Collected Comments
One ex-sheriff expressed his opinion that the stairs leading to the upper foyer cells were not designed right.
Often the women prisoners would be obese and would fight him all the way up the narrow staircase. He
thought maybe there should be a trapdoor as he came in, so he could just drop them in. He said the floor did
give way one time when he came in. There is a patched crack several feet inside the door even yet.
In the earliest days the Sheriff also had to collect taxes, all the way to the New Mexico line, from the county's
beginning in 1873, until Wheeler County at the edge of the panhandle, was organized in 1878. That must
have been a tremendous task.
In the Lawman's Room in the residence are certificates from the terms of the first sheriff to live in the 1890
Jail, Sheriff Cooper Wright. Several are certificates of his election, (signed by the governor). Several are
warrants for the arrest of a horse thief who had fled to Kansas; these authorized the sheriff to pursue him and
bring him back to justice. (outcome unknown)
One of our regular workers lived in the jail when her dad was sheriff in the 1940's. She said she learned to
cook that summer and her cooking was probably the reason no one wanted to be put in jail after that.
One lady who lived here in the 1930's said the kids would sneak through the wooden door between the house
and jail foyer, and look around the corner of the basement door under the stairs to the upper women's cells
(women and juveniles were kept in the 4 cells above the foyer which was the sheriff's office). Thus they could
taste "forbidden fruit" just to see what was going on, probably just their dad sitting at his desk.
One man told us he visited his grandparents who lived in the jail, and his grandma always had a long table full
of people to feed besides the prisoners. Maybe deputies and other county officials. He also said his
granddad would let them go into the jail runaround but made sure they stayed close to the outside wall so the
prisoners could not reach out and touch them.
One lady told of walking past the jail on her way to town and prisoners would holler at her just to have
something to do to pass the time. Or maybe they just appreciated a good looking woman. Others have told of
family members visiting their loved ones through the bars of the windows. Often times it would be a young
mother with a baby in her arms - many tears.
If prisoners were to be transported to the state penitentiary at Huntsville (the only state prison for a long time)
Uncle Bud Russell would come by in his truck turned into a kind of cage. It was called the "Moriah Wagon"
because of all the sorrow connected with it.