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Alabama. Governor. Correspondence relating to appointments of Commissioners of Deeds, 1870-1928.

Title: Correspondence relating to appointments of Commissioners of Deeds, 1870-1928.

The Governor is the chief executive of the state whose function is to administer the laws of the state. One of the activities used to accomplish this function is the appointing of individuals to various state and local offices and the signing of grants and commissions. The Governor may appoint Commissioners of Deeds in other states and territories of the United States to take and certify depositions, to receive the acknowledgment and to take proof of wills executed by persons without the state devising or bequeathing property within the state (Ala. Acts 54, p. 32 [1833]). Correspondence in this series relates to the function of appointing Commissioners of Deeds. The records include letters received by the Governor requesting appointment or reappointment to office, recommendations for the appointees, and acknowledgments of commissions and oaths of office. A listing of applicants for the office can be found in ALAV86-A396, Applications for Appointments and Legal Pardons, 1882-1887. This series contains records created by Governors Robert Burns Lindsay (1870-1872), David P. Lewis (1872-1874), George S. Houston (1874-1878), Rufus W. Cobb (1878-1882), Edward Asbury O'Neal (1882-1886), Thomas Seay (1886-1890), Thomas Goode Jones (1890-1894), William Calvin Oates (1894-1896), Joseph Forney Johnston (1896-1900), William James Samford (1900-June 1901), William D. Jelks (June 1901-1907), Russell McWhortor Cunningham (1904-1905), Braxton Bragg Comer (1907-1911), Emmet O'Neal (1911-1915), Charles Henderson (1915-1919), Thomas E. Kilby (1919-1923), William W. Brandon (1923-1927), and Bibb Graves (1927-1931).

ArchivalResource: 1 cubic ft. (1 records center carton).

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/122548670 View

Alabama. Board of Inspectors of Convicts. Annual and biennial reports : state publication, 1845-1906.

Title: Annual and biennial reports : state publication, 1845-1906.

This series functioned to inform the governor of the transactions of the Board of Inspector of the Penitentiary, and later the Board of Inspectors of Convicts. The 1845-1855 annual reports detailed financial transactions, crimes of convicts, counties in which convicted, nativity, and sickness. These early reports are all photocopies. The 1866-1868 reports listed names of convicts as well as their offenses, term, age, height, previous occupation, nativity, when received into the prison system, as well as the county in which convicted, and conduct. From 1869-1877 these reports were made annually, but gave essentially the same information as the 1866-1868 report. From 1880-1906, the reports became biennial. From 1880-1890 the reports were very detailed. Contractors using convicts were named as well as how many convicts the contractor employed, and the number of escapes from prison. The warden, John H. Bankhead, the chaplain, H. Clay Taul, and the physician, Russell M. Cunningham, submitted narrative and statistical reports. Accounts with contractors were given in great detail also. Deaths and causes of death were treated in significant detail as well. There are a number of special reports and tables. Of special interest is the 1882 "History of the Penitentiary," in the 1884-1886 report. The 1892-1906 reports gave basically the same information, but with less detail. Some of the more important contractors included: Charles T. Pollard, Thomas Williams, Pratt Saw Mill Co., Comer & McCurdy, Pratt Coal and Iron Co., Blount Springs, J. W. Comer, J. W. Hardie, Smith & Pace, J. F. B. Jackson, N. J. Stallworth, B. B. Comer, Farris & McCurdy, Warrior Coal & Coke Co., R. J. Thornton, Sloss-Sheffied Steel and Iron Co., and Tennessee Coal, Iron, and Railroad Co. Inspectors included R. H. Dawson, A. T. Henley, W. D. Lee, William S. Kyle, F. McLemore, and R. J. Harrison, among others.

ArchivalResource: 1.4 cubic ft. (4 archives boxes).

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/122538598 View

Alabama. Board of Inspectors of Convicts. Administrative correspondence, 1881-1897.

Title: Administrative correspondence, 1881-1897.

Administrative correspondence documents the administration of a department or division, and tends to deal with matters that have an impact on the program areas that the department or division is mandated to carry out. This series consists of the administrative correspondence of the Board of Inspectors of Convicts and its predecessor agency, the Board of Inspectors of the Penitentiary, between 1881 and 1897. The bulk of the series covers the years from 1883 to 1897 when Reginald Heber Dawson served as president of the board. The series consists of eighteen volumes: five letterbooks containing letters to the board and thirteen letterpress copybooks containing letters from the board. Most volumes are individually indexed. The letterbooks containing incoming letters are extremely fragile. The majority of the series consists of reports to Dawson from Inspectors W. D. Lee and A. T. Henley concerning their inspections of conditions of prisons, mines and farms where prisoners were leased; classification and medical reports from prison physicians Shirley Bragg and Russell M. Cunningham; and reports from prison chaplain Evan Nicholson. A significant amount of correspondence deals with personal and political matters of concern to Dawson, particularly the gubernatorial aspirations of himself and his brother, N. H. R. Dawson. Other correspondents include: Ala. Governors Rufus Wills Cobb, Edward Asbury O'Neal, Thomas Seay and Thomas Goode Jones; State Democratic Executive Committee members Henry Clay Tompkins, Edmund W. Pettus and Tennent Lomax; Ala. Penitentiary Warden and later U. S. Representative John H. Bankhead, and prison reformer Julia Strudwick Tutwiler.

ArchivalResource: 3.5 cubic ft. (18 volumes contained in 1 oversized box, 2 records center cartons, and 2 microfilm cases).

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/122381526 View