County Jail

At Davidsonville, construction of a jail was paired with that of the courthouse because trying the accused and incarcerating the guilty were functions of a county seat, and funding for the jail came from the sale of public lands. The jail probably was built of brick or stone, though no surviving records confirm this, and its location has been identified through archival records and archeological remains. The first mention of the Davidsonville jail appears in court records on July 7, 1818, when the court paid an allowance for bringing a prisoner to jail; later court references concern repairs, maintenance, and care of prisoners. Crimes that led to confinement included theft, usually of livestock, murder, and unpaid debt. Artifacts found at the site include brick, window glass, square nails, fragments of redware vessels used to prepare and store food, broken ceramic tableware, and part of a cast iron kettle, indicating that meals were prepared and served there for prisoners and jailers.

Arkansas · United States