Stuck In The Jailhouse.....Gonzales TX

Well, just a visit really....to the Old Jailhouse Museum in Gonzales, Texas. The jailhouse was built in 1887 to hold 200 prisoners under riot conditions.  The jail was designed by architect Eugene T. Heiner and built by Henry Kane and Snead & Company Iron Works of concrete, brick, and steel for $21,660.20. It in use until 1975. The entrance hall was once the Sheriff's office. To the left are three rooms, kitchen and bath that were once home for the Sheriff's family. They are now used by the Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture but they used to be home to the Sheriff and his family.

All of the ceilings are made of corrugated steel and concrete. On the lower floor are display cases for articles taken from prisoners, information on the sheriffs, deputies, and other law enforcement officials who served here through the years.

This room is used by the museum staff. We were given a great tour by a young lady with a baby strapped to her front. She clearly was very familiar with all the facts and stories about the jail.

Portraits of all the sheriffs in office from the jail's opening to the time it closed in 1975.

At the end of the hallway is the dungeon, complete sensory deprivation where the only light and sound came through small holes above the door. Our guide offered to let us experience it but we passed on that opportunity.

Gregorio Cortez was a famous prisoner here who came to the area as a farmer. Problems with language led a battle and to the shooting of two sheriffs. He escaped by walking 100 miles and then riding another 400 miles but was eventually caught. He narrowly escaped lynching by a mob at the jail. He was sentenced to 50 years in jail.  A number of years later he was pardoned and became a Mexican folk hero based on his escape and the time it took to recapture him. Language, culture, and racial prejudice were all involved along with the rumor that he and his brother were horse thiefs. The real truth may never be known.

 

This is the jailer's bedroom.

The women's and lunatics cell when necessary....the holding cell otherwise.

John Wesley Hardin info.

Another view into the dungeon.

The second and third floors feature a large room known as the runaround which is two stories high and was not used for hardened criminals. The death cells are at the front of this room and feature doors of two-inch iron strips forged and fused through the use of heat, borax, and hammer, since the jail was built before welding was invented. In each wing of the room are two-story metals, built as rooms within a room and featuring more of the riveted doors.

The last gallows were last used in 1921 and were torn down in the 1950s. They stood in the run-around next to the third-floor walkway. The present gallows are an exact reproduction.

Large doors to the cell blocks feature small swing-out doors with bars from which the jailer could observe the prisoners, and inside the room are levers that opened and closed latches on the cell doors.

There were six legal hangings in Gonzales, the first in 1855 between the jail and the jailer’s house that was on Market Square. In 1878 it was estimated that 4,000 people "arrived as to a feast to witness the human suffering and shedding of blood" of Brown Bowen. The last hanging was that of Albert Howard on March 18, 1921.

A legend persists that while Howard was in jail he became obsessed with the clock on the Gonzales County Courthouse located just a few yards away from the building, keeping strict attention to the number of hours he still had to live. He swore his innocence would be shown by the clock, that none of its four faces would ever keep the same time again if he was hanged. Through the years the courthouse clocks' faces have rarely been consistent since then.

 

We missed the big "Come and Take It" festival the weekend before but our guide told us that a huge number of people visited the jail and some of them said they were former prisoners here so they had a few stories to tell her.

 

After a very interesting tour, we were ready for some lunch. We decided to give the Gonzales Food Market a try.  Interesting name....it is really a barbeque place.

You walk past the counter and choose your meat and sides.

Mary Jane and I both chose the daily specials. She had the sausage sandwich with a side of mixed vegetables. I had the chopped brisket sandwich with a side of home fries. They were both good.

Right before we got into the truck to head to our next adventure, we saw this poem about the Old Town Clock.