Penitentiary TableA table with inlay that indicated the work of a craftsman of some skill, presented to a governor, and a robbery that goes terribly wrong, resulting in the death of the victim--the two don't seem to be related at first glance.
In 1956 the Kansas Historical Society received from Margaret Long Stanley a table that had been presented to her husband, William E. Stanley, during his term as Governor of Kansas (1899-1903.) The table was made by an inmate at the State Penitentiary at Lansing. The only clue to the maker is the inscription in pencil on the underside of the table: "William Payne Harvey, El Dorado, Kans." Records in the Society's Library indicate that William P. Harvey and Carl Arnold were received at the prison on November 14, 1894, for the crime of murder in the first degree in Edwards County. The two had killed the mayor of Kinsley, John Marsh, on October 22, 1894. The Kinsley Graphic for October 26 indicates that Harvey and Arnold had stopped Marsh as he was on his way home for the evening, with the intention of robbing him. Marsh tried to resist one of the men and received a gunshot wound to his arm. The second assailant shot Marsh in the small of the back. He died the next afternoon. 
The Graphic for November 2 indicates that Harvey was 19 years old and a native of Butler County, and had been living in the Indian Territory (Oklahoma). Both Harvey and Arnold admitted their role in the murder and received life terms, justice being incredibly swift by present-day standards given their arrival at Lansing less than a month after the crime. Accounts show that the people of Edwards County wanted to see the men hang, but Governor Edmund Morrill refused to order the execution. There are records indicating other inlaid tables came out of Lansing at this time. The most notable one now resides in the Kansas Secretary of State's office. Little is known about who made this table, except that it appears to have arrived at the Capitol in 1899. This would seem to suggest Harvey was the penitentiary craftsman who created it, also. In 1907 the writing ability of Carl Arnold caught the attention of Governor Edward Hoch, who commuted the sentence of both Arnold and Harvey to eighteen years in the penitentiary. Harvey also received the commutation as Hoch felt he could not show favor to Arnold alone. With time off for good behavior, the men were released in May, 1909. It is not known what happened to either Harvey or Arnold in the years following their release. The Cool Things archives also include stories on a fake pistol used in an aborted prison escape, a prisoner doll made for a Wichita police officer.
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