(Editorial Note: Part 421 of a series of further development in the early days that impacted Franklin County. Sources: Preston News, 1910; Franklin County Citizen, 1913-1914; Southeastern Advocate,1913-1914; Preston Citizen, 1975, column of Newell Hart.)

The city/county jail seems to have been inhabited quite often during the year of 1913, in cases that had sufficient cause to make the news. As this was the first year of being a new county there was no building nicely in place for the purpose of holding prisoners. The village had been using a rented granary for persons needing confinement by the law. At other times the "jail" was under repair from the actions of escapees. The Anti-Saloon League was very active at this time and arrests were frequently connected with the liquor business, both legal and prohibited.

February news of 1913 carried a couple of cases that might give the reader an image of those days. Claud Nichols, a man who had been charged before with selling liquor, was again caught selling liquor to two parties who were in the jail, by Marshal Dave Davis."He was arrested and brought before Justice Jensen and was convicted and bound over in the sum of $500 to the district court. Not being able to get bonds, Sheriff (Frank) Merrill decided to take him over to Malad that day. Nichols was taken to his home to change his things before going over to the seat of Oneida county, and while the sheriff was in the next room waiting for him, Nichols skinned out through the window. He was met by Riley Maus with a saddle horse and taken to the Utah line below Franklin."

The sheriff and the marshal got busy and appointed other Preston people as temporary deputy sheriffs to begin a search to hunt for the man, who had got about a fifteen minute head start. Their search was futile, as Nichols got away, although word was received later that he was near Hyrum. Riley Maus, who was an accessory before the fact, was now in jail charged with assisting a criminal to escape from justice. This was a well planned affair, other people interested in business pursuits, being implicated, especially as "suspicion had been directed toward these parties for the illicit sale of intoxicating liquors."

Later that month a crime of a different sort surfaced in the little town of Preston. Mr. Joseph Whitehead, a well known Thrashing Machine Agent, was enjoying a play at Preston's Opera House. As the play finished he noticed the loss of his gold watch, the chain and a valuable turquoise stickpin. When had that happened? The thieves had plenty of time to make their get-away. With his discovery Whitehead reported his loss to chief David Davis. Davis put police officer John Winward and detective Gayman on the case and they spread a dragnet about the city, arresting every suspicious person they happened to find. They caught the two 'histers," having had help from a fortune teller who was traveling through Preston herself. The stolen goods were restored. It turned out the thieves were professionals traveling throughout the western U.S. Con men and women were attracted to small developing towns for what they hoped were 'easy pickings.'

That spring two men had been arrested for breaking into the Cardon Jewelry and the Struve Millinery Co. One of them, Murphy, pled guilty and was sent up for five years. Ryan, the other one, decided to plead not guilty and so was a prisoner, a charge of the county, jailed here. Somehow he secured a saw and cut his way through the roof of the jail and skedaddled. No trace of his whereabouts was discovered, nor how he came to have a saw on the "inside."

A prisoner who was incarcerated for forging checks on S. W. Parkinson of Franklin, was being taken to Bear Lake to appear before the District Judge. He told Sheriff Merrill and Attorney Smith that had they been ten minutes later he would have escaped. "Someone in Preston had supplied him with a chisel and file, the bolts of the door having been cut in two and without exertion the door could have been lifted out." A phone call to the city marshal caused a hunt and the tools were found where the prisoner had stated. The jail was then placed under surveillance and a suspect was arrested. However when the prisoner could not identify the suspect the case was dismissed.

Newell Hart shared this in a historical column of the Preston Citizen. "A few years ago Jim McQueen told me this story: 'My father, John McQueen, had a blacksmith shop between the Viney Harness Shop and the Dives Saloon. He did the iron work for the town's first jail. This was down on Depot Street, as we called it. He had me help hold the big iron doors one summer evening while he bolted them in place. While I was not noticing he slipped the lock on the door, got into the buggy and drove off. When he returned after dark, to take me home with him, he found a very tearful boy. Thus I was the first prisoner in the first real jail in our county. He said he wanted me to get a taste of what life would be like in jail and hoped I would remember it. I have avoided jails ever since.'

Hart wrote that the village board had not chosen the best site. This old jail was in a swale with a small marsh nearby. One night a prisoner got bored and escaped. Later apprehended, he claimed his escape was prompted by listening to those sounds out there in the frog pond. "The big ol' bullfrog, he says, 'Beat it...beat it...beat it' -- so I got out my knife and whacked away at the mortar, till I got a stone loose, and then I crawled out."

The Southeastern Advocate reported the next spring that inmates had "escaped through the roof again...that they supposed the prisoners got real tired trying to swim around in the jail swamp." More proof of the need for a new, better jail.