Nebraska State Penitentiary

Asylum for the Incurable Insane, Hastings

Nebraska Industrial Home.

     This institution was founded in the hope of reforming and protecting girls who have gone astray. It was established at Milford in 1888 through the efforts of a few Nebraska women. After eight years under the management of benevolent women, it became a state institution in 1897. Mrs. A. M. Edwards was the first Superintendent and in 1902 Margaret Kealy entered upon that office. Up to 1902 over five hundred and fifty girls sought shelter in this Home, besides eighty-two women. The Home is kept up at an annual cost of about $10,000.00 and is partially maintained by the income of the adjoining forty acre farm. Inmates are kept for one year, in which time they are taught the common branches of study, housekeeping and plain sewing. In addition to these practical helps toward fitting them for useful lives, they receive religious instruction.

Nebraska State Penitentiary.

     This institution at present has about three hundred criminals confined within its walls. It is located three miles south of Lincoln and was established in 1869. A building which is now used as a stable constituted the State Penitentiary in early days. A great fire occurred in March of 1901, in which the main part and all of the cells were consumed. The damage was restored the following year, an elegant main building being erected. The of rebuilding was $125,000.00. The building has been fitted out with an ample supply of new steel cells, so that now with one possible exception, the institution has the best cell accommodations in the United States. The female department also is far superior to those of other penitentiaries, and in almost all respects this is the best equipped institution in the country. Mr. A. D. Beemer is the present warden.

@ 2002 for the NEGenWeb Project by Pam Rietsch, Ted & Carole Miller