The Jail (1885-1978)
It’s hard to believe that the Hood County Jail on North Crockett Street was in operation for more than ninety years. It wasn’t the first hoosegow in Granbury. The first lockup was a log house built in 1873 near the Brazos River. As the County grew, the Commissioners recognized the need for a more spacious and secure facility. They raised $9,500 in bonds and put out a call for bids. During 1885, J. N. Haney, a local miller, designed and oversaw the new jail's construction just off the northeast corner of the Square. Stonemasons hand-cut limestone from a nearby quarry, shaped the stone into uniform blocks, hauled them to the site, and laid them in place. The walls are nearly two-feet thick.
The shape of the structure came from a unique feature -- an inside execution room. In the event of a hanging, the second floor had a tall ceiling to allow a drop sufficient to snap the neck of a condemned prisoner. But no one was ever hung in the gallows room upstairs. Texas law eventually required all executions to be held at one central location (Huntsville). So, the execution chamber became a meeting room for prisoners and their attorneys.
When first opened, the Jail was advanced for its time. It had indoor plumbing on both floors. There was a washbasin and a toilet for prisoners. The sheriff or jailor lived in the four rooms downstairs. During construction, someone realized they had neglected to provide a kitchen. So, the stonemasons built a detached cookhouse behind the jail. Later, an enclosure covered the walkway from the kitchen to the prison. The inmates received two meals a day. Fern Baker, the wife of Sheriff Owen Baker, said, ”The prisoners ate the same thing we did. If we had a fancy dinner, so did they. And if we had bread and milk, that's what they had.”
The cells were free-standing iron mesh cages. These were more secure because they minimized the opportunity for tunneling through a wall or floor. The Jail had two cells like this. One was designed to hold only one person at a time and accommodated women and the mentally ill. The main cell could hold four men and their bunks.
Most early jail records have disappeared. What has survived comes from 1891 and later. A historical presentation by Vance J. Mahoney delivered in 1966 noted that people were held in jail for charges such as ”going too fast across the bridge, ” ”cruelty to dogs, ” and ”drunkenness.” Of course, there were many more serious offenses such as ”shooting a cow, ” ”adultery, ” ”forgery, ” and ”assault and battery.”
Most prisoners were tramps, transients, and people who committed crimes elsewhere but were held in Hood County for pick up. There were some escapes from the jail. The first may have been H. B. Harley, who was being held for Johnson County police on a horse-stealing charge. The seventeen-year-old trustee worked in the kitchen. One day when he was left alone, he grabbed an ax, struck off his chains, and ran out the front door.
The last escape was in October 1978, just three weeks before the new jail on West Pearl Street opened. By then, the 1885 jail was in bad shape. Two prisoners named Hawkins and Adams used simple plastic spoons to scrape away the aging mortar. They removed several stones and shinnied down the north wall of the jail using bed sheets tied together. The police later apprehended the pair in Benbrook. Deputy Doug Johnson said of the $440,000 new facility on West Pearl Street, “They won’t get out of that one.”
The historic Jail now houses the Hood County Museum. The second floor appears much as it did in the 1970s when the jail was in the final days of operation. The dispatch radio from that time still sits on the table where the call went out to apprehend Hawkins and Adams. The downstairs contains many historical artifacts of the sheriffs who worked there and other Granbury history antiques.
David K. Barnett
Granbury History
Sources
“Jails, Charges Vary as Co. Grows,” Hood County News-Tablet, August 11, 1966
”The Old Jail Museum, ” Hood County Historical Association website.
Granbury Vidette, June 25, 1874.
“Second Hood Escapee Captured Today in FW,” Fort Worth Star Telegram, October 11, 1978
Photo credit: Granbury Jail 1981, Texas Historical Association, University of North Texas Portal to Texas History.
