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Eugenic States

Eldora Escapees

Duane Parsons held his breath and tried to remain still as he lay between dirt rows in a field in Mason City, Iowa. His heartbeat quickened at the sound of a low-flying airplane closing in on his position. Cold sweat chilled his back as his stomach twisted, remembering the gunshot that went off when the patrolman spotted him before he raced into the field. He didn’t slow down when it happened or even think to shield himself. He kept running, dreading the thought of what would happen if he was caught. Two other boys that escaped with him were nearby, but he had no idea what happened to the others. His body ached and the blisters on his feet stung. The rough dirt scratched his arms as he heard the crowd of men chasing him getting closer. Their footsteps and rustling through the fields rose to a crescendo. He had hoped to escape Eldora to Minneapolis and find a job. Those plans were crumbling to dust as he kept his head to the ground and listened to the cacophony of shouts, boots marching in the scrub, and the din of an airplane slowly closed in to his location.

The Iowa legislature established Eldora in 1868 as a juvenile correction facility for boys and girls under eighteen. Over the course of the next few decades, Eldora – then known as the Industrial School for Boys – relocated to Eldora, Iowa, and shifted their admittance to boys between seven and sixteen. Boys who were sent to Eldora could expect a militaristic environment, harsh treatment, and hard labor in the name of moral reform. Throughout the facility’s history, stories of abuse were rampant. What options did boys interred at Eldora have when faced with these conditions?

On August 29, 1945, in retaliation against the murder of one of the inmates, Ronald LeRoy Miller, a riot erupted at Eldora and 179 boys escaped the facility. That day, disciplinary officer Carl Klatt beat seventeen-year-old Miller to death with a blackjack and leather strap, with another guard, Harold Nelson, allegedly involved in the murder. Their actions sparked the riot, which would be followed by several other mass escape attempts over the course of the following weeks. The resulting coverage of the incident did shed light on the abuse and cruel punishments taking place at Eldora. Iowa governor Robert D. Blue ordered an investigation of all penal institutions in the state and district judge Dean W. Piesen launched a grand jury investigation into Eldora specifically. While the incident led to the suspension and firing of several employees, Eldora remained open and the actual result of these investigations seems minimal.

Even without the constant threat of physical punishment, life at Eldora was difficult. Boys were expected to undertake hard labor in the name of moral reform. One account from a former cottage manager and World War II veteran who resigned from his position following the riot noted that “conditions at the institution were ‘as bad as those in a nazi prison concentration camp.’” (“Suspend Eldora Guards,” Mason City Globe-Gazette, 31 August 1945) These statements, however, were quickly dismissed, and newspaper accounts of the incident were just as likely to highlight the violence of the boys in attacking guards and escaping over their treatment at Eldora. A twelve-foot hurricane fence and additional disciplinary cottage were even added to specifically prevent further escape attempts and punish so-called troublemakers. Two fifteen-year-old “ringleaders” of the riots were sentenced to ten years in prison at Anamosa, with a total of sixty-seven boys sent there as well to quarters separated from the rest of the facility.

Given these conditions, escape was often one of the few options available to inmates at Eldora. Either that, or they had to endure and survive until they were released at twenty-one. This is what led to the escape attempt three years later. On August 27, 1948, nine boys escaped from Eldora, resulting in a manhunt across the state with ten highway patrolmen, two deputy sheriffs, thirty-five farmers, and one airplane. One account of the incident included a short interaction between one of the boys, sixteen-year-old Milton Monson and Deputy Sheriff Jerry Allen after Monson’s capture:

“The youngster was still defiant and told Deputy Sheriff Jerry Allen as he was being lodged in Cerro Gordo county jail: ‘You won’t catch us so easy next time.’

‘What makes you think there’ll be a next time?’ Allen asked.

