Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1882-01-10
GREENEVILLE LETTER.
The Burning of the Greene County
JaiI-County and local Matters.

The Burning of the Greene County
JaiI-County and local Matters.
GREENEvIILE, January 8, '82.
Mr. EDITOR: The Greene County jail
was burned last night, the fire being first dis
covered at o'clock. The jail was mass
i've structure, originally built of brick, about
80 by IS feet and two stories high. In one
end was a residence Of four comfortable
rooms, occupied at the time of the fire by
Sheriff Frazier. A hall separated this por-
ton of the building from the portion devot-
ed to the prisoners, in which there were
four rooms. This portion of the building
had been surrounded by stone WALL built
ON the outside of the brick work and about
20 inches in thickness. Although costly
structure, the Jail was not safe one, as is
shown by the frequent escapes of prisoners
within the last few years.
At the time of the discovery of the fire
there were seven prisoners in the jail, all
confined in the two lower rooms Their
names were VIM. Hensly, charged with
murder, Robt. Luttrell, charged with fel-
onious assault, and Jasper Gray, Phillip
/ 0Idy, NAios, "1iithl11 bCleluSJ
and John Jones, charged with larcenies.
| They were all white men, and taken to-
| gether, were perhaps as desperate a set OF
men as could be found anywhere. Some of
/ them had broken jail once before and one
| or more bad served terms in the peniten
! tiary. 1t was lucky that none were con-
| fined in the upper rooms of the jail as in
| that case their rescue would have been al
most if not entirely impossible. They were
all taken from the jail by Sheriff Frazier and
placed under strong guard, and not one
escaped.
! It has been definitely ascertained that the
jail was fired by the prisoners. The wife of
1 the prisoner Luttrell succeeded in furnish
ing an auger through the grated window.
With this the prisoners cut their way into
an upper room. There they attempted to
burn their way through the heavy ceiling
and thus fired the jail. warrant has been
taken out against the wife Of Luttrell and
four of the prisoners on charge Of arson,
and they will have hearing to-day.
1t was very calm and raining when the
Jail wa5 burning. It stood only q very short
distance from the courthouse and in dan
gerous proximity to two or three business
houses, and butfor the favorable condition of
the weather it is probable that the court-houss
and a considerable portion of the business
part of the town would have been burned
in ashes. The loss falls heavily on the
county, which has only a few weeks since
lost heavily by robbery, but notwith-
standing the robbery the county paper is at
par: and the county has on hands surplus
of about $4,000 in bonds. The County
Court levied tax of 80 cents for county
purposes, and with this levy it is believed
that new jail can be built without running
the county in debt. The County Court also
increased the school tax from 90 to % cents
and fixed the road tax at Is cents, with 6
days work. Some of the roads, especially
those latest worked, are now, On account of
the continuous rains, in wretched con-
dition, and almost impossible, but the
county will have good roads.
Two of the young men of Greeneville
have recently married Frank j. Mill
gan, to Miss Carrie Andrews, of Knoxville,
end Mr.. FL. N. Baker, to Miss Glennie
Hooke, of Chattanooga. Mr.. H. N. Baker,
with his newly -wedded wife, arrived in
Greeneville on the o'clock train last even,
ing, on visit to his parents. TX