Gail
Photo of jail in 2014, courtesy of the Borden County Museum.
Photo of jail in 1896, courtesy of the Borden County Museum.
The county was created in 1876 and organized in 1891. The town of Gail and the county were named for Gail Borden the inventor of condensed milk. A jail in Gail was not deemed necessary until five years later. On February 10, 1896, a contract was awarded by the commissioner’s court to build a new jail east of the courthouse where it stands today. It was the first jail in the county and it was built by local labor under the supervision of H. Smoot, a trained stonemason. The walls were made of hand-hewn native stone that was cut from nearby Gail Mountain. The size of this calaboose is 12′ by 12′ (144 square feet). Two foot thick walls offered maximum security. There are four windows and the bars are deeply set in stone. The photo taken in 1896 depicts photo (see above) some of the crew who built the jail but only D. W. Smoot, Jim Smith, and W. K. Clark have been identified.
The interior contains three metal cells that were manufactured by the Diebold Safe and Lock Company of Canton, Ohio. Two are formal cells and the third is a holding cell. The cells and metal floor were made of 1/3 case hardened steel plates that are impervious to hack saw blades. The walls of the cells are not bars, but case hardened steel plates pierced by two-inch square holes. The doors to the cells fasten with a series of huge hasps and padlocks that required a six inch key to open them. The ceiling of the cells also had steel plates. Beneath the steel cell floors are stone blocks that are six inches thick and four feet square. Except for the addition of modern plumbing and a new roof, the jail has not changed. This calaboose was recorded as a Texas Historic Landmark in 1967. It conforms to Floor Plan 3c (see Floor Plans). This jail has been recorded at TARL as historic site 41BD36.
No one ever escaped from the jail….or maybe not. Lisa Mahler related the story about the local man who was inebriated and locked up in the jail to sleep off the effects of alcohol. The next morning, Sheriff Reeder found the “prisoner” sitting on the outside of the jail. The man had fallen into the trench that was being dug for running water and could not climb up so he crawled to the outside of the jail where the trench had been started and sat waiting for morning to arrive. When asked by the Sheriff what happened, the man said “Sheriff, I didn’t escape. I just fell out and could not get back in.”
Lisa Mahier of Gail, Texas sent this newspaper article about the jail in her town.