‘There will be,’ was the answer.”
(“5 Boys Back at Eldora After Capture at Manly,” Mason City Globe-Gazette, 27 August 1948)

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Officers with Eldora Escapees A photograph printed in a newspaper featuring boys who escaped Eldora Training School surrounded by law enforcement officers and famers that assisted in their arrest. The group stands in front of a small house. At the back row, twelve men stand, some smiling to the camera. The first three men from left to right are highway patrolmen. They are wearing dark uniforms and police hats with the first two wearing dark aviator glasses. The next two men are dressed in light-colored slacks and long-sleeve button-down shirts. They are Cerro Gordo Deputy Sheriffs. They are both wearing light, fedora-like hats. The next three men are also highway patrolmen wearing dark clothes with police hats. The last two of these three are wearing aviator glasses. The two men after them are Rock Island Railroad Detectives. They are wearing light-colored clothes and work slacks with hats on. The final two men are farmers wearing overalls and short sleeved shirts with hats on. Kneeling below these men are five boys. Only two to three appear to be looking at the camera. They are wearing either tshirts or are topless. One boy on the far right seems to be grimacing at the camera. The caption under teh photograph reads: “Law enforcement officers stand behind the five youths—three of them from Waterloo—who escaped from the Eldora Training school, after their capture near Manly, Ia., Thursday afternoon. The boys are, from left to right, Milton Munson, Forest City; Duane Parson, Waterloo; Paul Scobee, Waterloo; Harvey Hill, Eagle Grove, and Darrell Waterman, Waterloo. The men standing are, left to right, Highway Patrolmen Ervin Sanders, Dana Rima and Richard Hahn; Cerro Gordo Deputy Sheriffs Frank Waychus and Jerry Allen; Highway Patrolmen Walter Hilbert, Floyd Carver and Howard Miller; Rock Island Railroad Detectives H. L. Bosworth and R.E. Hayes and two unidentified farmers who aided in the capture.” (AP Wirephoto direct to Courier.) A photograph printed in a newspaper featuring boys who escaped Eldora Training School surrounded by law enforcement officers and famers that assisted in their arrest. The group stands in front of a small house. At the back row, twelve men stand, some smiling to the camera. The first three men from left to right are highway patrolmen. They are wearing dark uniforms and police hats with the first two wearing dark aviator glasses. The next two men are dressed in light-colored slacks and long-sleeve button-down shirts. They are Cerro Gordo Deputy Sheriffs. They are both wearing light, fedora-like hats. The next three men are also highway patrolmen wearing dark clothes with police hats. The last two of these three are wearing aviator glasses. The two men after them are Rock Island Railroad Detectives. They are wearing light-colored clothes and work slacks with hats on. The final two men are farmers wearing overalls and short sleeved shirts with hats on. Kneeling below these men are five boys. Only two to three appear to be looking at the camera. They are wearing either tshirts or are topless. One boy on the far right seems to be grimacing at the camera. The caption under teh photograph reads: “Law enforcement officers stand behind the five youths—three of them from Waterloo—who escaped from the Eldora Training school, after their capture near Manly, Ia., Thursday afternoon. The boys are, from left to right, Milton Munson, Forest City; Duane Parson, Waterloo; Paul Scobee, Waterloo; Harvey Hill, Eagle Grove, and Darrell Waterman, Waterloo. The men standing are, left to right, Highway Patrolmen Ervin Sanders, Dana Rima and Richard Hahn; Cerro Gordo Deputy Sheriffs Frank Waychus and Jerry Allen; Highway Patrolmen Walter Hilbert, Floyd Carver and Howard Miller; Rock Island Railroad Detectives H. L. Bosworth and R.E. Hayes and two unidentified farmers who aided in the capture.” (AP Wirephoto direct to Courier.)
