ESCAPES
There were several escapes and attempted escapes. One was a prisoner climbing out a window (don’t know how he
got through the bars), onto a tree that grew close to the wall and used bed sheets to get down (perhaps this is a
combination of two different escapes). Thereafter, no mothers in town would let their daughters spend the night with
their friends in the house part where they lived.
One escape was through a hole knocked in the east wall. One guy was a little large, so they greased him with butter
from their meals. It is believed they got about three blocks up the street west, before being caught and brought back.
An interesting side note is, one of the escapees was found innocent of the crime when someone else confessed. But,
he had to serve time for the jail break. He reportedly, as a law-abiding citizen, returned many years later to see the jail
he had escaped from. You can still see where the hole was patched.
One lady who lived in the jail in the 1940’s told of a deputy walking across the foyer with a tray of food, when a trustee
slammed the tray of food into the deputy’s face and ran out the door. “Jail Break! Jail Break!” was hollered, and the
escapee was caught within a block. There must have been people around the jail most of the time.
One got the cell door open by using the wire off a regular straw broom to reach the levers in the box beside the cell
door. He may have been the same one who knocked a hole in the south wall on the second level and escaped in time
to catch the 4 o’clock train which he had listened to often, and thus timed his escape. He was never apprehended.
Once, a group of prisoners attempted to dig a tunnel near the east side. They dug at night and flushed the dirt down
the toilet, and covered the hole with something during the day. Finally, another prisoner, not in on the scheme,
snitched on the others. The Sheriff suddenly had reason to take that prisoner to the courthouse for a “hearing”, and
unearthed the plot. We understand that’s when the steel floor was installed in the holding area, commonly known as
the “Drunk Tank”. The floor “snap, crackles and pops” when you walk across it today.