MILAM COUNTY COURTHOUSE
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The 1895 Jailhouse and the Jailhouse Ghost

It's hard to talk about the Milam County Courthouse without some mention of the 1895 Romanesque Revival Jailhouse. Used now as the Milam County Historical Museum, this red brick building, catty-cornered to the courthouse, looks more like a castle than a jailhouse.

The ghost of a man hanged there supposedly still walks amongst the long-empty cells. Patrons have felt his presence as they descend the narrow metal steps from the gallows at the top of the building. Stories like that give me the creeps, but Bison Bill always gets a kick out of them.

Copyright Lou Ann Herda, Ed. D
October 2001

Readers' Forum:
Because of your excellent Milam County Jail Ghost story I went to the Milam County Jail and you’re right! There is most definitely a ghost in there! We were the only visitors there that day, yet the entire time we were there, we kept hearing footsteps, sometimes pacing, sometimes RACING, up and down the spiral staircase and around and around the cell blocks. My friend and I fully expected to come to a face-to-face encounter with other visitors, what with all the racket going on in there, but like I said, it turned out we were the only visitors there at that time.

This Milam County Jail visit has led me to other jail museums. I have now been to so many jail museums in Texas I can’t keep count, but the catalyst for all these jail museum visits was most definitely reading about your Milam County Jail Ghost story. - Shannan Yarbrough, Fredericksburg Chamber Assistant, March 11, 2005