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Show Page Al8 — THE DAILY HERALD,Provo, Utah, Sunday, May 12, 1996 Alabamachain gangs being , DEPOT:. scrutinized by other states . (Continued From Page A17) “[ pause here to say that never oe life haveI seen such feelings in ked up. I became thetarget Nesing: were heid on thestreet, opera house and | was i by the side against the franchise. The people livingin the east ' pdit of the city, for it had developed a sectional fight, were bitter against the people of the west and a versa. The east side went so far that some of them started a boycott a By CHRIST! PARSONS Chicago Tribune CAPSHAW, Ala. — As two tour buses rumbled to the entrance of the Limestone Correctional Facility in northem Alabama, a ' over to the truck where he was sit- Jos. F. Smith asking the Taylor was z to an LDS First Preside obtained at the promptingof i B. beler, pr -ident of the Ut ~cast-side f er bishop of Jesse Knight. The Hter was published in a political jer together with a similar state ent from the stake =. Theletter and statement made life awk i for Taylor, who was bishop ¢ Third Ward in the Utah Stakeat thetime Taylor Brother Keeler nd Brother Brimhall [BYU ent] called on my They told the churchauthorities resident Ke called me in and wanted me to ash people to vote hough I haad pea other Keeler made ts | did not think he made, I told him if I y at he claimed me to be, I ad no right to be a bishop, andif wouldrequest it | would imme resign my bishopric. But I vould not throw down the people ) looked t me to carry on the “The feeling tense. It wasdis: 2. Some people they wen not ing whether to force i ting. fie knew why they were there: Like mostvisitors on the formerly ‘ainst Our store and many Jefeat of the franchise. I stood up etty well under thecriticism of siness, and the schoo!, but when *: they brot [sic] the Churchin, it was “Maay Enois inmates already work on road crews and other spring, correctional officer waved them General Assembly has been debat- of themare still carrying it out. The officials of the BYL were so bitter that |. best friend the ‘was the money power behind the '. opposition. They got a letter from system once outlawed for its cruel- obscure . they wanted to see one of the state’s infamous chain gangs. The Limestone gang Jesse Knight Thomas Nichois Tayior was working on the rock pile behind the prison. “Straight that Light Co. on University Ave where Judge Whitecotton was the principle [sic] speaker, and the one we held on First West and Center at which S. P. Eggertsen presided. Geo. A. Startup, Geo. Powelsen, and Smoot were the speakers. A.O. Smoot was an orator of the first water. Soon as it was learned that he was speaking at our meeting the crowdleft the Whitecotton meeting and cameto ‘Taylor were busy planning to make ess of the Knight Woolen Milis, Although tensions ceased, the two strong civic leaders continued to compete, using their considerable influence to develop their favored sections of Provo. Their leadership was a key factor in determining the nature ofthe city’s commercial and architectural development. The rivalry continued until Knight's death in 1921 Taylor died in 1950. Stephen Hales, a member of Provo's Landmarks Commission, is creative director of Hales Allen, Inc., a Provo advertising agency, and teaches part-time in BYU's Design Department. His master’s thesis is on historic Provo architecture. way and just follow the curve,”the officer shouted. When Alabama became the first state to reinstate chain gangs last urs. Thaveheard A.O. Smoot make some good talks, but it seems to er heard himas effective as he was that night. When he took the charges against me up one by one and branded them as falsehoods. conceived in an unholy mind and read the letters one after another to prove his statemen’s, I always was a great adnirer of Owen Smoot, but this act made me feel much closer to him. The street was packed and the crowd cheered him time and ime again The de ot election was July 27, 1909 west-side location won by 146 votes out of2.468 cast. An exesper ‘ed Jesse Knight reportedly considered an injunction but finally Jecidedto give up, saying: “| have fought the proposition, as I thought, in the interest of Provo in general and the B.Y. univer0 particular. It now appears that the people do not give a d--the university, but prefer to k for the railroad interests. So s1 concerned | am through une announced that work on the depot’s architectural drawings had begunin the office f Walter E. Ware (1861-1951) of pritshisd were> ete bro- Salt Lake City. The accompanying r in the city’s history had illustration showed a sprawling been such feeling. It was California mission style building with a clock tower rising three stog point came when ries n Owen Smoot, a highly For some reason, Ware's initial business and civic design was never completed. oached Taylor and Instead, a more modest structure there is some ve n elements of Prairie rchitecture was dedicated ms meyou owe it on, and it Jan. | 191] @poyyourself to refute them. Other At precisely 10:15 a.m. that day, Thomas Taylor stepped to the hy platformof a private car brought to the event by the railroad’s general 1 refuse superintendent andcalled the large ment during the ca crowdto order told him I had nc A news account stated: “Mr. iake. | had spent my entirelife n Provo, had been in the business Taylor madeabrief speech of welcome and expressed much gratifit d 10 years io bel cation that the needed improvement was finally completed, and about if | made a stated that he believed every citin in Provo was proud of the ild say noth nificent building.” The newsheadlines noted: “Good sked Taylor for ¢ Prevailed on All Sides and { f al his correspondence Great Future Was Predicted for cials. After ex: Great Banquet At t said If you Provo se slanders, | Roberts Hotel.” Wounds from the east-west batthese letters to ule were slow to heal, but both sides made aneffort at reconcilia One Provo historian wrote Soon, the two old friends, Power esse Knight and Uncle Tom = Mayafter a three-decade hiatus, officials were so hospitable they wear chains, but many lawmakers want to wait to see how Alabama's works before trying it in Illinois. No one knows whether such harsh punishment will turn even set up lemonade stands for inmates from a life of crime, but that doesn’t diminish the gangs’ visiting journalists. Some ofthe attention has been more than Alabama and even its tough-minded governor could take. Recently, Gov. Fob James killed a plan by his firebrand prison commissioner to add women inmates to the chain gangs, and the commissioner resigned. Despite that setback, Alabama’s chain gangs keep drawing the attention ofstate andlocal officials across the country. Amid the public clamorto get tough with criminals, politicians are re-evaluating a popularity — as a public policy option or roadside attraction. “I've heard so much about them, I just had to see it for myself,” said Sheila Boit, a home- they choose to commit crime. maker from Birmingham who Hopefully, we'll keep two or three recently visited the prison. out of prison.” On the sunny April day when Bolt visited, the majority of the 314 inmates on the chain gang were working on rockpile. By 8 am., dozens of men in white prison uniforms were swing- ing sledgehammers under the surveillance of guards in watchtowers. At 10 a.m., two tour buses with darkened windows stopped on All the prisoners on that partic- ular chain were black and most of the tourists were white. But guards said they see nothing wrong with the practice. The majority of inmates on the chain gang are black because most of the prison population is black, chain gang supporters say. 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