  Grayson County Jail
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unknown1887 - 1929 This jail was built in 1887 at a cost of $100,000. The jail was designed to hold 100 prisoners. There was a 'dungeon' cell in the cellar designed to contain a difficult prisoners or terribly dangerous one. The cells in this jail were in the multi sided sections, all the cells were arranged in a circle, there was a rotating cage in the middle with one door. Officers had to rotate the door to the cell if they wanted to let a prisoner out or in. Then rotate it again to let themselves out of the cell block. It was escape proof. But prisoners learned to block the cell from turning. After having too much trouble with the turning cell system the cells were torn out and regular cells with key openings put in. The mortar was very poor in quality and by the 1930's prisoners were escaping by removing bricks. There was a room for executions by hanging. The room was in one of tower tops and had a trap door built in. The first jailer in this building was M. O. Callahan. Part of the rail of one of the turntable cell doors is now the arch over the gate at Loy Lake Park in Denison, the home of Frontier Village. The Sunday Gazetteer
Sunday, October 23, 1892 pg. 3-4 TEN JAIL BIRDS FREE The Grayson County $95,000 Jail Proves a Failure Sunday night last ten prisoners, two state and eight federal, made good their escape from the great $95,000 jail at Sherman. It was supposed by the authorities and by everybody, as to that, that the bars used in the construction of the cells were of case hardened steel, but in this everybody was mistaken. The escape was made by filing out a bar from the grating in front of the rotary cell and then another bar in the window leading to the outside. The escape was not discovered until 7:30 o'clock Monday morning, and by 8 the city of Sherman was in quite a furor of excitement. The Sherman Register gives the following account of the escape and how it took place: Sam McAfee, a brother of the sheriff, started at an early hour Monday morning to feed the prisoners in the rotary cell on the ground floor. Word was given to turn the cell and as usual the prisoners pulled, and one of the narrow apartments swung into view. One of the prisoners who should have been there was gone. A hasty investigation showed that nine more were missing. The rotary cell is in the southeast corner of the jail. It swings within a heavy iron grating, the bars of which are round and near an inch in diameter. Outside of this grating is the "walk around," a passageway four feet wide extending entirely around the cell. Outside of this passageway is the wall of the building, in which are windows heavily grated, and at a distance of seven feet from the ground. The prisoners had filed and sawed in two one of the bars in the grating surrounding the cells. They removed this, leaving an opening of seven by fourteen inches. The rotary was turned so that one of the compartments faced the opening. The prisoners in this cell squeezed through the opening and emerged into the walk-around. The cell was then turned until the next compartment faced the opening in the grating. This was kept up until all those who were willing to go, or who could squeeze through the opening (size preventing several) had done so. The rest of the work was easy. The files and saws were brought into play again and one of the bars in the window was soon removed. Through this the prisoners slipped to the ground and were free. The prisoners who escaped are: J. W. DeArmond, charged with murder in the Indian Territory. J. J. Moore, selling whiskey in the Territory. Frank White, assault to murder. J. Vaughan, assault to murder. Will Smith, assault to murder. Jeff Lovell, horse theft. Jo Johnson, selling whiskey. Sam Lyon, subornation of perjury. R. P. Sims, theft of cattle. All of the above, with the exception of Sam Lyon and Sims, were U.S. prisoners. Lyon is one of the parties who was in the conspiracy to secure the conviction of Edwin Peele, on the charge of murdering Mrs. Haynes at Denison. A number of prisoners who occupied cells in the rotary cage did not leave their places. One of these was B. Brown, charged with stealing a horse. He said: "The plot has been going on for several days. The implements with which the bars were cut were brought several days since, and on Saturday night the bar was sawed through, but the leader thought it best to wait for Sunday night to make the break. Early that night the men crawled out into the corridor. They were there when the guard, Sam McAfee came to the door and called "lights out." He stopped there some little time. The prisoners yelled back "all right." McAfee stood there for a moment and the men in the corridor thought he was coming. They were ready, and it would have been the last of Mr. McAfee if he had entered the door to the corridor. They breathed a sigh of relief when he turned away. It was a critical moment for them and for him." "The prisoners then perfected their plans," continued Brown, "and decided to go in squads, one to leave about twelve o'clock and the other at 1 o'clock. I heard their conversation for two or three days prior to the escape. They arranged to separate after leaving the jail and decided to meet one week later and organize a band of bandits, to be operated on the order of the Dalton gang. Nothing was to stand in their way." "Why didn't you go, Brown?" asked the reporter. "I didn't want to go because I am innocent and want to stand my trial." "Who gave the prisoners their saws and files?" "Well, I won't give that away." John T. Carlisle, who is in jail for the murder of Tom Sharman at Denison, and who, it is claimed, is one of the leaders in the Lee county gang, was seen by the reporter. "Sims was in the cell with me." he said, and about 12 o'clock last night he crawled out. All of us could have gone, but I for one did not desire to go; I am not guilty of the charge against me and did not want to be a fugitive. I dodged the officers for three years and don't want any more of it. Carlisle is a big fellow and it may be that his size had more to do with his remaining in custody than his desire to stand his trial next Wednesday. The escape of the prisoners was the subject of general discussion in Denison Monday, but no excitement whatever prevailed. An organized effort was made and is yet in progress with reference to the capture of the men but up to this writing nothing has been accomplished. PRISONERS CAPTURED Wednesday night, officer Jack Sims in company with deputies Lee and Henderson, captured Dave Vaughn and Sam Lyon, two of the ten prisoners who made their escape from the Sherman jail Sunday night. The arrest was made out in the Preston Bend country near the river at the house of a farmer named Fletcher. Sims heard of the presence of the men by a note written by a party at Preston Bend. The officers arrived at the house sometime after midnight and when all arrangements had been for a fight, Sims shoved open the door, jumped in and threw his pistol into the faces of Lyon and Vaughn who were still in bed. Steel shackles were on the men in a very few moments and before the men scarcely realized what was going on they were safely out of harm's way so far as resisting the officers was concerned. Two buggies had been procured for the occasion and the three officers and two prisoners were soon en route to Denison. The men were jailed here and late in the afternoon were returned to Sherman where they were again placed behind the bars of the $95,000 jail. It seems that the Grayson county jailer is "losing his grip" on the prisoners in his charge, as Thursday evening another successful escape was made. Joe Johnson, one of the men who escaped Sunday night and who was captured out at Gainesville and returned, in company with a man by the name of John Watts, got out through an open door and is away again. Turnkey Sam McAfee, state that before he left for supper he locked the door to the rotary cells but when he came back it was standing wide open. Officers were sitting in the jail office at the time but they did not know of the escape. Watts is charged with counterfeiting and Johnson with selling whiskey in the Indian country in violation of the federal law. The last escape is a mystery and many people are inclined to lay the blame on some one at the jail. Sherman History Susan Hawkins © 2024 If you find any of Grayson County TXGenWeb links inoperable, please send me a message. |