Thomas Mott Osborne
Encyclopedia
Thomas Mott Osborne was an American prison administrator, prison reform
er, industrialist and New York State political reformer. He was also known as "Tom Brown," a name he gave himself when he spent a week in the Auburn Prison
in New York state in 1913.
In an assessment of Osborne's life, a New York Times book reviewer wrote: "His career as a penologist was short, but in the interval of the few years he served he succeeded in revolutionizing American prison reform, if not always in fact, then in awakening responsibility.... He was made of the spectacular stuff of martyrs, to many people perhaps ridiculous, but to those whose lives his theories most closely touched, inspiring and often godlike."
. Auburn was a hotbed of progressive political activity, particularly anti-slavery activism before and during the American Civil War
. His family included a number of eminent reformers, particularly his grandmother, Martha Coffin Wright
and her sister, Lucretia Coffin Mott, who were organizers of the world's first women's rights conference, the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention
, with Elizabeth Cady Stanton
, in Seneca Falls, New York
.
His grandmother, Martha Coffin Wright, and in succession her daughter and Osborne's mother, Eliza Wright Osborne, and a niece, Josephine Osborne, oversaw the finances of Harriet Tubman
, who spent her last half-century in Auburn. Martha's home in Auburn was part of the Underground Railroad
where she harbored fugitive slaves. Both women frequented the Osborne household during Thomas Mott Osborne's upbringing. The third of the Coffin sisters, Ellen, or as she is known to her descendants, Nella, married William Lloyd Garrison Jr., the son of the noted abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison
. Thomas Mott Osborne's mother, Eliza Wright Osborne, wife of David Munsen Osborne, was also a feminist leader, though of lesser note.
in Quincy, Massachusetts
, and graduated from Harvard University
with honors in 1884, where he was among the founders of the Harvard Cooperative Society
.
Upon David Munsen Osborne's death in 1886, Thomas Osborne became president of his family's manufacturing company, DM Osborne & Co., which by 1903 grew to become North America's third largest producer of agricultural implements. In 1903, the family sold the company to the International Harvester
Trust, leaving Osborne to pursue social reform and public service. International Harvester took over management in 1905.
His wife died of cancer just a few months after giving birth to their fourth son in 1896.
Thomas Mott Osborne served on the Auburn School Board from 1885 to 1896, becoming the youngest chairman in its history. In 1896, he became a trustee on the board of the George Junior Republic
, a self-governing youth colony, and soon its chairman, just in time lead a campaign to prevent New York State from shutting it down.
In 1898, he ran on the Independent Citizens' ticket for Lieutenant Governor of New York
.
Osborne was elected mayor of Auburn in 1902, serving two terms. He was known to disguise himself and visit local taverns to eavesdrop on conversations to get a sense of public opinion. In 1905 he launched a daily newspaper, the Auburn Daily Citizen, as a progressive voice to counter the city's dominant daily, the Auburn Daily Advertiser.
selected Osborne to serve as upstate commissioner on the state's first Public Services Commission. At one point, to determine whether railroads could safely trim staff as they proposed, Osborne dressed as a hobo and rode the rails and was once arrested by police in Syracuse, New York
in the course his sleuthing. His report to the commission, however, was instrumental in persuading the panel to order railroad staff maintained.
Between 1910 and 1912, Osborne teamed with Franklin Delano Roosevelt, then a New York State senator, and Louis McHenry Howe
in unsuccessful efforts to reform the New York State Democratic Party. FDR, Howe and Osborne were upstate New York
's best-known foes of Tammany Hall
and William Randolph Hearst
. But after the 1912 national Democratic Convention, where the three worked for the presidential nomination of Woodrow Wilson
, Wilson ignored their faction of the state Democratic party and instead selected the larger, Tammany Hall
-led wing of the Democratic party to represent the state. Osborne quit politics in disgust.
In 1912, sick in bed, Osborne was inspired to read My Life In Prison by Donald Lowrie
, a former inmate of San Quentin prison in California. The following year, he persuaded New York Governor William Sulzer
to appoint him chairman of a new State Commission on Prison Reform
. On behalf of the commission that year he entered the Auburn Prison, now Auburn Correctional Facility, in prison garb insisting to the administration that he be treated like any other prisoner. On September 29, Osborne began six days of imprisonment as "Tom Brown," Inmate 33,333X. He recorded his experiences in Within These Walls. Its publication in 1914 made him the most prominent prison reform crusader of his day.
on December 1, 1914, replacing Judge George S. Weed
. After addressing the prisoners in chapel, he undertook a week's stay inside the prison, again experiencing the prison from the prisoners' point of view. He next stunned the guards and prisoners by visiting the prison yard unarmed and unescorted. He established a system of internal self-rule called the "Mutual Welfare League" within the prison and quickly won enthusiastic support from both guards and prisoners.
