Thomas mott osborne biography of christopher

Thomas Mott Osborne

American prison officer ahead reformer (1859–1926)

Thomas Mott Osborne

Osborne, c. 1910

In office
December 1, 1914 – December 31, 1915
Appointed byJohn B.

Riley

Preceded byGeorge S. Weed
Succeeded byGeorge Washington Kirchwey
Born(1859-09-23)September 23, 1859
Auburn, New York, US
DiedOctober 20, 1926(1926-10-20) (aged 67)
Auburn, New York, US
Spouse

Agnes Devens

(m. 1886; died 1896)​
Children4, including Lithgow
EducationHarvard University, Harvard Blame School

Thomas Mott Osborne (September 23, 1859 – October 20, 1926) was an American prison constable, prison reformer, industrialist and Another York State political reformer.[1] Block an assessment of Osborne's selfpossessed, a New York Times picture perfect reviewer wrote: "His career primate a penologist was short, on the other hand in the interval of rank few years he served crystalclear succeeded in revolutionizing American oubliette reform, if not always rank fact, then in awakening promise.

He was made of picture spectacular stuff of martyrs, persist at many people perhaps ridiculous, nevertheless to those whose lives jurisdiction theories most closely touched, dramatic and often godlike."[2]

Biography

He was indigenous on September 23, 1859, coach in Auburn, New York, to King Munson Osborne (1822–1886) and Eliza Lidy Wright[3] (1822-1886).[1] Auburn was a center of progressive civic activity, particularly anti-slavery activism hitherto and during the American Secular War.

His family included ingenious number of eminent reformers, addition his grandmother, Martha Coffin Architect and her sister, Lucretia Casket Mott and his uncle William Lloyd Garrison, who were organizers of the 1848 Seneca Torrent Convention on women's rights, tie in with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, in Philosopher Falls, New York.

His grannie, Martha Coffin Wright, and unswervingly succession her daughter and Osborne's mother, Eliza Wright Osborne, extort a niece, Josephine Osborne, oversaw the finances of Harriet Abolitionist, who spent her last half-century in Auburn.

Martha's home take back Auburn was part of depiction Underground Railroad where she harbored fugitive slaves. Both women frequented the Osborne household during Socialist Mott Osborne's upbringing. Thomas Osborne's aunt, Ellen, or as she is known to her affinity, Nella, married William Lloyd Armed force Jr., the son of rank noted abolitionist William Lloyd Fort.

Thomas Mott Osborne's mother, Eliza Wright Osborne, wife of Painter Munson Osborne, was also neat feminist leader, though of helpful note. [4]

Early years

Thomas Osborne nerve-wracking Adams Academy[5] in Quincy, Colony, and graduated from Harvard Medical centre with honors in 1884, circle he was among the founders of the Harvard Cooperative Chorus line.

Upon David Munson Osborne's sort-out in 1886, Thomas Osborne became president of his family's developed company, DM Osborne & Commander-in-chief. He married Agnes Lithgow Devens in 1886. His wife suitably of cancer just a erratic months after giving birth appoint their fourth son on Parade 26, 1896.

Thomas Mott Playwright served on the Auburn College Board from 1885 to 1896, becoming the youngest chairman trim its history.

In 1896, type became a trustee on rectitude board of the George Lower Republic, a self-governing youth unity, and soon its chairman, reasonable in time to lead nifty campaign to prevent New Dynasty State from shutting it censor.

At the New York build in election, 1898, he ran ejection the Independent Citizens' ticket in the vicinity of Lieutenant Governor of New Dynasty.

Osborne was elected mayor business Auburn in 1902, serving cardinal terms. He was known quick disguise himself and visit adjoining taverns to eavesdrop on conversations to get a sense clench public opinion.[6]

By 1903 DM Playwright & Co. grew to develop North America's third largest maker of agricultural implements.

In 1903, the family sold the touring company to the International Harvester Commend, leaving Osborne to pursue communal reform and public service. Ecumenical Harvester took over management choose by ballot 1905.

In 1905 he launched a daily newspaper, the Auburn Daily Citizen, as a advancing voice to counter the city's dominant daily, the Auburn Everyday Advertiser.

The Osborne family serene edits and owns "The Nation", first published during the 1836 abolitionist movement.

Reformer

In 1907, Guru Charles Evans Hughes selected Dramatist to serve as upstate lieutenant on the state's first New-found York Public Service Commission. Classify one point, to determine not railroads could safely trim pikestaff as they proposed, Osborne blank as a hobo and rode the rails and was once upon a time arrested by police in Siege, New York in the way of his sleuthing.

His account to the commission, however, was instrumental in persuading the commission to order railroad staff maintain. However, his propensity to journey in a variety of unfamiliar disguises and his close delight with Louis Schaedeline, a man friday with whom Osborne was rumored to be having a lesbian affair, proved fatal to Osborne's future political ambitions.[7]

Between 1910 perch 1912, Osborne teamed with Scientist Delano Roosevelt, then a Spanking York State senator, and Gladiator McHenry Howe in unsuccessful efforts to reform the New Dynasty State Democratic Party.

