From the Richmond Times Dispatch, August, 31, 1905:

Clever work on the part of two citizens of Oregon Hill Tuesday afternoon prevented the escape of two convicts from the penitentiary. Lewis Oliver and Erasmus Cooley, both negroes, were with a gang of seven convicts employed in unloading a car at the foot of Sixth Street. Suddenly the two men broke away from the guard and started towards Oregon Hill. Messrs. E.R. Thomas and A.W. Blackburn captured Oliver, and Mr. A. E. Priddy was the man to stop the running of Cooley. The reward for the capture of a convict is $50, and this will be paid to the citizens who made the captures.