The Cleveland Daily Herald

Cleveland, April 30, 1859

The Classification.

      One of the Wellington-Oberlin prisoners writes from our jail to the Ashtabula Sentinel thus:

      Sheriff Wightman has in his custody now some fifty-five prisoners, classified as follows: Horse thief, 1; counterfeiting, 1; murder, 1; drunkenness, 1; assault and battery, 1; grand larceny, 7; petit larceny, 8; burglary, 3; and believing in the higher law, 20.

      We have among out number 1 physician, 1 professor, 2 lawyers, 4 students, 3 farmers, 2 shoemakers, 1 bookseller, 1 ordained minister, 1 printer, and 1 Kansas lieutenant.

      The ages of our group vary from 22 to 74 years, and we find ourselves incapable of realizing the fact that we are criminals, while we do most fully comprehend the fact that we are imprisoned.