Arthur Cervantes: One Of The First Boys Sent To Whittier Reform School

Arthur Cervantes was born Sep 1881 in California.

Inmate: #17442 San Quentin Prison

Rec: 14 Sep 1897

Crime: Burglar 

Term: 1 Yr

Discharged: 14 July 1898

Age: 16

Before this he was charged a few times I found these newspaper articles from 1891, he was 10 years old.

Then he was in more trouble in 1892.

1897 Burglary

  

Inmate: #4477 Folsom Prison

Rec: 19 Sep 1898

Crime: Grand Larceny

Term: 10 Yrs

Discharged: 19 Mar 1905

Here are the newspaper articles for this crime.

The 7 July 1910 he was admitted to the Mendocino State Hospital in Mendocino, Mendocino, California, USA. He was there for addiction of morphine treatment. They released him as cured by August. That is unbelievable, there is no way he was cured after using morphine for 12 years.

1916 Theft

1917

1918

Inmate: #17442 San Quentin Prison

Rec: 26 Nov 1918

Crime: Grand Larceny

Trans to Folsom Prison 14 Dec 1918

Occupation: Scavenger

The 1900 Census has him in Folsom Prison, the 1920 census he is Folsom Prison again. These are the only 2 documents I found for him besides his prison records and the newspaper articles. I found a couple early newspaper articles about him trying to burn down his parents house, the map below is where the house would of been.

 

There were several Crevantes families living in San Francisco and Sacramento area, although I did find a Henry who lived at that address in 1891, he was a tailor. Could that be Arthur's father? What happened to Arthur's eye? Where did he go after he left prison in 1918 or did he leave, as I found no discharge date, so he could of died there and been buried there. Regardless his story is a sad one with just the records and information I did find.