His principal opponents were prisoners who had lived comfortably within the system before his reforms, by intimidating others or using their financial resources to bribe guards for privileges. One of these, a former Manhattan banker in prison for larceny, used his financial and political connections to instigate a rigged "investigation" of Osborne's administration. When he was indicted for perjury, neglect of duty, and "unlawful [sexual] acts with inmates," Osborne fought back with a speaking tour of the state. Carnegie Hall
saw two mass meetings supporting his defense, one attended by the retired president of Harvard University
Charles William Eliot
. The prison guards wrote a letter in support as well. After the judge in the case directed a verdict of acquittal, Osborne returned to Sing Sing in triumph. The front page of the New York Times described the celebration at the prison: "Convicts' Carnival Welcomes Osborne; Prisoners, in Costume and Wild with Joy, Give Pageant for Him at Sing Sing, Hundreds of Spectators."
He resigned his position as Sing Sing's warden later in 1916, tired of battling his superiors and New York State Governor Charles S. Whitman
.
, the Secretary of the Navy at the likely suggestion of Assistant Secretary Franklin Delano Roosevelt, an ally of Osborne from his years in New York State reform politics, commissioned a report on conditions at the Portsmouth Naval Prison
in Kittery, Maine
. Osborne again investigated conditions by living inside the prison like any other inmate. He found a facility in desperate need of his reforms. In a speech at the Twentieth Century Club in New York City, he denounced "degrading" uniforms and "absurd" procedures: "When the men return from working on the seawall, a place where they could not possibly obtain anything but sand, boulders and seaweed, they are stripped and searched."
In July, 1917, now a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy, he took up the position of commander of the Portsmouth Naval Prison, a post he held for two and a half years.
He died on October 20, 1926 in Auburn, New York
. He was buried in Fort Hill Cemetery
in Auburn dressed in a Portsmouth prison uniform.
Prison reform
Prison reform is the attempt to improve conditions inside prisons, aiming at a more effective penal system.-History:Prisons have only been used as the primary punishment for criminal acts in the last couple of centuries...
er, industrialist and New York State political reformer. He was also known as "Tom Brown," a name he gave himself when he spent a week in the Auburn Prison
Auburn Prison
Auburn Correctional Facility is a state prison located on State Street in Auburn, New York, built on land that was once a Cayuga Indian Village. It is classified as a maximum security facility....
in New York state in 1913.
In an assessment of Osborne's life, a New York Times book reviewer wrote: "His career as a penologist was short, but in the interval of the few years he served he succeeded in revolutionizing American prison reform, if not always in fact, then in awakening responsibility.... He was made of the spectacular stuff of martyrs, to many people perhaps ridiculous, but to those whose lives his theories most closely touched, inspiring and often godlike."
Birth
He was born on September 23, 1859 near Auburn, New YorkAuburn, New York
Auburn is a city in Cayuga County, New York, United States of America. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 27,687...
. Auburn was a hotbed of progressive political activity, particularly anti-slavery activism before and during the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
. His family included a number of eminent reformers, particularly his grandmother, Martha Coffin Wright
Martha Coffin Wright
Martha Coffin Wright was an American feminist, abolitionist, and signatory of the Declaration of Sentiments.-Early life:...
and her sister, Lucretia Coffin Mott, who were organizers of the world's first women's rights conference, the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention
Seneca Falls Convention
The Seneca Falls Convention was an early and influential women's rights convention held in Seneca Falls, New York, July 19–20, 1848. It was organized by local New York women upon the occasion of a visit by Boston-based Lucretia Mott, a Quaker famous for her speaking ability, a skill rarely...
, with Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Elizabeth Cady Stanton was an American social activist, abolitionist, and leading figure of the early woman's movement...
, in Seneca Falls, New York
Seneca Falls (village), New York
Seneca Falls is a village in Seneca County, New York, United States. The population was 6,861 at the 2000 census. The village is in the Town of Seneca Falls, east of Geneva, New York. On March 16, 2010, village residents voted to dissolve the village, a move that would take effect at the end of 2011...
.
His grandmother, Martha Coffin Wright, and in succession her daughter and Osborne's mother, Eliza Wright Osborne, and a niece, Josephine Osborne, oversaw the finances of Harriet Tubman
Harriet Tubman
Harriet Tubman Harriet Tubman Harriet Tubman (born Araminta Harriet Ross; (1820 – 1913) was an African-American abolitionist, humanitarian, and Union spy during the American Civil War. After escaping from slavery, into which she was born, she made thirteen missions to rescue more than 70 slaves...
