Wheeler County Jail

Duane's take

Here's the story as the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Wheeler County, Texas. Now, most jails don't end up as libraries.

But most jails aren't this one. After the county seat picked up and moved away from historic Old Mobeetie, Wheeler County found itself in need of a proper place to house the lawless, the restless, and whoever else gave the first sheriff cause for concern. So in 1909, they built one.

Concrete and steel. Not a structure that apologized for what it was. The first sheriff on the job was M.

V. Sanders, and the man keeping watch over the cells day to day was the jailer, J. M.

Kezee. Two names you'd want on your side in a county that was still finding its footing. Now here's the part worth savoring.

That jail ran for twenty years. Twenty years of concrete walls and steel doors, of sheriffs making their rounds and jailers keeping the peace. And in all that time, with all those years stacking up, exactly one prisoner managed to slip out.

One. Out of however many souls passed through those doors, only one found the exit that wasn't on the official tour. The marker doesn't say how.

Doesn't need to. The number alone tells the story. That building did its job.

And when the county no longer needed it for that particular purpose, they didn't tear it down. They put it to work as a library, a museum, and county offices. The toughest address in Wheeler County, turned into a place where you go to check out a book.

What the marker says

Built 1909 after county seat moved from historic Old Mebeetie. First sheriff, M. V. Sanders; jailer, J. M. Kezee. Built of concrete and steel. Used 20 years with only 1 prisoner escaping. Now used for library, museum and county offices. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1965