Upon West Virginia establishing a state government, Wheeling was selected as the capital where the legislature met in session in 1863, with Hon. Arthur I. Boreman as chief executive. The prison was located in 1866 at Moundsville, Marshall Co., then a beautiful village a few miles from the seat of government. The location, for drainage and sanitary conditions, might have been better selected from one of the many surroundings hills than in the midst of the village in the valley on the banks of the Ohio river. Moundsville has since the location of the penitentiary there, grown into the eighth city in population of the state, and is now a manufacturing and resident town possessing daily and weekly newspapers. Modern improvements prevail, with water and electric light systems and street-car lines connecting with Wheeling and adjoining suburbs. The magnificent mound erected by the Mound Builders many years gone by for the burial of their dead, to be seen near the penitentiary, is one of the attractions to the thousands of persons who visit the locality. Hon. G. S. McFadden, of Moundsville, was the first active and practical warden of the penitentiary. With the means at hand he made many praiseworthy improvements for the amelioration of the inmates during his incumbency. The condition of the prisoners during the four years past and now, is a vast improvement over the old system. Skilled and humane prison managers for many years were wanting. The condition of the inmates was at times deplorable in the extreme. The methods of punishment in vogue were extremely severe, the work laborious, the clothing of the zebra kind, the lock-step exacting, the supply and kind of food indifferent and bad. The employment of the prisoners on the state account or under contract was unprofitable, and expenses for the prison’s maintenance piling upon the taxpayers, who made just complaint. Loud demands were made by the people of Moundsville and throughout the state, conversant with the deplorable condition of the affairs of their penal institution, for a change. After Governor Atkinson’s inauguration, March 4, 1897, he appointed Colonel S. A. Hawk as warden of the penitentiary. He was at the time of his appointment a well-known business man of Huntington, Cabell Co. For a number of years he was also known as a popular employee of an Ohio river steamboat running out of Huntington. He was at one time a successful merchant, hotel-keeper, contractor, and during President Harrison’s administration as President he was an official of the Interior Department in charge of the public domain in Arizona Territory.