What an interesting town! The diversity is amazing. From ‘dog-trot’ cabins to southern plantation style homes. The area is packed with history and this little place has done such a fine job of preserving it.
We started at the Gonzales County Jail Museum. The lady that was watching over the ‘joint’ told us this tale “Many years ago there were a rash of burglaries in town and no one could figure out what was going on…since they thought all the bad guys were locked up. One morning when the sheriff arrived at work…he found a prisoner drunk and passed out on the front lawn. And under his bunk was all the missing loot. Seems he had removed some blocks from the wall and slid down the drain pipe every night”. (I guess, until the night he stole some booze and couldn’t get up the down spout!)
The jail itself is an ominous place. The walls are covered with the scratched in names of men long dead.
There is a gallows in the central room. Can you imagine a condemned man having that view as he counted down the days?
The first hanging was in 1897 and the last was Albert Howard’s in 1921. While Albert Howard was in jail, he paid strict attention to the clock on the courthouse to keep up with the number of hours he had to live. He swore that his innocence would be shown by the clock and that none of the four faces would ever keep the same time. Through the years the faces have rarely been consistent.