, who spent her last half-century in Auburn. Martha's home in Auburn was part of the Underground Railroad
Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was an informal network of secret routes and safe houses used by 19th-century black slaves in the United States to escape to free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists and allies who were sympathetic to their cause. The term is also applied to the abolitionists,...
where she harbored fugitive slaves. Both women frequented the Osborne household during Thomas Mott Osborne's upbringing. The third of the Coffin sisters, Ellen, or as she is known to her descendants, Nella, married William Lloyd Garrison Jr., the son of the noted abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison
William Lloyd Garrison
William Lloyd Garrison was a prominent American abolitionist, journalist, and social reformer. He is best known as the editor of the abolitionist newspaper The Liberator, and as one of the founders of the American Anti-Slavery Society, he promoted "immediate emancipation" of slaves in the United...
. Thomas Mott Osborne's mother, Eliza Wright Osborne, wife of David Munsen Osborne, was also a feminist leader, though of lesser note.
Early years
Thomas Osborne attended Adams AcademyAdams Academy
Adams Academy was a school that opened in 1872 in Quincy, Massachusetts, USA. John Adams, the second President of the United States, had many years before established the Adams Temple and School Fund. This fund gave of land to the people of Quincy in trust...
in Quincy, Massachusetts
Quincy, Massachusetts
Quincy is a city in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. Its nicknames are "City of Presidents", "City of Legends", and "Birthplace of the American Dream". As a major part of Metropolitan Boston, Quincy is a member of Boston's Inner Core Committee for the Metropolitan Area Planning Council...
, and graduated from Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
with honors in 1884, where he was among the founders of the Harvard Cooperative Society
Harvard/MIT Cooperative Society
The Harvard/MIT Cooperative Society is a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based cooperative serving the Harvard University and MIT campuses.It was founded as the Harvard Cooperative in 1882 to supply books, school supplies, and coal...
.
Upon David Munsen Osborne's death in 1886, Thomas Osborne became president of his family's manufacturing company, DM Osborne & Co., which by 1903 grew to become North America's third largest producer of agricultural implements. In 1903, the family sold the company to the International Harvester
International Harvester
International Harvester Company was a United States agricultural machinery, construction equipment, vehicle, commercial truck, and household and commercial products manufacturer. In 1902, J.P...
Trust, leaving Osborne to pursue social reform and public service. International Harvester took over management in 1905.
His wife died of cancer just a few months after giving birth to their fourth son in 1896.
Thomas Mott Osborne served on the Auburn School Board from 1885 to 1896, becoming the youngest chairman in its history. In 1896, he became a trustee on the board of the George Junior Republic
George Junior Republic
George Junior Republic was an American industrial institution, situated near the small village of Freeville, in Tompkins County, New York, U.S., 9 miles east-north-east of Ithaca, at the junction of the Sayre-Auburn and the Elmira-Cortland branches of the Lehigh Valley railway.- Overview :The...
, a self-governing youth colony, and soon its chairman, just in time lead a campaign to prevent New York State from shutting it down.
In 1898, he ran on the Independent Citizens' ticket for Lieutenant Governor of New York
Lieutenant Governor of New York
The Lieutenant Governor of New York is a constitutional office in the executive branch of the government of New York State. It is the second highest ranking official in state government. The lieutenant governor is elected on a ticket with the governor for a four year term...
.
Osborne was elected mayor of Auburn in 1902, serving two terms. He was known to disguise himself and visit local taverns to eavesdrop on conversations to get a sense of public opinion. In 1905 he launched a daily newspaper, the Auburn Daily Citizen, as a progressive voice to counter the city's dominant daily, the Auburn Daily Advertiser.
Reformer
In 1907, Governor Charles Evans HughesCharles Evans Hughes
Charles Evans Hughes, Sr. was an American statesman, lawyer and Republican politician from New York. He served as the 36th Governor of New York , Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States , United States Secretary of State , a judge on the Court of International Justice , and...
selected Osborne to serve as upstate commissioner on the state's first Public Services Commission. At one point, to determine whether railroads could safely trim staff as they proposed, Osborne dressed as a hobo and rode the rails and was once arrested by police in Syracuse, New York
Syracuse, New York
Syracuse is a city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, United States, the largest U.S. city with the name "Syracuse", and the fifth most populous city in the state. At the 2010 census, the city population was 145,170, and its metropolitan area had a population of 742,603...
in the course his sleuthing. His report to the commission, however, was instrumental in persuading the panel to order railroad staff maintained.
