DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Somewhere in Palo Pinto County stands a building that has been, in its time, a county office, a family home, and a place where the worst of the frontier West sat and waited. That's a lot of lives for one structure to lead.
This is the story of the Old County Jail. It went up in 1880 — native sandstone, solid and serious — built to replace what had been a log jail. The contractors were Martin, Byrne and Johnston, out of Comanche, and when they finished, a man named J.
C. McQuerry was serving as sheriff. Now before it was ever truly a jail in the way you'd picture it, that first floor pulled courthouse duty — county offices operating right there inside those thick sandstone walls, waiting on a proper courthouse to get built.
Once that new courthouse came along, the ground floor cleared out, and a jailer's family moved in. Made it home. And up above them — up on that top floor — well, that's where things got considerably less domestic.
Killers. Cattle rustlers. Rowdy cowboys.
Other prisoners. The whole rough catalog of frontier trouble, stacked above a family going about their daily lives. Now here's the detail that'll stop you.
In 1907, a steel trap door was installed in that building. Installed for hangings. And then — never used.
Not once. That trap door just sat there, year after year, a door that never opened for the purpose it was built for. Make of that what you will.
The jail stayed in use until 1941, when it was finally vacated. Then in 1968, the Palo Pinto County Historical Association acquired the building and restored it as their headquarters and museum. A place built to hold the dangerous and the desperate, now holding the history of the county itself.
Seems like a fair trade.
What the marker says
Built to replace a log jail, this native sandstone structure was erected by contractors Martin, Byrne and Johnston of Comanche. J. C. McQuerry was sheriff when it was finished (1880). The first floor was used for county offices until a new courthouse was finished. It then housed the jailer's family, while the top floor held killers, cattle rustlers, rowdy cowboys, and other prisoners. A steel trap door was installed for hangings in 1907 but never used. Vacated in 1941, the building was acquired by the Palo Pinto County Historical Association in 1968 and restored as its headquarters and museum. (1976)