Early Kendall County Jails

The county the 1887 jail served changed slowly, then fast. In the Depression tenant farms rose from 130 to 171, nearly a quarter of the county's farms. Rail service to Fredericksburg ended in the early 1940s, but the line to San Antonio stayed. In the 1950s the county still marketed 414,160 pounds of wool and 197,171 of mohair a year. By 1960 nearly 60 percent of its 5,889 people lived in Boerne or Comfort, against less than 40 percent before 1940. Interstate 10 replaced the railroad, and the Southern Pacific abandoned the county's last track in 1970.

What the plaque says

Early Kendall County Jails Due to financial strains caused by the Civil War, the newly created Kendall County (1862) paused plans to build a courthouse. In 1869, the court accepted a design by Phillip Zoeller (1818-1900) for a courthouse with internal jail facility to be built on land donated by Boerne founders, John James and Gustav Theisen. Stonemason Johann Franz Stendebach (1826-1890) contributed to both design and construction. In that same year, Stendebach also became sheriff, a position he held until 1878. For the next decade, Kendall County experienced economic prosperity, attracting more settlers. The larger population strained the existing court facilities by the mid-1870s, and county officials decided in 1876 to build a stand-alone jail, again designed by Zoeller, on the courthouse grounds. The commissioners court accepted a bid of $2,375 from Thomas F. Cavanaugh & Co. while the building was under construction, new sheriff John Reinhard and others boarded prisoners. The one-story stand-alone jail was completed in late 1878, but within a few months experienced a jailbreak. Once again, the sheriff and others boarded prisoners while the structure was improved to prevent another escape. The jail opened once more in late 1881. In 1883, Dr. Jacob West's report of the jail's unsanitary conditions laid the groundwork for calls to build a new facility. As Kendall County's population continued to grow, additional plans were passed to build a new structure, again on the courthouse grounds. The commissioners court accepted a bid from the Pauly Jail Building and Manufacturing Company for a new two-story jail. The 1887 jail utilized more sophisticated designs and building materials. Kendall County continued to utilize the 1887 structure as a jail for 99 years, until a new corrections facility was constructed in 1986. (2023)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Treue der Union Monument — 16 mi
  An 1866 German-language monument in Comfort over the graves of Hill Country Unionists killed at the Nueces in 1862, its flag of thirty-six stars kept at half-staff.
• Frontier Times Museum — 21 mi
  A museum built of fossils, petrified wood and cave formations in Bandera, holding a printer-historian's collection of frontier relics and oddities.
• Old Tunnel State Park — 22 mi
  A railroad tunnel abandoned in 1942 that now shelters up to three million Mexican free-tailed bats, who fly out each evening from May through October.
• Natural Bridge Caverns — 24 mi
  The largest known cavern in Texas, found in 1960 by four college cavers under a ranch family's land, entered beneath a 60-foot limestone bridge and still growing.

More markers nearby

• Kendall County — steps away
• German Music in Boerne — steps away
• Early Boerne Schoolhouses — steps away
• Saint Helena's Episcopal Church — 0.2 mi