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Chapter 16: Early Days Jails and Prisoners |
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Very little information has been preserved concerning the first jail or jails in Butler County. The need for a jail is evidenced in a County Court order of December 16, 1850, in which John Walton was allowed two dollars "for guarding prisoner two days."
Neither the name of the prisoner nor the nature of his crime is recorded. This is probably just as well, for what honor would accrue to a man in being remembered as the first to be jailed in his county? The place of custody is not recorded. Was it in Poplar Bluff, at the home of Mr. Walton or in some other place? If the prisoner was held in Poplar Bluff, Mr. Walton made a round trip of nearly forty miles, probably on horseback, to do his guarding. His two dollars were well earned.
John Walton was born in Virginia, lived for several hears in Tennessee, then migrated to Missouri with his family and settled in the upper Cane Creek valley soon after the year 1840. He was part of that migration which brought to the coming Butler County, in addition to his own name of Walton, such other names as Boxx, Eudaley, Appleby, Wisecarver and probably others of which we are not aware, names which have added luster to the history of our county.
The first record of an endeavor to build a jail is on Oct. 27, 1854, when the County Court appointed D.L. Jennings, G.L. Waugh and P.L. Varner, commissioners, to select a suitable place to build a jail, make a plan for the same and estimate its probable cost. Apparently this order was never executed as on April 15, 1857, P.L. Varner was appointed superintendent to draft plan of a jail and estimate its probable cost.
Two days later, April 17 1857, Mr. Verner presented a plan which was accepted, five hundred dollars was appropriated for building jail and Varner was appointed Superintendent of same. One July 17, 1857, Jesse c. Walker was appointed "Commissioner to superintend building jail house." The appropriation of $500.00 for a jail presents quite a contrast when compared to $254.50 appropriated for the first courthouse.
The jail was built on the Public Square, probably on the northeast corner, as the first Courthouse was on the Southeast corner and the second Courthouse, a brick structure, was in the center of the Public Square lot. No records are available as to size, total cost or type of building material used. In a Court order of July 15, 1961, there is an interesting sidelight in connection with the jail. The court allowed $108.50 to John Ferguson, George W. Farmer and Kiah Burchett as "guards to the jail." In 1861 this was a considerable amount of money. Possibly the jail held some prisoners of great importance in the eyes of the law, or it may have been a war measure for public safety. The Civil War was then on. The citizens were under constant fear that partisan bands of either side might attack and ransack the town.
The only reference we have found on the "first jail" is in the "Encyclopedia of the History of Missouri," published in 1901. In the section devoted to Butler County is this statement, "The first jail was a small log building." This may refer to the small log building on the northeast corner of the Public Square which both Judge Deem and Richard L. Metcalfe mention as a meeting place for the Courts in 1850. We find some evidence that a prospective settler had made "an improvement" on the County Seat site prior to its purchase by the County.
This may have been true, and a roughly built cabin had been left behind by a pioneer who moved on to a location more to his liking. We probably never will find authentic information on the "log jail." Though we have not found a direct statement to support our view, we believe the jail authorized in 1857 was frame structure. If the county could build a frame Courthouse in 1852, we think it could and did build a frame jail in 1857.
How many people in Butler County today know that in 1870 the jail was removed from the Public Square to a site on the north side of Vine Street, just east of the building familiarly known as the "Barron" building? This was done by court order on April 5, 1870, as follows: "Ordered by the Court that the common jail and prison house of the County be moved off the Public Square and rebuilt on the same plan, use the same material, if sound, and that Daniel Kitchen purchase a lot, contract to move and rebuilt, 2 P.M. Monday, East front door of Court House, May 2, 1870." The county owned Town Lot No. 84 which is bounded on the north, east and south by Vine, Fifth and Poplar streets, Benjamin F. Tuner owned the west one-half of Town Lot No. 36, in the block just east of the Square. Mr. Kitchen made a trade with Mr. Turner whereby Mr. Turner deeded to the County the west one-half of Lot 36 in exchange for Lot 84.
Bejamin R. Moore secured the contract to remove and rebuild the jail. The work must have progressed rapidly for on June 7, 1870, Mr. Kitchen reported to the Court that the work was two-thirds completed. The Court then allowed the contractor $1000.00 for the work done. It would appear that the contract was for $1500.00.
During the period the jail was being rebuilt the prisoners were kept in the Washington County jail at Potosi. We quote two Court orders concerning this, June 7, 1870, "It is ordered by the Court that Benjamin F. Turner have the sum of Five Hundred and sixty one dollars and 77 cents for transporting prisoners to Washington County Jail at Potosi, June 10, 1870. "John C. Breckenridge allowed $33.57 for quartering and transporting prisoners to and from Washington County Jail" (Three prisoners).
Finally we close our review of Early Day Jails and Prisoners in Butler County with a reference to a type of security which most of us have never seen used—the use of "leg irons." The court records on May 5, 1870, tell the incident briefly and clearly as follows: "It is ordered by the Court Tooms and Dickens be and they are hereby allowed the sum of twelve dollars for four foot shackles and putting same on prisoners." We assume there were two prisoners and that the "irons" were riveted to the ankles and connected by a short length of chain, making it impossible for a prisoner to run. As in the case of the prisoner guarded by John Walton the names of the shackled prisoners are not recorded. Again we say that is just as well. (We feel "Tooms" is probably a phonetic spelling of "Tombs")
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