My friends - As I spend my last evening in the city of St.Louis before returning home tomorrow, I am going to bring to you a short piece of history about Calloway County's first jail. This is taken from "History of Calloway County - 1931", a retrospective put together by the Murray Ledger & Times newspaper. From time to time, I'll bring other narratives to you from this publication. Tomorrow, we will close out the week with another in the Skills Puzzler series. -B ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Calloway County's First Jail "On March 13, 1823, William Jones, Eli Cochran and Henry Darnall were appointed commissioners to let the building of a public jail in Wadesboro. The contract was let to Bins Derrington, who built the jail according to the following specifications: to be twelve feet square, of hewed logs and covered with a cabin roof. The building was completed at a cost of $177.00 and was in use until 1827 when a new building was ordered to be erected. The second jail was also of log stucture, built by Samuel Peter for the sum of $496.88. It was abandoned, however, in 1833, and in 1836 a third jail and a more substantial one was erected, costing about $1600.00. The building was well constructed of oak blocks, securely spiked and enclosed by a brick wall, after a negro prisoner kindled a fire therein and was himself burned to death in the flames. No other jail was built until the removal of the county seat from Wadesboro to Murray in 1842."