Clay County, Texas1890 Jail Museum& Heritage Center

The Heritage Center Archive

Clay County in Photographs

42 pictures from the Historical Society’s collection — threshing crews and country schools, main streets and tornado wreckage, the county as its own people saw it — and a look at the jail today.

From the Archive · 9 photographs

Agriculture

Threshing crews, cotton gins, and cattle — the work that built the county.

  • A steam-powered threshing outfit stands in a stubble field with its crew posed beside the machinery.
    M. A. Eaton’s threshing crew in the field1901
  • The threshing crew seated on horse-drawn wagons, teams hitched and waiting.
    M. A. Eaton’s threshing crew on the wagon1901
  • A steam traction engine and thresher at work in a field, crew standing alongside.
    A thresher fueled by cow chips1915
  • An early tractor pulls a gang of four disc plows across an open field.
    Tractor and four disc plows1920s
  • Ranch hands pitch hay from a stack to cattle gathered around a wagon.
    Feeding cattle and pitching hay at the Sanzenbacher Ranch1923
  • A group of men in work clothes and hats posed in front of the board wall of a cotton gin.
    The cotton gin at Joy — Laughon, Wines & Wolf1935
  • A tall wooden grain elevator with trucks parked beside it.
    The Fleming, Groves & Groves grain elevator
  • A flock of geese spread across a farmyard, a barn behind them.
    Geese on the Dale Ranch
  • Two men butcher a hog hung from a wooden frame in a farmyard.
    Hog killing — Carl N. and Carl T. Klein

From the Archive · 4 photographs

Architecture

Ranch headquarters, a showpiece commercial block, and a river bridge — Clay County built to last.

  • A frame ranch house with wide porches and outbuildings on open prairie.
    Byers Bros. ranch headquarters1900
  • An old mounted photograph of a bridge spanning the Wichita River.
    The Wichita River bridge at the Byers Bros. ranch1900
  • A Victorian frame house with gingerbread trim, a family posed on the porch.
    The Jasper Garrett home1900
  • An ornate two-story brick corner building with a rounded tower and tall arched windows.
    The Commercial Club Building — later known as the Gates Building1910

From the Archive · 10 photographs

Education

Country schools from every corner of the county — and the students who filled them.

  • A large group of students in rows in front of a frame schoolhouse.
    Students of Friendship School1890s
  • Schoolchildren and their teachers posed in rows before a white building.
    Benvanue School1905
  • Dozens of schoolchildren in rows outside a frame school.
    Deer Grove School children1912
  • Children of many ages posed outdoors in rows for a school photograph.
    East Fork School children1917
  • Young women in white dresses and a few young men posed in rows.
    Denton Summer School1920
  • A baseball team in uniform, one row standing and one kneeling.
    The Deer Creek baseball team1930s
  • High-school students in rows in front of their school, girls seated in front and boys standing behind.
    Buffalo Springs High School1933–34
  • Schoolchildren lined up on the steps of a white frame schoolhouse.
    Carmichael School children1935
  • Young children and their teacher posed in rows outside a school.
    Dean Dale first and second grades1944
  • The roofless shell of a gymnasium, its walls still standing after a fire.
    The school gym after the fire1972

From the Archive · 3 photographs

Business

Groceries and gins — main-street commerce across ninety years.

  • A wooden storefront with a “Groceries” sign, people posed in front.
    Goad Groceries1880s
  • Cotton-gin buildings with a smokestack trailing smoke and wagons in the yard.
    The Brown cotton gin1920
  • A small-town grocery storefront with a car parked at the curb.
    The Jolly grocery store1970s

From the Archive · 16 photographs

Town & Community

Street scenes, storms, bands, and mail carriers from Henrietta, Petrolia, Byers, Bellevue, and the county’s smaller places.

