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| Memorial Crosses at Boot Hill Cemetery Dozier School for Boys - Marianna, Florida |
Death at Dozier School
A History of “Boot Hill Cemetery” at the former Dozier School for Boys in
Marianna, Florida
by Dale Cox
Dozier
School for Boys, originally known as the State Reform School, was a facility
for juvenile offenders that operated for more than 100 years in Marianna,
Florida. During the course of that long history, a number of students and
employees of the school died from a variety of causes. Many were buried in the
school cemetery, which is known locally and by former students and staff
members alike as “Boot Hill.”
The cemetery
is now the focus of a controversial research project by Dr. Erin Kimmerle and a
team from the University of South Florida (USF). They are exhuming graves from
the cemetery, which has been a known part of the local landscape for some 100
years.
Groups of
former students claim that murder of juvenile offenders by staff members was
common at the facility, even though no documentation or evidence has surfaced
thus far. The matter was investigated by
the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), which determined there were
no grounds for criminal charges against former employees of the school and that
the graves in the cemetery should not be exhumed.
The
three-member Florida Cabinet subsequently overruled FDLE, the circuit judge of
the 14th Judicial Circuit, the State Archaeologist and the Secretary
of State and authorized USF to begin a project to exhume the graves. That
project is underway at this time.
The purpose
of this series is to present a documented history of known deaths at the
school, with a focus on probable burials in the school cemetery.
--
The earliest
known deaths at what would become Dozier School for Boys were not included in “Documentation
of the Boot Hill Cemetery”, the interim report prepared in 2012 by Dr. Erin
Kimmerle and other researchers from the University of South Florida (USF).[1]
According to
an October 1906 article written for the Marianna Times-Courier by Frank McDonald, two deaths took place at what was
then the State Reform School during its first six years of operation:
The inmates are rosy-cheeked and robust, and
their health is and has been excellent. There have been but two deaths since
the institution was started, and of these one came to the school with organic
disease of the heart, while the other was recaptured escape, who succumbed,
notwithstanding the best of care and medical attention, from the inroads of
long exposure at an inclement season.[2]
The
identities of the students were not included in McDonald’s article, in which he
noted that the population at the school then consisted of 39 boys and 4 girls.
In the six years that had passed since the opening of the reform school, he
reported, 171 juveniles had been received there and 128 discharged. Several of
those discharged were escapees who were recaptured and sent on to other
correctional facilities.[3]
The earliest
records of the school were destroyed when the dormitory that also contained the
superintendent’s office was destroyed by fire in 1914, so nothing else is known
at this time about the two student deaths mentioned by McDonald. It is not
known whether they were buried at the school or returned home for burial.[4]
USF
researchers evidently did not locate this article while preparing their interim
report for the Florida Division of Historical Resources.
Dr. Kimmerle,
the head of the university’s research team, was invited by State Archaeologist
Mary Glowacki to attend a meeting in Marianna on April 15, 2013, the purpose of
which was to discuss concerns over the nature of the research at the Dozier
School Cemetery and to improve communication so documentation could be
presented to the USF team. Although Dr. Glowacki attended the meeting, as did I
and Julia C. Byrd of the Florida Bureau of Archaeological Research, Dr. Kimmerle did
not show, indicating that she was having lunch with her team members instead.[5]
Ms. Byrd
subsequently requested that I continue to maintain an open stance with regard
to sharing information with Dr. Kimmerle and her team. I notified her on April
16, 2013, that I was open to doing so. In the six months that followed, I
received no contact from them and my only attempt to contact the school was
referred to USF’s legal team.[6]
Believing
that all information regarding deaths and potential burials at the school
should be of significance to a team researching deaths and potential burials at
the school, I sent the article quoted above to Gerard Solis, of the Office of General
Counsel for USF. He has been cordial in his communications with me and informed
me by email on September 24, 2013 that he had forwarded my email to Dr. Kimmerle.[7]
The next
known deaths at the State Reform School took place in 1914, but it is certainly
possible that others occurred between October 1906, the date of the article
quoted above, and November 1914, the date of the fatal fire that destroyed a
dormitory and the school’s records. Future research in newspaper archives may
reveal information on additional deaths that may have taken place in this 8
year time period.
The next
installment in this series details the facts of the deadly fire that took
place at the school in 1914. To continue to it, please visitDeath at Dozier School (Part Two: The 1914 Fire).
[1]
Kimmerle EH, Estabrook R, Wells EC, Jackson AT. 2012. Documentation of the Boot
Hill Cemetery (8JA1860) at the former Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys, Interim
Report, Division of Historical Resources, Permit No. 1112.032, December 10,
2012.
[2]
McDonald, Frank, “History and Progress of State Reform School,” Marianna Times-Courier, October 1906, reprinted
in The Pensacola Journal, October 24,
1906, p. 4.
[3]
Ibid.
[4]
“Ten Lives Lost when Florida Reform School Burns at Marianna,” Tampa Tribune, November 19, 1914, p. 1.
[5]
Julia C. Byrd, Bureau of Archaeological Research, to Dale Cox, April 12, 2013; Dale
Cox to Julia C. Byrd, Bureau of Archaeological Research, April 15, 2013; Julia
C. Byrd, Bureau of Archaeological Research, April 16, 2013; Mary Glowacki,
State Archaeologist, to Dale Cox, April 16, 2013.
[6]
Julia C. Byrd, Bureau of Archaeological Research to Dale Cox, April 16, 2013;
Dale Cox to Mary Glowacki, State Archaeologist, April 16, 2013.
[7]
Dale Cox to Gerard D. Solis, Office of General Counsel (USF), September 22,
2013; Gerard D. Solis, Office of General Counsel (USF), to Dale Cox, September
24, 2013.
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