Fayette County Old Jail Key Found

By CHARLES MURRAY

After six months of mystery, the search for the key to the cellblock in the Old Jail is over.

In the April 8 edition of the Fayette County Record, it was reported that the key was missing. We thought we had searched the obvious places, but there was one place that nobody considered: The County Auditor’s building.

As you have heard, the County Auditor is moving from their current location. In the course of packing to move, Ruth Ann Wessels discovered an old key in a money bag.  She took it to Judge Ed Janecka, and he brought it to the Old Jail. It worked perfectly.  The key opens the locks of both the main cellblock and the women’s cell on the second floor.

The original key, shown in the picture, will be retired to the museum’s display cases with other Old Jail artifacts. The Old Jail’s locks and keys were manufactured by Southern Steel Company, founded in 1897 in San Antonio. They fabricated jails, vaults, bridges and sliding door locking systems.  In 1905, the Folger Adam Company was started in Joliet, Ill. This business also produced security equipment, including jail cells. Today these two businesses are one company, the Southern Folger Detention Equipment Company, located in San Antonio.

In the April 8 article we reported we were looking for a Folger Adam key. We made this assumption because a Folger Adam key purchased at an antique shop easily fit the keyway.  With the discovery of the proper key, we now know that the Southern Steel Company was the manufacturer.  

An interesting side note is that both of these companies supported Texas Heroes in World War II. Southern Steel manufactured submarine mine cases and tanks for dispensing hot water to Army training camps. Folger Adam produced shell casings for the Joliet Army Ammunition plant.

Southern Folger has volunteered to make duplicate keys so that we can lock the cellblock to secure the museum artifacts.  The Texas Heroes Museum thanks Southern Folger for donating the new keys and Ruth Ann Wessels for recognizing that the key might be the one we had been hoping to find.