Still Defiant A photograph printed in a newspaper featuring the arrest of an Eldora Escapee. An officer is depicted to the left of the frame arresting a young boy. The boy is shirtless and appears to be grimacing as the officer handcuffs him. The caption reads: “STILL DEFIANT—Milton Monson, 16 year old Forest City lad, is shown beign handcuffed by Highway Patrolman Floyd Carver at the Manly railroad yards soon after his acpture. The youngster was still defiant and told Deputy Sheriff Jerry Allen as he was being lodged in Cerro Gordo county jail: ‘You won't catch us so easy next time.’ ‘What makes you think there'll be a next time?’ Allen asked. ‘There will be,’ was the answer.” A photograph printed in a newspaper featuring the arrest of an Eldora Escapee. An officer is depicted to the left of the frame arresting a young boy. The boy is shirtless and appears to be grimacing as the officer handcuffs him. The caption reads: “STILL DEFIANT—Milton Monson, 16 year old Forest City lad, is shown beign handcuffed by Highway Patrolman Floyd Carver at the Manly railroad yards soon after his acpture. The youngster was still defiant and told Deputy Sheriff Jerry Allen as he was being lodged in Cerro Gordo county jail: ‘You won't catch us so easy next time.’ ‘What makes you think there'll be a next time?’ Allen asked. ‘There will be,’ was the answer.”
Beating of Inmates [Headline] Charge Beating of Inmates Led to Eldora Riot [End of Headline] [Subhead] FORMER GUARD SAYS BOYS IN MORTAL FEAR [End of Subhead] [Subhead] Investigations Promised Into Death of Boy, 17, Reported Beaten. [End of Subhead] [By-line] [Name bolded and in all caps] By FRANCIS VEACH [Position of author placed below their name in plain text] Courier Staff Writer [End of By-Line] Eldora Ia.—A former guard at the Iowa Training School for Boys here, who told me in an exclusive interview that he had resigned from his position as a protest to beatings administered to boys at the institution, said he stood ready Thursday “to testify in court that the riot Wednesday was started because the boys felt that they were in danger of being crippled or killed from beatings.” The man who made that statement is elderly Henry Fauerby, 1603 Edgewood avenue, Eldora, employed as a guard at the state training school for the past three months. [bold text] His charges were hurled while Hardin county Coroner E. H. Biersborn, Union, Ia., made plans for two physicians to conduct an autopsy Thursday afternoon to determine the cause of the death of a 17-year-old inmate of the training school, Ronald Miller, whose father, Harold Miller, lives a Chariton and whose mother, Dorothy Miller, lives in Des Moines. [end of bold text] (Violence marked the trail of 48 boys remaining at large, the Associated Press said Thursday noon. [bold text] (Of 179 who fled from the institution, 131 were reported by Assistant Superintended Darrel T. Brown to have been recaptured or to have returned peaceably. [end of bold text] (First report of violence came from Union, nine miles south of here, where Town Marshall Grellet Dillon, 65, was attacked by four of the escapees, who later fled. Dillon suffered a broken nose and severe hemorrhages, and was replaced on his “beat” by armed citizens. [bold text that is added between the previous paragraph in its own section] Police at Waterloo discovered a stolen car Thursday forenoon on Avon avenue. Owner was found to be E. H. Anselme, Iowa Falls, Ia. A workshirt believed to have been discarded by an Eldora Training school escapee was in the car, but no other signs of the youth resulted from a search of the vicinity. Checks with Eldora officials indicated the shirt was worn by Inmate Edward Martin. [end of bold text] (Three of the boys were captured early Thursday at Marshalltown, about 30 miles southeast of here, when a car they had stolen cracked up in a residential district. One of the trio, William Flynn, 18, of Perry, was injured slightly.) Coroner Biersborn said that the youth had apparently received a “severe whipping” prior to his death. There were bruises about his hips, legs, back and arms, the coroner said. Coroner Biersborn said that there will probably be an inquest. Ed Andrle, proprietor of the funeral home where young Miller’s body was taken, also said that there were bruises on the body. Informed that an autopsy was planned on the body of the Miller boy, Fauerby, the former guard at the training school, said: “There may be more—they have two other boys at the hospital over there, who may die of injuries they received Tuesday from beatings.” [bold text] Dr. R. E. Gray, Eldora physician, who furnishes medical care for the inmates, said that the cause of Miller’s death was acute dilation of the heart, probably brought on by heat prostration. [end of bold text] Brown, who described the youth as “very stubborn,” said