Object Record
Images
Additional Images [2]
Metadata
Object ID |
2008.010.177 |
Title |
Jefferson County Jail Register 1878-1929 |
Accession number |
2008.010 |
Object Name |
Ledger |
Description |
In February of 1878 the County Commissioners officially turned the new Jail over to Sheriff John Belcher to manage and house prisoners. This Jail was located in the basement of the 1877 Courthouse located at 15th and Washington Avenue. Belcher changed the method of keeping track of inmates, including court dispositions and sentencing, by capturing this information by longhand in a large, bound book, known as a ledger. Who ever was working the "Booking" desk at the time was responsible for adding information to the ledger regarding the disposition of arrestees. The first entry was made on February 18, 1878 on Inmate Richard Sloan placed in the jail by the County Court on a mittimus for "shooting and blowing up" things. The Grand Jury returned no bill on Sloan, who, as the first inmate in the new jail was the first to escape on April 5, 1878. The ledger is complete with all arrests made in Jefferson County until August 8, 1929 when new technology replaced the manual system of tracking inmates. |
Provenance |
In August of 1929 this ledger was retired to the basement of the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department, then located adjacent to the Courthouse and Jail at 15th and Washington Avenue. It remained in possession of the County Sheriff until 1958 when Sheriff Arthur Wermuth took the ledger as a memento of his time in office.At the time, no one was sure whether Wermuth had the ledger and no investigation was initiated to find it. Wermuth moved to Las Vegas and eventually on to Oregon where he retired. He died in 1998 in virtual obscurity at his home in Oregon. The American Legion notified his daughter that they now possessed the 1878-1929 Jefferson County Jail Ledger and was willing to turn the artifact over to her. In the summer of 1999 Wermuth's daughter took possession of the ledger and kept it wrapped up in a pillow case at her home in Lakewood, Colorado. Meanwhile, the Oregon American Legion Post had other documents related to Arthur Wermuth that the daughter was not interested in and notified Dennis L. Potter, the current historian for the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department, if he wanted Wermuth's artifacts. During this transaction, Potter learned about the ledger from the American Legion. Potter contacted Wermuth's daughter in Lakewood to obtain possession of the ledger for permanent housing with the Golden History Museum. Negotiations commenced and the daughter was willing to sell the ledger to Potter for $2,500.00, a figure considered reasonable by Terry Ketelson, then the archivist for the Colorado Historical Society. In the fall of 1999,. Potter purchased the ledger from Wermuth's daughter and as intended, turned the artifact over to the Golden History Museum for permanent preservation. |
Credit line |
Golden History Museums, City of Golden, Dennis L. Potter Collection |
Condition |
Good |
People |
Belcher, John W. Seminole, Joseph F. Wermuth, Arthur Woodruff, Samuel |
Search Terms |
1878 Jefferson County Courthouse and Jail Hayward Murder Jefferson County Jail Jefferson County Sheriffs Department |