Today’s article is a history of the old Shelby County Jail on the inside of the square. The history of the jail was gathered and written by Laura Harris, Marker Chair of the Historical Commission. She gathered this information for the purpose of obtaining a historical designation for the Old Jail.

From the beginning, the “New Jail” has been literally and figuratively in the shadows of the Shelby County Courthouse but how or why did all this come to be? The origins of the town of Center as the county seat of Shelby County reveals the development of the Courthouse Square which includes the Shelby County Courthouse, County Records Building, Fire Station, Shelby County Jail, Restroom Building (now the Daughters of the Republic of Texas), Street Clock, Hitching Rings and various markers.

“Shelby County was created in 1836 by the newly independent Republic of Texas. At that time the county seat was in Shelbyville, having been occupied since about 1818-1824 by settlers from Tennessee. This isolated district was first known as the Municipality of Tenehaw.  Shelby County was one of the original 23 counties established after Texas won its independence from Mexico. As early as 1838, an act Providing for the Removal of County Seats of Justice was passed by the legislation. Nothing was ever done about this early act to move the county seat to a more central location.  After the Civil War, voters were spread over the whole county, and they wanted a more accessible county as the 1836 Constitution had promised. R.L. Parker was within his rights as duly elected County Clerk to Shelby County to relocate the records. The question to the long-time debate has been, “Did Parker steal the records?” The answer is “No” …. but….?

Parker in preparation for the removal of the records, prepared for an 1866 special election. “Petitions to relocate the county seat were passed around the northern and western part of the county but were not shared with residents in the eastern and southern parts of the county. The residents of Shelbyville disliked the results of the vote, so they ignored the vote until Mr. Parker decided to change them.”

The next step in removing the records from Shelbyville is where would they be taken?  The first legal owner of the land for the town of Center was Jesse Amason (1810-1888). The process for Amason to acquire the land began in 1847, after it had been surveyed some nine years earlier. It was granted to him by the State of Texas by virtue of the First-Class Certificate. The future site for the town was laid out using part of Amason tract. Amason had sold 520 acres to James C. Wilson in 1856 for $1 an acre. Wilson eventually gave fifty acres from its northwestern corner to the Commissioners’ Court of Shelby County. This gift was in consideration of a like gift from Jesse Amason of the adjacent fifty acres immediately west of Wilson tract, so the county seat and town of Center could be located on these two tracts of land. Center got its name by being “centrally located or center of the county.” 

Now that Center had the land for a new county seat it only needed the records to complete the process. A log building was built to house the records before Shelbyville citizens realized a plan was underway to move the records and establish a new county seat site. When they did find out the plans, the citizens posted guards day and night at the Shelbyville courthouse to prevent the records being taken. It is said the guards drank too much one night (probably Parker gave the guards bottles of good whiskey to help facilitate the removal of the records); this drunken condition of the guards made the transfer of records from the courthouse to two ox carts pulled by unshod oxen easy with the help of two young men.

As told by Ossie Cartwright (1846-1941), one of the men who helped with the moving, Mr. Bob Parker who was county clerk had a key to the courthouse and went right on in while the men were not watching due to their drunken condition, and we loaded the records and safe onto the carts.”

Shelbyvillians followed the ox-wagon tracks the next morning seven miles northwest; they found a small log cabin had been built in the surveyed center of the county. As a thief in the night, the records and safe were moved or “stolen” from Shelbyville and relocated in the new town of Center in August of 1866. The county papers were inside, and Parker was sitting at the door. Using his loaded rifle as a pointer, he informed all visitors they were at the site of the new Shelby County courthouse, and it was now open for business. This was replaced with a large frame building and it is this building that was destroyed by fire on 1 June 1882. In 1867 a jail house, the second building in Center, was built (according to the index to Minutes, Commissioners’ Court, Shelby County, Volume Year 1882, page 90. Commissioners’ Court Vol 1 page 95.

After the fire, the county commissioners voted to erect a new county clerk’s office and the building would be fireproof. The Commissioners’ Court minutes for November 14, 1883, ordered $33,000 of the school fund of Shelby County or so much thereof as may be necessary for the erection of a courthouse, clerk’s office and jail for the use of the County of Shelby in Bonds.  A jail committee was formed with O.R. Hooper, E.S. Hicks, J.A. Lucky, W.P. Wilson, A.W. Brown, and J.J.E. Gibson and they are hereby appointed as a committee and are requested to proceed at once to submit to the Commissioners’ County of Shelby County a plan and location for the erection of a jail in the town of Center, Shelby County, Texas, and to be prepared to make a report on the same by the 7th day of December 1883. It is desired by the same Court to build a house about the same size as the County Clerk’s office, two stories high, of the best improved materials. (Shelby County Clerk’s Office, Commissioners Court Records November 14, 1883, Volume 1, page 95.) During the construction of the “new” jail, prisoners were kept in the Panola County jail.

