The Young County Jail
Graham, Young County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(1878-1921) This jail was built with two stories in 1878. The jailer lived downstairs, and above were two cells--one with a steel cage for maximum security. There were many dramatic jailbreaks, with lives lost on both sides of the law. In 1881, killer Jack Post, the only man legally hanged in this county, rode from the jail astride his coffin. The five Marlow brothers broke out in 1888, causing a major shootout and manhunt. The property was phased out as a jail in 1921, and saw many changes in use and appearance before being bought by Kelley B. King in 1975.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Built in 1878 with the jailer's family living downstairs and a steel maximum-security cage above, this two-story jail saw some of frontier North Texas's most dramatic episodes. Jack Post, the only man ever legally hanged in the county, was carried from here astride his own coffin in 1881, and the notorious Marlow brothers shot their way out in 1888, touching off a manhunt that later inspired legend. The building outlived its jail years in 1921 and passed through many hands and uses.
Why it matters
The jail embodies the hard, often bloody work of establishing law on the Texas frontier, where the line between order and violence was thin and frequently crossed.
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Related people
- · Jack Post
- · Marlow brothers
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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Young County's early history swung with the fortunes of the frontier: organized in 1856 at Belknap, it saw its records flee to Jacksboro amid renewed Indian conflict during the Civil War before being reorganized around Graham in 1874. In 1884 workers quarried native sandstone east of town to raise a two-story courthouse laid out as a Greek cross, built by Swedish-born mason N. J. Rosenquist. Razed in 1932, the building survives only in a single preserved archway rescued during 1936 street work.
1921 Young County Jail
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Completed in 1921 to a design by Dallas architect C.H. Leinbach, the Young County jail rose three stories in concrete and brick, blending Commercial style with Prairie School touches. It housed the sheriff's family on the first floor, cells above, and even an indoor gallows, and held prisoners awaiting trial for over half a century — among them men tied to the notorious 1927 Santa Claus bank robbery in nearby Cisco. After 1983 it found new life supporting a community crisis center.
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In 1879, after fire destroyed his frame store, druggist Joseph E. Ryus rebuilt on the same Graham lot in locally fired brick — a statement of permanence in a young frontier county seat. The room above his drugstore became Judge Andrew P. McCormick's first federal district courtroom that same year, before the court decamped for Abilene. Since 1892 the Knights of Pythias have kept their lodge hall on the upper floor, giving the building an unbroken civic life for over a century.