New book explores hidden history of Huron Historic Gaol in Goderich, Ont.

If the walls of the Huron Historic Gaol in Goderich, Ont., could talk, they'd probably have a lot to say.

In operation for more than 130 years until 1972, the gaol has played a role in some of southwestern Ontario's most infamous criminal cases, from the so-called 'Black Donnelly's' to the Steven Truscott case.

But a new book looks at some of the gaol's hidden history, and the lives of some of the people who were incarcerated at what is now a popular national historic site.

Sinead Cox is the acting senior curator of the Huron County Museum and the author of Prisoner Profiles: Unlocking Secret Stories from the Huron Historic Gaol.

Here's part of her interview on CBC Radio's Afternoon Drive, edited for breadth and clarity.

Tell us a bit more about the history of the gaol itself.

It was the gaol for the Huron district, and later, the county of Huron, from 1841 until 1972. It was open for quite a long time. It was also the first County building - it was designed as a gaol, but it sometimes had to act as a hospital asylum and as a poorhouse, because it was our first municipal building. So it had lots of different uses, and not just a gaol, over the years.

What's the focus of the book? 

It's six in-depth prisoner profiles and then some little short stories about other prisoners in the back. The main profiles range from 1851 to 1895, and they're a cross-section of the different kinds of people who were in the gaol. So, people who were in for what we would term 'crimes'. They were actually doing time for vagrancy, which is essentially homelessness.

The book touches on different bits of our social history in Huron County, including one of the settlers of the Wilberforce Settlement, which was the early Black settlement in Biddulph Township. We also have an alleged brothel madam in Goderich. It really runs the gamut of people who were in the gaol.

There were men, women and children in our gaol over the years, and many of these people were here because of homelessness. And today, we're facing a homelessness crisis right now in southwestern Ontario. I wanted to pick stories that people didn't necessarily know about, but stories that we have the resources to talk about because we have this amazing historic site open to the public.

When you say there were children in the gaol as well...were they serving time?

Yeah, so absolutely. One of the short stories in the book talks about a young woman who was jailed because she was an unwed mother. Our youngest prisoners were the ones that were born here at the gaol. We also had children in for crimes committed without their parents. So, yes, we have a few minors featured in the book as well.

What would you like readers to take away from the book?

What I took away from the research process is thinking about the many people who are in a vulnerable situation because of the pandemic and because of our current housing crisis. I think about the ways that our municipalities and our communities support each other and try to keep each other from ending up in these kind of situations. I think about the commonality between a lot of these prisoners - they were vulnerable because they belonged to a marginalized community or because they were poor. There was no safety net.

Prisoner Profiles: Unlocking Secret Stories from the Huron Historic Gaol by Sinead Cox is available for sale from the Huron County Museum.