July 19, 1901: Baby Girl Born in Prison Welcomed by Inmates

By Margaret Leidy Harner from her book One Day at a Time: A Social History of Boyertown, PA.

July 19, 1901: There is considerable commotion at the Berks County jail, especially among the women prisoners, over the birth of a fully developed, vigorous, 10-pound baby girl to prisoner Kate Edwards, who is awaiting trial in the stabbing death of her husband John Edwards on July 3.

Prisoners Lizzie Killian and Mary Young were Edwards’ nurses. The other female prisoners were anxious to hear all about the birth, especially the sex of the child, and are all volunteering to help with care of the little girl. The father of the child, Samuel Greason, a “colored man,” is also being held in the jail as an accomplice in the murder, which he claims to have had no knowledge of.

The child lived with her mother in the jail for several years until Booker T. Washington, the dominant leader in the African American community in the early 20th Century, came to Reading to pick her up and take her to a facility in Virginia.

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