Sarah A. Sewell Prayed with Prisoners Highland (OH) Weekly News, December 24, 1874, p. 1. NOTE: The item below was abbreviated from a lengthy article as noted by the ellipsis. LETTER FROM JEFFERSONVILLE, IND Jeffersonville, October 20, 1874 Editors Monitor, Marion, Ind. Some time ago you noticed in your columns an incident relating to a young Quakeress who is laboring in the missionary cause, and her prayer of thankfulness in a railroad president's office on the reception of a pass, passing her over the road. She has just been on a visit to our institution, and never will that visit be forgotten. Immediately upon her arrival, although at night, accompanied by our kind warden, she visited the hospital whispering words of cheer to the convalescent and breathing prayers of hope for the very ill.On the morrow, Sunday, at chapel services, the pulpit was tendered and all the assistance possible shown her by our kind chaplain who is ever striving to call out instructions for his charge. This was not her first visit here.She spoke as she always does, earnestly and elegantly. About dark there ran through the prison by that mysterious telegraph only known to such places, a rumor that she would hold prayers in the cell house. All was expectation. Seats were prepared in the old cell house near life-time range and through the kindness of the warden, who is ever-striving to promote the moral culture of his men, about a hundred were unlocked to meet with her. About seven o'clock the "clang" of the guard room door was heard and "She's coming!" flashed from cell to cell. In two minutes not a murmur could be heard...There, surrounded by all this dismal gloom, upon the cold, damp bricks, in the midst of us poor condemned outcasts, this angel woman knelt and poured out her soul to God. Clear as a silver clarion her sweet voice rang out upon the awful stillness echoing and re-echoing from arch to arch until within every cell there lingered the sound of that prayer for mercy, mercy for us poor wretches. Within the heart of every inmate here the name of Sarah A. Sewell is immortal. Neither will many forget as they stood by the iron grates of their cell doors and listened to that prayer, they made to strike glad hands with her in that land where prison bars are not forged. P. S.-We understand that Miss Sewell is a resident in your county, and we send you this as a token of our respect-being that you will give it a place in your columns, that her friends at home may know the good she is doing abroad. The Convicts of the Southern Indiana State Prison