Grayson County TXGenWeb

Dallas Morning News
December 31, 1896

Two Jails

Sherman, Tex., Dec. 30 - When one looks at the magnificent prison erected a few years ago at a cost approximating $100,000 a comparison with the first prison erected by Grayson county becomes interesting. On March 17, 1849,
A. Hill was awarded the contract to build the first county jail. Its dimensions and description were as follows:

The outside walls eighteen square, nine feet between the floors, of hewed post oak logs, each to square one foot
(afterward made ten inches), to be notched with half dovetail notches, the cracks not to exceed one inch.

The inside wall was of the same material and description. There were six inches between the two walls and the space
was filled with peeled poles six inches in diameter, set in perpendicularly.

The floors were laid with logs the same as composed the walls, The windows were one foot square and double grated
with iron bars one inch square and crossed each way five inches apart.

The door was of hewed post oak timber six inches thick and hung on heavy wrought iron hinges and fastened by a huge padlock, to which the sheriff alone had the key.

The roof was double raftered and made of three-inch boards. The gable ends were weather-boarded.

The whole structure cost less than the combination on the locks of the rotaries in the Houston street jail.