In the 1860 census, the High Sheriff of Kennebec County (Benjamin H. Gilbreth) is noted as living at the jail with his wife Emily J. Gilbreth, Frederick W. Gilbreth (age 14) and Everard G. Stinchfield (age 12).  Bridget Kelley (age 19, from Ireland) is listed for this address (likely household help), but other women are listed with details that indicate they were inmates.  In the census data, fifteen people in addition to the Gilbreth household are enumerated for the jail address and we assume they were “in jail,” for the census notations are quite clearly crimes:  larceny, assault, drunkenness, adultery, and fornication.  Of the fifteen, five are clearly women:  Mary E. Hill, Lydia Hodgdon, Elizabeth Thompson, Margaret Burns, and Caroline Hussey.  Of particular interest is the crime for a male inmate, Joseph Hussey.  He is noted as keeping a “house of ill repute.”  The crime record shows that Augusta was a city not dissimilar from any other in the country, with a range of respectability, dis-respectability, crime, and respect for the law making up the social milieu.

 

Site #25.1 Sources:

	Eighth Census of the United States, 1860. Online resource available at ftp://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/me/kennebec/augusta/census/1860/1860kcj.txt . Accessed 29 July 2001.
	Augusta Conservation Commission, Kennebec Historical Society, and Augusta Recreation Department. “Historical Walking Tour of Augusta Maine” (pamphlet), no date.
	North, James W.  The History of Augusta Maine. Somesworth, NH: New England History Press, 1981. New forward by Edwin A. Churchill.  Originally published in 1870 by Clapp and North of Augusta, ME.