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A potpourri of stories about various family members or events
Another Prison Story From Grandpa
My grandfather, Jesse Edmund Hibbard, was born at his parent's home in Haven township in Sherburne county (Minnesota). The date was 16 Aug 1893. Four years earlier, about 2 miles west by north-west, the St. Cloud State Reformatory was opened. Between the two locations are meadows and some lowlands. The reformatory was, in part, built from a granite quarry that was within the confines of the site. This quarry is the oldest granite quarry in Minnesota. There are many buildings within the campus, and there is a large (22′ high) gray, granite wall that encloses them. The prison was built to house younger offenders.
Older postcard showing the campus
Inmates performed many jobs within and without. There were farm tasks within the campus, but inmates also helped mow the lawns and clean the region outside the structure (including work on the warden's adjacent quarters). They also picked up litter along Minnesota Blvd., which ran alongside the campus. Since this road was one way for my family to go home, I was on this road often. I recall seeing workers picking up debris along this road, as well as along the side of U.S. 10, which was just east of the campus (and perpendicular to Minnesota Blvd.).
Photo of front door - from MN history project
There were many times that I went to town with my grandpa as we went to get groceries or supplies, and it was not uncommon to return home via Minnesota Blvd. Invariably, as we drove by the Reformatory, he would refer to the place using his euphemism “Gray Stone College”. It took me a while to understand what he was talking about. Since a Reformatory is meant to reform the occupants, this implies some education or training, and since the walls were gray granite, the name is obvious, after thinking about it.
Jesse talked about the inmates working on the meadows between his place and the reformatory, always with guards, but not necessarily in shackles. I believe that he also indicated that sometimes they would be used at harvest times when extra hands were needed. Another task performed by the inmates for many years was to produce the car license plates for most of Minnesota.
Reformatory in the background looking across the meadows – 1965
Sometimes an inmate made an unexpected visit to Jesse's farm. One time, an escapee liked the looks of Keith's Opel GT that was sitting about a half-mile from the yard where the oats were being combined. Keith was in the kitchen of the house and saw the car coming through the yard. He jumped into his IH Scout 2, but he could not catch his fast sports car (stolen from him). It was later returned in damaged condition, but he got a settlement from the state and the insurance company. [Thanks to Keith for giving me the details.]
Aunt Sylvia told me that once there was an escaped convict (from the Reformatory) and shortly afterwards Grampa noticed that his revolver was missing (which used to hang not too far from the front door of his house). Some years later, when Grampa was working in the pig-house and he was shifting some boards straddling several rafters, the revolver came tumbling down. No one is sure if a convict took it and hid it there or not.
Another story related to the Reformatory: After a convict escaped from the Reformatory, Jesse was alerted to this either by a phone call or he heard it on the evening news. (I remember our home being called about an escape once, so perhaps this instance.) Later in the night, there was a loud banging on the door. Before answering the door, Jesse grabbed his pistol and quickly opened the door with his pistol in view. Chet Goenner, the Sherburne County Sheriff, was at the door and greeted him with “It is good that at least somebody is prepared tonight. You must have heard about the escaped convict.”
While I spent many of my formative years living 2 miles east of the reformatory, it didn't seem to impact me or my family much. Perhaps it helped that these inmates were typically first-time offenders.
If you wish to learn more history of this site, see a https://libguides.mnhs.org/prison/stcloud at the Minnesota Historical Society Library.
Published 2021-02-03. Revised 2025-06-30.
If you find any error(s) in the text, please let me know. Thanks. Contact me with errors or comments using hibbardac@gmail. [Back to the top] [About the author, Al]
A Prison Story From Grandpalisting of family stories by me From Burlington to Mahnomen