The wages of sin (and/or misadventure) & J. L. Reno

I'd like to be able to tell you more about J. L. Reno --- what given names those initials stood for, for example, or what his age might have been. How he came to be in Lucas County, perhaps.

But the best I can do is to report how he met his end during the summer of 1879.

A brief preliminary reference to J. L.'s fate appears in The Chariton Leader of April 19, 1879, where it was reported that "District Court adjourned on the evening of the 17th, having cleared the docket" of "interesting" cases. Among them, "State vs. J. L. Reno, burglary; jury trial, verdict of guilty; sent to penitentiary for nine months."

Several other cases had been continued during that session of court. The only other "interesting" actual  resolution came in the case of  "State vs. W. S. Farlee; seduction; case dismissed; defendant married the girl."

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Then as now, Iowa's penitentiary was located in Fort Madison, not far from the Mississippi River shoreline. The first building in the complex had been completed during October of 1841 and remains embedded in a structure still standing although no longer used to house prisoners.

Two months after he had been delivered to the penitentiary, during June, Mr. Reno escaped from that structure, as reported in The Chariton Patriot of June 25: "The man Reno, who was sent to the penitentiary from this county for burglary, made his escape on Thursday the 12th inst. He had been taken outside with some other prisoners and gave the guard the slip."

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For various reasons, some natural and some engineered by humanity, the Mississippi riverscape has changed since 1879. At that time, the Illinois shoreline opposite Fort Madison was guarded by barrier islands, as indicated on this plat map from 1874.

And so it was geography rather than human intervention that ended Mr. Reno's life a few days after his escape. The Leader reported the circumstances in its edition of June 28, just three days after The Leader had reported his escape:

"The man Reno who was sent to the penitentiary from this county last April, and who made his escape about a month ago, was found drowned about six miles below Ft. Madison some ten days after his escape. It appears that he had stolen a skiff and started for the Illinois shore, landing on the island opposite the city; and supposing he was on Illinois soil destroyed the skiff. After finding out his mistake it is supposed he undertook to swim to the main land and failed to reach it. The penitentiary officials took charge of his body and buried it."

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There was a cemetery on the penitentiary grounds at the time, later moved outside its walls and still extant. But there is no record of Mr. Reno's burial in it. Or were his remains, in deteriorated condition after 10 summer days, merely scooped into a hastily dug grave near where they were found? It's unlikely we'll ever know where he came, finally, to rest.