  • Men in suits posed around a table, with a printed caption below identifying Henrietta’s first city council.
    Henrietta’s first city council1882
  • A row of wooden false-front buildings along a dirt street.
    The sheriff’s office and other businesses1884
  • Mail carriers posed in a row in front of a building.
    Shannon mail carriers1890
  • Musicians holding guitars and other instruments posed with their families.
    Hurnville musicians and their families1900
  • Wagons piled with cotton line a dirt main street in front of frame storefronts.
    Selling cotton on Main Street1902
  • People stand among the splintered wreckage of buildings after a tornado.
    Tornado aftermath at Bellevue1906
  • Band members in uniform with brass instruments and a bass drum.
    The Halsell concert band1908
  • A wide dirt street in Byers lined with buildings on both sides.
    The streets of Byers1910
  • A dirt main street lined with frame storefronts.
    Petrolia street scene1915
  • People posed in front of the Byers post office.
    The Byers post office1918
  • A sepia view down Bridge Street: brick buildings with awnings and early automobiles parked along the curb.
    Bridge Street, Henrietta1920s
  • Brick storefronts fronted by new concrete sidewalks.
    Petrolia’s new sidewalks1920s
  • A small frame post office with its well outside.
    Post office and well1930s
  • The small wooden building of a rural fire department.
    Bluegrove JAC Fire Department1950
  • A rocky hillside with a cave opening among the trees.
    Robber’s Cave at Post Oak
  • Close view of the text of the Pleasant Valley Cemetery historical marker.
    The Pleasant Valley Cemetery historical marker

Present Day

The Museum Today

The building, inside and out — from the Society’s own camera and from a 2013 visit recorded on Wikimedia Commons.

The jail wing of the 1890 Clay County Jail: a two-story tan stucco building with tall barred windows, a Roman-arched entrance, and a Texas Historical Commission marker beside the door, seen from the street through two large shade trees.
The jail wing from Graham Street — barred windows, arched entrance, and the Texas historical marker by the door.Clay County Historical Society
The residence wing of the 1890 Clay County Jail: a two-story tan stucco house with a steep gable, Roman-arched upper windows, a decorative brick cornice, and a small gingerbread-trimmed front porch with potted plants on the steps.
The sheriff’s residence — the gabled front section with its Roman arches, corbelled cornice, and Victorian porch.Photo: Billy Hathorn, via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0
The arched front entrance of the jail wing: a heavy steel door with a barred window, set inside a stucco arch, with flowering plants at the foot of the steps.
The jail-wing door — steel, barred, and set in a Roman arch.Clay County Historical Society
The sleeping guard exhibit in the stone-walled basement: a figure in a cowboy hat dozes on a wooden chair with a rifle across his lap, beside an old trunk and a second empty chair.
The “sleeping guard” in the basement, part of the Life on the Frontier displays.Photo: Billy Hathorn, via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0
The museum porch with its dark front door and potted plants, reached by a red-brick walk engraved with donors’ names.
Engraved donor bricks lead to the museum’s front porch.Clay County Historical Society
A smiling man in a light jacket stands inside the museum beside a wall of framed displays, under a sign reading “Sheriff’s Office.”
Travis Childs of the Clay County Historical Society, photographed at the museum in 2013.Photo: Billy Hathorn, via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0
The museum’s roadside sign in a black iron frame: “Clay County 1890 Jail Museum & Heritage Center,” with silhouettes of a county map, longhorn, plow, oil derrick, and cowboy.
The museum sign at the corner of the grounds.Clay County Historical Society

September 1, 2021

A New Sign for the Jail

The old sign had faded and cracked past reading. On the first of September 2021, volunteers scraped out the frame, lifted the old panel down, and set the new one in place — as the Society put it, hoping “the sign will draw attention to our beautiful historical building.”

  1. The old museum sign in its iron frame, its painted panel cracked, peeling, and faded almost to illegibility.
    The old sign, damaged by weather and age.Clay County Historical Society
  2. A volunteer crouches at the base of the sign frame, scraping the old sign panel.
    Scraping the old sign.Clay County Historical Society
  3. A volunteer in a blue shirt reaches up to lift the old “Historic 1890 Clay County Jail” panel out of its frame.
    Taking the old sign down.Clay County Historical Society
  4. Two volunteers in blue shirts guide the new sign panel into the iron frame.
    Placing the new sign in the frame.Clay County Historical Society
  5. The new museum sign standing in the lawn, read straight on: “Clay County 1890 Jail Museum & Heritage Center.”
    The new sign, September 1, 2021.Clay County Historical Society

About These Photographs

Where They Come From

The historic pictures are from the collection of the Clay County Historical Society, which published them on the museum’s earlier website. The captions are the Society’s own. Only web-size copies survived online, so they appear here at that size — the originals are in the Heritage Center’s archive.

Photographs of the museum credited to Billy Hathorn, via Wikimedia Commons were taken in April 2013 and are shared under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license. Everything else is the Society’s.

Plan a Visit

See the Originals in Person

116 N. Graham St., Henrietta, Texas — one block off the courthouse square. Admission is free; donations keep the iron doors swinging.

Hours
Thursday & Friday: 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.Hours can change — call (940) 538-5655 to confirm before you drive out.
Admission
Free · donations welcome
Visitor DetailsGet Directions