Hico
According to Jane Klein at the Billy The Kid Museum in Hico, this metal cage was moved to the museum for display from its original home in City Hall. The above photo was provided courtesy of Barclay Gibson. This photo appears to have been taken soon after it arrived in the museum because today it is surrounded by lots of memorabilia.
This cage was in use from 1928 – 1964. The firm E. T. Barnum Iron and Wire Works in Detroit, Michigan specialized in the manufacture of iron cages and cells. On page 48 of their catalog dated 1924, they post a partial list of towns and cities that have purchased their products and Hico is one of the towns that ordered an iron jail. The date that this jail was first used strongly suggests the jail in the local museum was the one that was shipped from Detroit to Hico in 1928. The catalog advertises that their cages and cells were made of Barnum Bessemer Prison or Barnum Laminated “tool-proof” steel. The walls are described in the catalog as “lattice bars.” It was the practice of E. T. Barnum to manufacture cages and cells without bottoms so that they could be bolted to cement, stone, or wood floors prior to the construction of the building that would enclose them. The example in Hico is similar to Barnum’s No. 7 Steel Lattice Jail Cage.
This cage is 10 feet by 10 feet (100 square feet) in size and hs four metal bed frames that supported straw mattresses for the prisoners. They were arranged in bunk bed fashion with two on each side. There is a sign on the cage that reads:
“Vernon Hyles long time citizen of Hico says the only time he ever spent in jail was when he put out a fire in the jail house. One of the guests of the county had set fire to the mattresses on the cots in his cell. The two mattresses that are missing are the two that were burned. The two that are still there are the originals.”
The door is made using the same lattice pattern as the walls. At the bottom there is a cut away area that allowed law enforcement to pass food and other items to the inmates.