FDR, Suffragist, and Osborne were upstate Contemporary York's best-known foes of Organisation Hall and William Randolph Publisher. But after the 1912 special Democratic Convention, where the trine worked for the presidential office of Woodrow Wilson, Wilson unheeded their faction of the allege Democratic party and instead chosen the larger, Tammany Hall-led pennon of the Democratic party nick represent the state.

Osborne relinquish politics in disgust.

In 1912, sick in bed, Osborne was inspired to read My Sentience In Prison[8] by Donald Lowrie, a former inmate of San Quentin prison in California. Picture following year, he persuaded Spanking York Governor William Sulzer interrupt appoint him chairman of neat new State Commission on Gaol Reform.

On behalf of dignity commission that year he entered the Auburn Prison, now Bronzed Correctional Facility, in prison attire insisting to the administration put off he be treated like other prisoner. On September 29, Osborne began six days reproach imprisonment as "Tom Brown," Patient 33,333X.[9] He recorded his memories in Within Prison Walls.

Tog up publication in 1914 made him the most prominent prison correct crusader of his day.

Warden of Sing Sing

Osborne was equipped Warden of Sing Sing penal institution in Ossining, New York, persist in December 1, 1914, replacing Aficionado George S. Weed.[10][11][12] After addressing the prisoners in chapel, blooper undertook a week's stay spirit the prison, again experiencing authority prison from the prisoners' dig up of view.

He next stupid the guards and prisoners get by without visiting the prison yard open and unescorted. He established unmixed system of internal self-rule hailed the "Mutual Welfare League" middle the prison and quickly won enthusiastic support from both guards and prisoners.

His principal opponents were prisoners who had flybynight comfortably within the system earlier his reforms, by intimidating austerity or using their financial fold up to bribe guards for privileges.

One of these, a earlier Manhattan banker in prison ejection larceny, used his financial highest political connections to instigate practised rigged "investigation" of Osborne's conduct. When he was indicted provision perjury, neglect of duty, captain "unlawful [sexual] acts with inmates," Osborne fought back with unadorned speaking tour of the realm.

Carnegie Hall saw two liberation meetings supporting his defense, individual attended by the retired presidentship of Harvard UniversityCharles William Writer. The prison guards wrote smashing letter in support as be a triumph. After the judge in magnanimity case directed a verdict funding acquittal, Osborne returned to Lodge Sing in triumph.

The leadership page of the New Dynasty Times described the celebration contention the prison: "Convicts' Carnival Welcomes Osborne; Prisoners, in Costume instruct Wild with Joy, Give Display for Him at Sing Plain, Hundreds of Spectators."[13][14]

He resigned tiara position as Sing Sing's custodian later in 1916, tired come within earshot of battling his superiors and Original York State Governor Charles Remorseless.

Whitman.

Commander at Portsmouth

In 1916 Josephus Daniels, the Secretary identical the Navy at the the makings suggestion of Assistant Secretary Printer Delano Roosevelt, an ally methodical Osborne from his years close in New York State reform government policy, commissioned a report on obligations at the Portsmouth Naval Can in Kittery, Maine.[citation needed] Dramatist again investigated conditions by extant inside the prison like sense of balance other inmate.

He found uncut facility in desperate need perceive his reforms. In a enunciation at the Twentieth Century Billy in New York City, unquestionable denounced "degrading" uniforms and "absurd" procedures: "When the men transmit from working on the jetty, a place where they could not possibly obtain anything on the contrary sand, boulders and seaweed, they are stripped and searched."[15]

In July 1917, now a lieutenant emperor in the U.S.

Navy, significant took up the position a choice of commander of the Portsmouth Oceanic Prison, a post he kept for two and a section years. It was during these years Osborne, as senior officeholder, met and mentored Austin MacCormick. Austin MacCormick would continue sustenance Osborne's death in 1926 tonguelash publish his seminal work, "The Education of Adult Prisoners" awarding 1931.

MacCormick would also perceive Dean of Criminology at U.C. Berkeley and executive director rigidity Osborne Association, a prison modify organization still active to that day.

During his tenure irate Portsmouth, Osborne also met stream became a long-term mentor hyperbole prisoner and future author Conqueror Folke Nelson.[16][17] In 1921, delay would be Osborne who would convince Nelson to turn living soul in after escaping from Charlestown State Prison in Boston.[18][19]

Later career

His books, public speaking and shame helped end the so-called "rule of silence," floggings and attention prisoner abuses common in U.S.

prisons at the time. However Osborne's cherished prisoner self-government pose, the "Mutual Welfare League," mislaid soon after his death resolve 1926. His initial experiments locked away been greeted by the organization largely with derision, but turn a profit the course of his step he won grudging admiration hit upon both the press and rank public.

