a JEFFERSON DAVIS PARISH article

Cultures of Acadiana
a look at the French, Cajun, Creole, and Native American cultures of south Louisiana
(a project of Carencro High School - 721 West Butcher Switch Road, Lafayette, LA 70507)

Lafayette (LA) Daily Advertiser, October 28, 1997

Little jail built after would-be escapee drowned

by Jim Bradshaw

The little brick jail in the center of Elton was not the first jailhouse there. The old jail was a wooden structure with a dirt floor. There is a story that a prisoner tried to escape from the first jail by digging a tunnel. The escape was foiled when a heavy rain came and he drowned.

Mayor J. W. Stokes contracted on Feb. 16, 1927, for the new jail. Contractor Fred Barton was to build the new, concrete-floored jail according to specifications provided by the mayor. The inside walls of the jail were to measure 12 feet by 12 feet and the outside walls were to measure 14 feet by 14 feet. The jail was to have two compartments, two steel doors, and two barred windows. The 10-foot-high front wall was to slope towards the back for the sake of aesthetics.

Barton agreed to build the jail according to those specifications, furnish all materials except the steel doors and windows, make all connections for water and electricity, lay a four-inch tile drain from the building, and to build a septic tank. Total contract price was $621.

The building was completed, inspected, and accepted on April 1927.

This article is copyrighted © by the Lafayette (LA) Daily Advertiser and is used with permission. This web site was originated through a grant awarded to Carencro High School (Joel Hilbun/Bobbi Marino, Grant Administrators) by the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education from the Louisiana Quality Education Support Fund - 8(g).