is of further interest to say that the
“Providence of Carolina,” embracing what
are now North Carolina, South Carolina
and Georgia, is referred to in our “Colonial
Records” in 1696, as having been in 1663
called “Florida,” because of the “abundance
of flowers.” In 1664 in the second “Char¬
ter of Carolina,” by King Charles the
Second, the second boundary of “Carolina,”
was so extended as to embrace the “terri¬
tory below Saint Augustine.”
In 1763 the Spanish King ceded Florida
to England; it being really a “trade” or
“swap.” And that year, copies in our North
Carolina Colonial Records it was said;
“Many persons coming from the Northward
are now settling in North Carolina. In
(Continued on pope four.)
