Old Jailhouse Museum
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| The old jailhouse, a three-story brick
structure built in 1887, now serves as the museum and meeting place for the Wilson County
Historical Society and Texas Through Time Living History Foundation. The jail is located
to the left of the courthouse on "C" Street. It was home to several sheriffs and
their families. The wives usually cooked for the inmates and the prisoners chopped the
wood, tended gardens, and were sent to local farmers to do the chores that the farmers
wanted them to do. Asa and Hattie Fuller were the last sheriffs family to live in the
house. Until the mid-1970s, the house served as a drunk tank. The museum opened in 1989
thanks to local individuals. It is open on the first and third Saturday, Peanut
Festival and Heritage Days. The cells could hold up to 40 people and have three floors with a
trap door in one room. The house has of three bedrooms, a living room, a dining room and a kitchen.
A man was to be hung for murdering his wife. When they went to hang him through the trap door, they came to find out that it got stuck. They decided to hang him somewhere else. On that day the sheriff decided to hang him on the flag pole outside of the house. (The flag pole can be seen on the right). Back in the old days, the sheriff's wives had to cook a lot of food for their family and the prisoners. In order to do this, the family grew gardens and used those for food. The prisoners had to work in the garden for their food. If they didn't work, they didn't eat. The sheriffs also hunted in the nearby woods for deer, dove, rabbit, and other woodland creatures. They also had to do the laundry in the scrub-tubs. They then set it out to dry on a rope in the back yard. The prisoners had to go to the bathroom in a hole on a small block in the cell. Every time they got to go outside for the work to be done, one of the cellmates had to remove the waste. The family used the out-house in the far backyard. The prisoners were mostly crooks. The murderers had to get hung or stayed in prison for life. The only time they had to hang someone, the trap door broke, as told in the story above. The sheriffs had to go around on horses to catch the villains. The fire department got the fastest horses in town and the sheriffs got the second fastest. The sheriffs had to bring their own guns and used their own equipment. Most sheriffs of the towns and had to do all the chasing because they did not have the police. The only help they had were angry townsfolk with shotguns and pitch-forks. Inside the living room it was very pretty and active. They spun the sheep's wool inside and kept their toys in the basket on the floor. The toys were mostly made out of wood and did not last very long. They had bookshelves in the room and did their reading by the fire in there. They had old photos of their deceased relatives or relatives that lived far away. Inside the sheriffs bedroom was a cool place. They of course had a bed and that is where he kept his clothes and guns. They had a dresser to put some books in and maybe a handkerchief. On top of the dresser he probably had a candle. Many rooms has a cowboy hat rack in the corner. Inside the dining room they had a table to fit six. They also had chandeliers on the ceiling which can still be seen today. The table had a display in the middle of it (probably a basket of fruit). There they hung most of their pictures on the walls. Inside the kitchen, it was probably very sweet-smelling. They had a pantry and a table for the making of food. The wives and the little girls especially liked the kitchen. Inside the kids' bedrooms it was kind of small and had a lot of furniture. They had a dresser and a mirror on top of it. They had beds with pillows stuffed with feathers and sheets made of wool. They had small closets and a window to view the front yard. Inside the cell it was pretty crowded and dark. Four people were in a cell 7' long and 4' wide. They had a little place to use the bathroom and a bucket of water on a small shelf. The most people the cell can hold is 40 people. The people who were to be hung or to stay for life were kept in special cells.
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