The Oregon State Reform school, which stands on a commanding eminence about six miles southeast of Salem, was completed and thrown open to the reception of recalcitrant youth November 5, 1891. The first superintendent thereof was B.J. Miles, who had control until September 26, 1892, and was then succeeded by M.W. Smith, who in turn left the service of the state July 19, 1893, and F. H. Bryant was acting superintendent until September 1, 1893, when R.J. Hendricks took charge and remained superintendent until June 1, 1897, when he resigned and was succeeded by E.M. Croisan, the present efficient incumbent.

The school has a farm connected therewith of 600 acres about 300 acres of which is in cultivation and under good farm management is quite productive. the work of the year 1898 is indicated by the following articles garnered:

Cheat and other kinds of hay, 130 tons; 1800 bushels oats; 384 bushels cheat seed, 1850 bushels potatoes, 6000 head cabbage, 100 bushels turnips, 60 bushels apples, 80 bushels prunes and plums, 25 bushels pears, 200 bushels tomatoes, 25 bushels string beans, 25 bushels peas, 30 bushels onions, dry, twenty acres of corn made into ensilage and fed to hogs and cows, 100 gallons each of strawberries, raspberries and blackberries, 10 gallons onion pickles made, 60 gallons chow chow, 10 gallons sweet pickels [sic], 4 gallons mustard pickles and 80 gallons saur kraut [sic]

Two hundred acres were plowed and sown to oats and cheat last season and in addition to the usual team work incident to farming, gardening, etc., 1900 loads of black loam were hauled from the Mill creek bottoms for the lawn east of the school, which completes a fine improvement which now extends around the building west, north and east; also 532 loads of gravel for a wood-yard and area way east of the building.

The dairy made a fine showing the past year under the management of Miss Bertha Powell, providing 105, 150 gallons of milk from the 1st of November 1897, to the present time, and 2,465 pounds of butter from July 1, 1897, to the present.

The main buildings of the institution  have been described in these columns on various occasions and there have been but few changes or additions to the school building proper in recent years. The stairway in the water tower which goes up through the industrial buildings as torn down and rebuilt the past year n such a manner as to leave more room on the several floors and thus make comfortable shops without going into the garret. A neat meat shop, with arrangements for keeping cool in summer, has also been constructed on the east side of the main structure and suitably equipped.

Among the outbuildings some desirable changes have been made. The  old cow stable was built under the barn, in the side of a hill, where it was so damp, dark and unwholesome that the cattle began to be affected with tuberculosis. Superintendent Croisan saw the necessity for some different arrangement, so he had constructed a new stable 40 x 60 feet, with 16-foot posts, on stone and brick foundation, with a circular silo, 9 1/2 feet in diameter, built in the ground four feet in cement and rock and running up through the barn to the loft, altogether 22 feet deep. In the loft are also two large hoppers for bran and chop. There are stanchions on the main floor to accommodate 25 cows, the floors and platforms are solid and the drainage is excellent.

The officer’s cottage, the barns and outbuildings and roofs thereof have been well painted the past year and everything has an air of neatness, cleanliness and good preservation.

POPULATION OF SCHOOL

The total number of boys received at the school since its opening is 348, and of those there were 97 remaining a few days ago, the others being either out on parol [sic], discharged, escaped or dead. The number received the first two months was 20; during 1892, 70; 1893, 27; 1894, 51; 1895, 51; 1896, 50; 1897, 44; 1898, 35. The total number paroled has been 272 (some returned and paroled more than once); total paroles returned, 43; total number escapes, 79 (including all who escaped more than once); total number brought back, 60; discharged or returned to counties, 8; died, 4.

This article was originally printed in the Oregon Statesman newspaper on 1 January 1899, p. 28. It is shared here for reference purposes.