Miller had collapsed in 90-degree heat “on the coal pile” where he had been sent as a disciplinary measure. Miller, who had been destined for overseas service in the army until it was discovered he was underage, was sent to the school last June 21 at the request of his parents, Brown said. [bold text] Concerning the five youths, who members of the state board of control and officials at the training school had said had been overcome with the heat, while doing disciplinary tasks at the canning department and coal shoveling, Fauerby took issue with the officials, denying the boys were heat victims. [end of bold text] “They were overcome by exhaustion,” Fauerby said. He declared that Miller, the youth who died, had not been put on disciplinary coal-hauling duty, as officials at the training school claimed. “He was unconscious from the beatings and was not put to work,” Fauerby said. [bold subhead] Fauerby Quit Work. [end of subhead] Fauerby said that he quit his job Tuesday evening following the punishment of the boys. He said that there were more than five who were punished. “I am getting along in years and my health is not too good for other kind of work and I could handle a guard job for a good many years, but I’ll find something else. I don’t want to work at a place where they permit such terrible things.” [bold text] Two inmates with whom I talked at the training school, said the riot was caused, “because that boy was killed.” They named two men, whom they said had beaten Miller. [end of bold text] Brown said that the riot started just as the 545 inmates had started to eat lunch Wednesday. D. R. McCreery, Des Moines, chairman of the board of control, and P. F. Hopkins, also of Des Moines, member of the board, said that they had come to the training school to investigate the “heat prostration” of a group of boys assigned to a disciplinary detail, as a punishment for planning to escape. [bold subhead] Women on Guard. [end of subhead] Hopkins and McCreery had just seated themselves at a table, when the riot broke out in the dining room. Male guards were eating in an adjoining room. There were only the women attendants watching over the boys. [bold text] One employe [sic] of the school said that the riot sounded like a “roar” as the boys suddenly began tipping over tables, dumping plates of stew and throwing dishes.” [end of bold text] Some of the boys broke windows of the huge dining hall and jumped out, landing on “snowball” bushes, which partially broke the 15-foot fall. Others swarmed down the halls and out the doors, witnesses of the break said. [bold subhead] Sheriff Called In. [end of subhead] Hardin County Sheriff J. E. Davidson said that he arrived on the scene just after the riot started. He had been called by the assistant superintendent who had heard that the riot had been planned. [bold text] “They were running every which way,” the sheriff said. “There was nothing I or my deputies could do to stop them. You didn’t want to shoot them and you couldn’t catch them.” [end bold text] Several hours after the riot, there were shouts, of “there goes another boy,” while four of the more trusted inmates began running after him. Throughout the afternoon and evening, highway patrolmen, state agents, Eldora firemen and surrounding firemen arrived with one or more of the boys. Grounds of the institution are spacious and flower-laden. A large administration building, which houses the dining hall, is in the foreground of the group. It lies just to the south of Highway 57, about one-half mile west of Eldora. Still father to the south, lie a semi-circular group of tall stately stone houses, called “cottages,” in which the boys live. [bold subhead] No Prison Atmosphere. [end subhead] There is nothing of a prison atmosphere about the institution. There are no walls. There is only a low wire fence, with open driveways at a number of entrances, leading to the highway. [bold text] Most of the escaped inmates headed to the wooded area toward the south. One 16-year-old boy who had escaped was arrested and lodged in the county jail, after he was captured with a .22 caliber rifle, a few shells and some clothes, which he had reportedly stolen, after breaking into a farm house. [end of bold text] McCreery, chairman of the board of control, said that although the matter had never been brought before that group, that the board had never given its approval to paddlings as a means of discipline. He