Between 1910 and 1912, Osborne teamed with Franklin Delano Roosevelt, then a New York State senator, and Louis McHenry Howe
Louis McHenry Howe
Louis McHenry Howe was an intimate friend and close political advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He, along with Eleanor Roosevelt and Margurite "Missy" LeHand, was one of the few close associates who supported FDR throughout the most difficult stages of his personal and political...
in unsuccessful efforts to reform the New York State Democratic Party. FDR, Howe and Osborne were upstate New York
Upstate New York
Upstate New York is the region of the U.S. state of New York that is located north of the core of the New York metropolitan area.-Definition:There is no clear or official boundary between Upstate New York and Downstate New York...
's best-known foes of Tammany Hall
Tammany Hall
Tammany Hall, also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order, was a New York political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated on May 12, 1789 as the Tammany Society...
and William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst was an American business magnate and leading newspaper publisher. Hearst entered the publishing business in 1887, after taking control of The San Francisco Examiner from his father...
. But after the 1912 national Democratic Convention, where the three worked for the presidential nomination of Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
, Wilson ignored their faction of the state Democratic party and instead selected the larger, Tammany Hall
Tammany Hall
Tammany Hall, also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order, was a New York political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated on May 12, 1789 as the Tammany Society...
-led wing of the Democratic party to represent the state. Osborne quit politics in disgust.
In 1912, sick in bed, Osborne was inspired to read My Life In Prison by Donald Lowrie
Donald Lowrie
Donald Lowrie was an American newspaper writer and author. He became a well-known advocate of prison reform work upon the release of his book "My Life in Prison", in which he reflects on his ten-year incarceration in San Quentin State Prison north of San Francisco, California.-Early life:Accounts...
, a former inmate of San Quentin prison in California. The following year, he persuaded New York Governor William Sulzer
William Sulzer
William Sulzer was an American lawyer and politician, nicknamed Plain Bill Sulzer. He was the 39th Governor of New York and a long-serving congressman from the same state. He was the first and so far only New York Governor to be impeached...
to appoint him chairman of a new State Commission on Prison Reform
Prison reform
Prison reform is the attempt to improve conditions inside prisons, aiming at a more effective penal system.-History:Prisons have only been used as the primary punishment for criminal acts in the last couple of centuries...
. On behalf of the commission that year he entered the Auburn Prison, now Auburn Correctional Facility, in prison garb insisting to the administration that he be treated like any other prisoner. On September 29, Osborne began six days of imprisonment as "Tom Brown," Inmate 33,333X. He recorded his experiences in Within These Walls. Its publication in 1914 made him the most prominent prison reform crusader of his day.
Warden of Sing Sing
Osborne was appointed Warden of Sing Sing prison in Ossining, New YorkOssining (village), New York
Ossining is a village in Westchester County, New York, United States. The population was 25,060 at the 2010 census. As a village, it is located in the Town of Ossining.-Geography:Ossining borders the eastern shores of the widest part of the Hudson River....
on December 1, 1914, replacing Judge George S. Weed
George S. Weed
Judge George Standish Weed was the acting Warden of Sing Sing in 1914.-Biography:He was born in 1862 to Smith Mead Weed and Caroline Standish in Plattsburg, New York....
. After addressing the prisoners in chapel, he undertook a week's stay inside the prison, again experiencing the prison from the prisoners' point of view. He next stunned the guards and prisoners by visiting the prison yard unarmed and unescorted. He established a system of internal self-rule called the "Mutual Welfare League" within the prison and quickly won enthusiastic support from both guards and prisoners.
His principal opponents were prisoners who had lived comfortably within the system before his reforms, by intimidating others or using their financial resources to bribe guards for privileges. One of these, a former Manhattan banker in prison for larceny, used his financial and political connections to instigate a rigged "investigation" of Osborne's administration. When he was indicted for perjury, neglect of duty, and "unlawful [sexual] acts with inmates," Osborne fought back with a speaking tour of the state. Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
saw two mass meetings supporting his defense, one attended by the retired president of Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
Charles William Eliot
Charles William Eliot
Charles William Eliot was an American academic who was selected as Harvard's president in 1869. He transformed the provincial college into the preeminent American research university...
. The prison guards wrote a letter in support as well. After the judge in the case directed a verdict of acquittal, Osborne returned to Sing Sing in triumph. The front page of the New York Times described the celebration at the prison: "Convicts' Carnival Welcomes Osborne; Prisoners, in Costume and Wild with Joy, Give Pageant for Him at Sing Sing, Hundreds of Spectators."