John Joseph Emmett Gibson (1849-1931) was born in Dublin, Ireland. Because of an illness, he was left behind with an aunt when his family immigrated to the United States about 1851. Gibson reportedly studied architecture in Dubin, and finally joined his family in St. Louis when he was about sixteen. There he learned the brickmaking trade from his father and brothers. Eventually,he was drawn to New Orleans and then to Texas. He and his wife, Elizabeth Towmey, settled in Center where he opened a brick factory and worked as an architect and master mason.

January 1, 1884, Jail Committee vs Report:  Now comes O.R. Hooper, R.L. Parker, et al, committee appointed by the Court to draft a plan and select a location of a jail in the town of Center and present their report as to their action. The report is received after being changed so as to read as the follow:  To be located on the ground now occupied by the Old Jail or nearly so and to be built of brick. Two stories high 22 X 30 feet. The first story to be 10 feet high and the second the same. The vestibule to front eastward. Building situated north and south the long way. Iron cells to be placed in the south and overhead and sheriff’s and tax collector’s office in the lower story. There shall be a cross wall 8 feet from the north and inside with one door in the center wall. In the northeast corner a cell 8 X 9 feet and below. Stairway up to the prison to be in the northwest corner. (shelbcountytexashistory.net/1880_court_ records.htm. Brief History of Shelby County Courthouse and Jail, page 2-3.)

Mr. Gibson’s bid for erecting the courthouse and clerk’s office was $26,725, which was the lowest bid. He agreed to superintend the jail on the courtyard at the same time. J.F. Barnes was awarded the contract to construct the jail for $8,625. The contract was signed April 8, 1884. (Shelby County Commissioners’ Court Records, April 7, 184, Volume 1, page 122, 123). According to the Commissioners’ Court Records, Gibson was required and agreed to superintend the building of the Jail in Center without other or furthers charges against Shelby County for his services as superintendent.  And it is further ordered by the Court and agreed by the said Gibson, contractor as aforesaid, that the sum above mentioned is awarded by the Court and accepted by said Gibson as full pay for all plans and specifications for both the Jail and Court House furnished by said Gibson. The courthouse was built at the center of the square with an entry facing each cardinal direction. The jail was built at the northwest corner of the square adjacent to an earlier jail, without concern for any formal planning principles.  Both buildings were essentially completed by the summer of 1885.

The 1885 Shelby County Jail echoes the Courthouse in a subdued version of its form and detail. It is a two story, gabled brick structure with two story wings that were added on the east and west facades during the 1930s. The ridge line of the original building runs north-south, and wings have shed roofs which engage the walls of the original building just beneath the eaves. The north and south gable ends of the original building are bisected by external chimneys flanked by segmentally arched doors and windows. Ornamentation is limited to a molded brick cornice with a single row of dentils, and segmental hood molds over the door and windows. The added wings have a symmetrical arrangement of simple, double-hung windows. In the plans the sheriff’s office occupied the south end of the first floor, with a cell at the northeast corner and a stair hall on the northwest. Partition walls now divide the sheriff’s office into three separate rooms. The second floor contains the main block of cells.

The placement of the jail on the square with the Courthouse set a precedent for public buildings constructed in Center in subsequent years. The typical Texas courthouse square is dominated by a large courthouse of formal design without extensive ground around it. In rebuilding its jail adjacent to the 1885 courthouse, Shelby County perpetuated an earlier tradition of frontier communities when small, utilitarian government buildings were grouped together on the public square. Since Shelby County chose to build a relatively small courthouse in 1885 and had platted an unusually large courthouse square, the local governments had plenty of room to continue to build on the square.  Later construction was not limited to county buildings but included municipal functions and services, such as the water towers and the fire station.

The Shelby County Courthouse and Jail are the only known surviving works by Gibson, His only other known design, for the Panola County Courthouse (1885, demolished 1955), was a very similar to the Shelby County Courthouse.

Shelby County Commissioners’ Court Records, October 8, 1917, Vol. 8, page 133 states “Whereas it ordered by the Court that the old jail be remodeled; the iron bars be taken out and windows be placed in same and that it be used as an office for County Demonstration and an agricultural exhibit hall.” This ended the use of this building as a jail.

The “old jail” building was later used for various county offices following its decommissioning on October 8, 1917. One of its first uses was an office for the Shelby County Attorney.  On January 1, 1968, the Department of Public Safety was granted permission to use the old jail for its office in Center. 

In 1973, a motion was made by L.G. Allen, seconded by Lomax Webb to turn the old jail over to the State Welfare Department for office space, provided repairs made for the office space at no expense to the county.

The most recent renovations to the Historical Shelby County Jail began in 1989. “The building and grounds committee of the chamber of commerce is awaiting final approval of the project from the Texas Historical Commission. Initial work on the old jail called for the demolition of two wings – added to the original structure in the 1930s – to be demolished and for the exterior of the jail to be restored to it original condition at a cost of approximately $100,000. The renovations were completed in 1992. The two-story jail on the corner of the courthouse square is still occupied by Shelby County Chamber of Commerce.