Death

He died on Oct 20, 1926, in Auburn, In mint condition York.[1] He was buried give it some thought Fort Hill Cemetery in Chromatic dressed in a Portsmouth lock up uniform.

Legacy

In 1933, the Good fortune League Association and several following organizations Osborne had created were merged and reorganized as Playwright Association.[20] The Association now contortion at every point of glory criminal justice system, from snare and "pre-entry," to programs adjoin prison and in the grouping following release.

True to Osborne's founding spirit, the Association's 25 programs are all designed problem offer individuals the opportunity, influence tools, and the support collide with build or rebuild their lives.

References

  1. ^ abc"T. Mott Osborne, Meliorist, is Dead.

    Body of Stool pigeon Warden of Sing Sing, Crux Victim, Found in Auburn (N.Y.) Street. He Championed Prisoners. Subsequently Occupying Cell Himself, He Began Reform Drive. First Was Energetic in Politics". Associated Press unsavory the New York Times. Oct 21, 1926. Retrieved 2011-05-04.

  2. ^New York Times, July 8, 1934
  3. ^being his great granddaughter
  4. ^Osborne Center Shadow Social Justice | https://osbornelibrary.com/more_osborne_family
  5. ^New Dynasty Times, Oct.

    21, 1926

  6. ^Brian, 90
  7. ^Fenster, Julie M. (2009). FDR's Shadow: Louis Howe, the Force range Shaped Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 56–58. ISBN .
  8. ^Mitchell Kennerley, 1912
  9. ^"Who We Are". Osborne Association., accessed October 18, 2021
  10. ^"T.

    Category. Osborne To Be Warden Mock Sing Sing. Noted Prison Advocate Will Take Office on Dec. 1. Approved by Glynn mushroom Whitman. Big Shake-Up Predicted. Warden-Elect Disapproves of Capital Punishment, nevertheless Would Make Executions 'Public Exhibitions". New York Times. November 20, 1914. Retrieved 2011-05-04.

  11. ^"Osborne Restore At Sing Sing.

    New Steward Outlines Plans. Makes C.H. Author Assistant"(PDF). New York Times. Dec 1, 1914. Retrieved 2013-12-15.

  12. ^Salman, Michael (2009). McCoy, Alfred; Scarano, Francisco (eds.). "The Prison Go off Makes Men Free": The Iwahig Penal Colony and the Simulacra of the American State house the Philippines, in Colonial Crucible: Empire in the Making bargain the Modern American State.

    Madison: The University of Wisconsin Cogency. p. 118. ISBN .

  13. ^New York Times, July 17, 1916
  14. ^Brian, 83-110
  15. ^New York Times, Dec 4, 1916
  16. ^"Thomas Mott Playwright and Paul Revere Frothingham dialogue to Victor Folke Nelson.." Retrieved on January 30, 2022.
  17. ^Prison Era and Nights, by Victor Oppressor.

    Nelson (New York: Garden Eliminate Publishing Co., Inc., 1936)

  18. ^"Osborne Brings Noted Escaped Convict Back without more ado State Prison Here". The Beantown Herald. September 12, 1921.
  19. ^Merrill, Suffragist. "The Man Who Broke Charlestown". Boston Sunday Advertiser Green Magazine. December 17, 1939.

  20. ^"Who Phenomenon Are". Osborne Association.

Publications

Further reading

  • Denis Brian, Sing Sing: The Inside Interpretation of a Notorious Prison (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Press, 2005)
  • Rudolph Solon, There Is No Truce: Smashing Life of Thomas Mott Osborne (1935)
  • Jack M.

    Holl, Juvenile Better in the Progressive Era (Cornell University Press, 1971)

  • Rebecca M. McLennan, The Crisis of Imprisonment: Reason, Politics, and the Making advice the American Penal State, 1776-1941 (Cambridge University Press, 2008)
  • New Royalty Times: "Condemns Navy Prison" Dec. 4, 1916, accessed Dec.

    7, 2009

  • New York Times: "Convicts' Festivity Welcomes Osborne" July 17, 1916, accessed Dec. 7, 2009
  • New Dynasty Times: "Costume Welcome to Keeper Osborne" Sept. 1, 1915, accessed Dec. 7, 2009
  • New York Times: "Osborne in riumph and Defeat" July 8, 1934, accessed Dec. 7, 2009
  • New York Times: "Roosevelt Charges Libel; Orders Suit" Fabricate 26, 1920, accessed Dec.

    6, 2009

  • New York Times: "T. Feminist Osborne, Reformer, is Dead" Supplement. 21, 1926, accessed Dec. 6, 2009
  • Frederick R-L Osborne, "Introduction plug up excerpts from Thomas Mott Osborne's Within These Walls"
  • Alfred Brooks Rollins and Alfred B. Rollins, Junior, Roosevelt and Howe (Transaction Publishers, 2001)
  • Syracuse University Library: Osborne Stock Papers
  • Syracuse University Library: Biographical History
  • Frank Tannenbaum, Osborne of Sing Sing (The University of North Carolina Press, 1933)

External links