Old Henry County Jail Coming Down

Sheriff Robert H. Compton and his family stand in front of the new County jail in 1912. Shown are children (front row, from left) Noel H. "Cotton" Compton, William T. Compton, Jewel Compton, Robert M. Compton; (back row) Compton, Mary E. Bell Compton and Astor B. Compton. Three years earlier, Compton had been shot by a prisoner who was hunted down by a mob and executed in Henry County's last lynching.

The old Henry Comity Jail is
coming down almost after 100
years. It holds many memories
for many people.
The old jail has seen suicide,
even murder, a few weddings
and one time held John Dill-
inger before he became famous
in 1932.
But the saddest day was possi-
bly the day in 1927 when Sheriff
T.P. Caldwell was shot. His wife
succeeded him to become the
first woman sheriff in Tennes-
see's history.
An old-timer who spent sev-
eral nights in the jail tells the
story that with lonesome sound
of the old train passing the jail in
the middle of the night, even the
hardest man would break down.

The following information was taken from the Henry Progress newspaper that was published on March 17, 1911. At a meeting of the jail committee last week, the new county jail was accepted from the contractors. The new jail and the lot
will be worth about $23,000 and is one of the best county (jails) in the state.
The jail committee is composed of Esquires T.F. Blanchett
and E.B. Scott of the county
court; John W. Phillips and C.P.
Hudson business men of Paris
J.L. Stewart, a prominent farmer
and sheriff R.H. Compton.
Ross Rogers, local editor
of The Post-Intelligencer, has
purchased the old jail building
which he will wreck and use part
of the bricks in the erection of a
residence.