Rockdale Jail – Burning

At about 4 o’clock on last Wednesday morning a great vivid flame poured into the window of the sleeping of Conyers and awakened the inhabitants. The jail was on fire.

The affrighted people hurried to the scene of the fire, and found that the flames had gone beyond their power to check them. There was no fir engine in the town.

The entrance from the jail was from the second story and had burned away. The roof had nearly fallen in, and the flames were licking downward over the solid impenetrable first story, which made the dungeon. About this time the crowd began to inquire whether or not there were any prisoners confined in the dungeon. It transpired that there were two men locked up by fire in this fatal cage, both Negroes.

It was apparent at once, that nothing less than a miracle could save them from a horrible death.

The steps to the entrance was burned away. The doorway and the whole top of the house was a mass of flames. The heat was so intense that no one could approach the building. Some how or other an axe was thrown over into a dungeon and the Negroes began to try to cut their way out of the stifling den in which they were caged. Only a few moments was left as the fire was already beginning to burn through the solid upper floor when it would send a shower of blazing logs and embers down on the poor wretches. The dungeon, as is usual with country jails, was made of a layer of huge logs, heavily weather boarded on each side. The Negroes speedily cut through the first weatherboarding and had pushed several pieces of the outer plant off. They could now be plainly seen by the crowd, who encouraged them with shouts and advice. It remained for them to cut through two or three of the heavy logs, that they might force themselves through. They recommenced their work, and flew at it with desperation. The inexorable flames drew nearer, frantic with panic and fear, shrieked, and prayed, and cursed as they tugged like madmen at the stubborn and unyielding logs. It looked at one time as if they might escape, but the flames suddenly burst downward through the upper floor and swept down the outside of the walls, literally enveloping the fatal men in a net of flames. The horrid illumination rendered their parching bodies intensely conspicuous. They capered and sprang up and down, and flung themselves against the walls. Almost of the spectators, unable to look upon the sickening scene longer turned and ran beyond the reach of the piercing screams of the imprisoned men.

The dungeon was now filled with blazing fire, and the very logs that held the prisoners began to burn. One of the Negroes seemed to give up the struggle at this point. Leaping off the floor he clutched the bars and would his hands about them, and was soon, let us hope, put out of his pain,. The Negro that held the axe, continued to struggle in an aimless way, but finally dropped the axe and clutching the burning bars, as his fellow victim had done, was almost instantly lost in a gust of flames. And then the hungry blaze covered the whole dungeon and the tortured wretches were seen no more.

The origin of the fire was certainly incendiary. It is equally as certain that it come from the inside of the building. There was no one living in the jail.

It was then believed that the outside friends of the prisoners had poured kerosene oil through the key hole and fired the door for the purpose of attempting a rescue of their friends. This is accepted as the most reasonable theory of the fire.

Of the Negroes, one had been sentenced to the penitentiary for five years, the other twelve months. The jail was worth about $2000 and a total lost

(Butts Argus – Week of April 26, 1877)

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