Susanne Kerley is a resident of Frisco and she sent me this interesting story about the only time prisoners broke out of the local calaboose.  I really appreciate getting this story.

Heritage Stories

Halloween night 1945 a group of teenage boys decided to make a little mischief and pull the fire alarm switch. The boys waited until the night watchman, Jarvis Hays, was away from the area and then they pulled the switch and ran. It was an all-volunteer fire department in those days and of course blowing the fire whistle would summon the firefighters to respond. Mr. Hays was the only law enforcement in town at the time and he couldn’t be everywhere at once. Well, the boys continued in their prank and of course, Mr. Hays caught them in the act.

They were marched down the street to the calaboose and locked in. That ended the problem with the fire whistle for the evening, but the boys were still having fun in jail. The boys began to wiggle the bars in the windows and after a time they got them loose and they were able to crawl out the window opening. The calaboose was surrounded by a cotton gin at the time and the boys would crawl out the window and sit on cotton bales and when they saw Mr. Hays coming, they would get back in the calaboose and hold the bars in place.

About midnight, Mr. Hays snuck up on the boys and found them sitting on bales of cotton and told them to go home.

These boys were the only ones to ever break out of the Frisco