(Podcast)
As the Texas frontier became more populous, settlements and towns began to spring up. For the most part, the frontiersmen and women were law-abiding people who were intent on making a new life for themselves in a new but often inhospitable land.
But, as it has always been, some bad guys came, too.
There were robbers, thieves, scam artists, drunks, cattle rustlers, gunfighters and a whole slew of other outlaws who followed civilization into the Texas west.
Before long, townspeople began to realize the need for enforcing the law, and that they had to have a place to lock up the law-breakers. So, as you might imagine, the jailhouse was probably one of the first structures built in a new community.