Terry County's First Jail

The jail's ten years on the square were the county's corn years. For a time Terry County was called the Egypt of the West, or the Corn Basket of Texas, shipping 300 to 400 carloads of corn a year. Corn borers helped push farmers toward cotton, and cotton went from almost 3,800 acres in 1920 to 101,487 in 1930, when it was the leading crop. Farms multiplied from 274 to 1,458 over that decade, and population rose from 2,236 to 8,883, the growth that brought the new courthouse and its top-floor jail in 1926.

What the plaque says

Terry County's First Jail Terry County, organized in 1904, had no jail facility until this frame structure was erected in 1916 on the southeast corner of the courthouse square. The one-room building with two steel cells was replaced in 1926 by a jail located on the top floor of the new courthouse. This small structure then became property of A. T. Fowler, who moved it to his farm in the 1940s. The outside walls were plastered and the interior used for storage. Given to Terry County Heritage Museum in 1974 by A. T. and Terrell Fowler, the old jail was transferred to this site and restored. (1975)

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• Maids and Matrons Club — 0.5 mi
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• Colonel B. F. Terry and Terry's Texas Rangers — 0.7 mi
• City of Brownfield — 0.7 mi