Coke County Jail

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm just the voice passing it along. Now, Coke County has itself a jail with a story that's equal parts frontier grit and, well, quiet. The first jail in this county was a one-room affair, rough lumber, built about 1891.

You can imagine it. One room, rough boards, and whatever law the county could muster. But by 1907, Coke County was ready to do things proper.

They brought in the Southern Structural Steel Company out of San Antonio and put up the building that still stands today. The officials who let that contract were county judge P.D. Coulson and commissioners C.M.

Barger, S.W. Gaston, T.J. Goss, and M.C.

Jones. That's the kind of detail that reminds you real history has real names attached to it. Now here's where it gets interesting.

At least seven early sheriffs lived downstairs in that building, acting as jailkeepers themselves. Think about that. The man whose job it was to lock folks up was also the man who made breakfast in the morning one floor below them.

The prisoners averaged about four a month, jailed for short terms, minor law violations. Nothing too dramatic coming through those doors. And here's the part of this story that just hangs in the air, quiet and a little eerie.

Up on the second floor, there are gallows. Built right into the structure. And in all the years that jail has stood, those gallows were never used.

Not once. Because Coke County, from its earliest days to the writing of this marker, has never had a felon assessed the death penalty. Not a single one.

So those gallows just sit up there on the second floor, waiting for a day that never came, and by the look of things, never will.

What the marker says

Successor to county's first one-room jail of rough lumber built about 1891, this building was erected 1907 by Southern Structural Steel Company, San Antonio. Officials who let the contract were P.D. Coulson, county judge; C.M. Barger, S.W. Gaston, T.J. Goss, M.C. Jones, Commissioners. At least seven early sheriffs lived downstairs, acting as jailkeepers. The prisoners averaged about four a month, jailed only for short terms for minor law violations. Coke County never has had a felon assessed the death penalty. The gallows on second floor were never used. (1972)