He resigned his position as Sing Sing's warden later in 1916, tired of battling his superiors and New York State Governor Charles S. Whitman
Charles S. Whitman
Charles Seymour Whitman served as the 41st Governor of New York from January 1915 to December 1918. He was also a delegate to Republican National Convention from New York in 1916.-Biography:...
.
Commander at Portsmouth
In 1916 Josephus DanielsJosephus Daniels
Josephus Daniels was a newspaper editor and publisher from North Carolina who was appointed by United States President Woodrow Wilson to serve as Secretary of the Navy during World War I...
, the Secretary of the Navy at the likely suggestion of Assistant Secretary Franklin Delano Roosevelt, an ally of Osborne from his years in New York State reform politics, commissioned a report on conditions at the Portsmouth Naval Prison
Portsmouth Naval Prison
Portsmouth Naval Prison is a former U.S. Navy and Marine Corps prison on the grounds of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard . The building has the appearance of a castle. The reinforced concrete naval prison was occupied from 1908 until 1974....
in Kittery, Maine
Kittery, Maine
Kittery is a town in York County, Maine, United States. The population was 9,543 at the 2000 census. Home to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard on Seavey's Island, Kittery includes Badger's Island, the seaside district of Kittery Point, and part of the Isles of Shoals...
. Osborne again investigated conditions by living inside the prison like any other inmate. He found a facility in desperate need of his reforms. In a speech at the Twentieth Century Club in New York City, he denounced "degrading" uniforms and "absurd" procedures: "When the men return from working on the seawall, a place where they could not possibly obtain anything but sand, boulders and seaweed, they are stripped and searched."
In July, 1917, now a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy, he took up the position of commander of the Portsmouth Naval Prison, a post he held for two and a half years.
Later career
His books, public speaking and notoriety helped end the so-called "rule of silence," floggings and other prisoner abuses common in U.S. prisons at the time. But Osborne's cherished prisoner self-government plan, the "Mutual Welfare League," vanished soon after his death in 1926. His initial experiments had been greeted by the press largely with derision, but over the course of his life he won grudging admiration from both the press and the public.He died on October 20, 1926 in Auburn, New York
Auburn, New York
Auburn is a city in Cayuga County, New York, United States of America. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 27,687...
. He was buried in Fort Hill Cemetery
Fort Hill Cemetery
Fort Hill Cemetery, founded in 1851, is a cemetery located in downtown Auburn, New York. It features headstones of such notable people as William H. Seward with his son, William H. Seward, Jr....
in Auburn dressed in a Portsmouth prison uniform.
Legacy
In 1931, the Welfare League Association and several other organizations Osborne had created were merged and re-organized as the Osborne Association. The Association is devoted to helping released inmates adjust to their lives post-incarceration.Publications
- Within Prison Walls: Being a Narrative of Personal Experience During a Week of Voluntary Confinement in the State Prison at Auburn, New York (NY: Appleton and Company, 1914)
- Society and Prisons (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1916)
- Prisons and Common Sense (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1924)
Sources
- Denis Brian, Sing Sing: The Inside Story of a Notorious Prison (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Press, 2005)
- Rudolph Chamberlain, There Is No Truce: A Life of Thomas Mott Osborne (1935)
- Jack M. Holl, Juvenile Reform in the Progressive Era (Cornell University Press, 1971)
- Rebecca M. McLennan, The Crisis of Imprisonment: Protest, Politics, and the Making of the American Penal State, 1776-1941 (Cambridge University Press, 2008)
- New York Times: "Condemns Navy Prison" Dec. 4, 1916, accessed Dec. 7, 2009
- New York Times: "Convicts' Carnival Welcomes Osborne" July 17, 1916, accessed Dec. 7, 2009
- New York Times: "Costume Welcome to Warden 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" Oct 26, 1920, accessed Dec. 6, 2009
- New York Times: "T. Mott Osborne, Reformer, is Dead" Oct. 21, 1926, accessed Dec. 6, 2009
- Frederick R-L Osborne, "Introduction to excerpts from Thomas Mott Osborne's Within These Walls"
- Alfred Brooks Rollins and Alfred B. Rollins, Jr., Roosevelt and Howe (Transaction Publishers, 2001)
- Syracuse University Library: Osborne Family Papers
- Syracuse University Library: Biographical History
- Frank Tannenbaum, Osborne of Sing Sing (The University of North Carolina Press, 1933)
External links
- Osborne Association home page
- Osborne Family Papers at Syracuse University (primary source material)