said that the proper procedure was to punish boys by depriving them of merits. McCreery explained that it is possible for a boy to earn 15 merits a day for good behaviour [sic] and that for an infraction of discipline, merits are lost. It requires a total of 6,000 merit points to become eligible for parole from the institution, McCreery said. “For instance, last Friday was drill day and those who won, were awarded merits,” McCreery said. [bold subhead] Von Krog Absent. [end of subhead] O.S. von Krag, superintendent of the training school, was not present when the riot occurred. He was reported to have left for Duluth, Minn., Tuesday evening for hay fever relief. [bold text] Fauerby said that von Krog was aware of “what had been going on,” Wednesday. [end of bold text] One department head said he had no trouble with his boys, but that he knew the institution was not granted enough money to hire proper help. [bold subhead] List Stricken Boys. [end subhead] McCreery said that the following youths had been overcome by the heat, while working at the canning department or on the coal pile: John Cook and Charles Brunner, both of Des Moines, and Robert Burgus, Dubuque, all in the canning department; George Sissel, Leon, Ia., and Ronald Miller on the coal pile. [bold text] McCreery said that the investigation of Miller’s death and the riot had been turned over to the state bureau of investigation. [end of bold text] McCreery and Hopkins said that the question of whether there was anything else besides heat prostration involved in Miller’s death would be determined. The investigation will continue for a long period, it was said. “This will have to all come out in the ward,” the two board of control members said. Investigating the circumstances of the riot and also the death of Miller, were State Agents D. O. Bender, Max Studer, Russell Kern, M. D. Huffman and A. T. Thompson. Highway patrolmen, taking part in the investigation and the rounding up of the escaped boys were Sgt. Russell Fisher, Cedar Falls, Sgt. Lyle Dawson, Mason City; Hugh Grandfield and E. L. Immer, both of Cedar Falls; Art Longseth, Marshalltown; Earl Shoeman, Mason City; P. C. Tometich, Mason City and Andre Carstensen, West Union, Ia. [bold subhead] Supper Quiet Meal. [end of subhead] This group of state agents and highway patrolmen stood guard along the walls, inside the dining room during the supper time. [bold text] There were no disturbances, at supper time, although there were a number of vacant chairs. [end of bold text] The boys, clad in their striped blue denim shirts and blue overall trousers, ate in mannerly fashion. Corn on the cob was one of the main dishes and there was very little left except the cobs, which the boys gathered up neatly along with the dishes. They had no opportunity to eat at noon when the stew was upset in the riot. After eating, each lad folded his napkin and sat silently with folded hands until the bell for dismissal sounded. [bold subhead] Davis Discusses Bill. [end of subhead] Floyd Davis, Waterloo, state representative from Black Hawk county, Thursday referred to a bill relating to the transfer of incorrigible and unmanageable male juveniles from the training schools under the board of control to the men’s reformatory—a bill defeated by a vote of 48 to 53 by the house on Apr. 9, 1945. [bold text] An explanation of this bill given at the time of its introduction state, “There have been a number of cases where vicious boys have assaulted other boys or employes at the training school. Injuries sustained have sometimes been serious and in one case the attacked boy died. Recently Mr. McKinley, in charge of the tailor shop, was struck on the head with a nose nozzle and seriously injured. [end of bold text] “In such cases charges are filed against the guilty oy and he is tried the same as any other criminal. These are, however, cases where it is evident to the school authorities that a boy has criminal tendencies and is likely to attack anyone who crosses him if opportunity is given. It is in such cases that the proposed legislation would provide a means whereby the court could make the transfer to Anamosa without waiting for someone to be seriously hurt or killed. “The boys training school is not a prison and there should be some way of protecting the other boys and employes from the vicious attacks of potential killers. “The board of control recommends the enactment of the proposed legislation.”