History
In 1853, the first Washington County Jail opened. It was built at Fourth and Washington Streets in Hillsboro, Oregon by William Brown for a cost of $900. During its use, two people died while confined to the jail, and a baby was born after it ceased being used as a jail. One of those dying in the jail was former Hudson's Bay Company employee William Burris who killed his family in 1855 in a drunken rage. However, despite rumors, American Civil War General Ulysses S. Grant was not jailed here while he was posted to Oregon before the Civil War.
In 1870, the building was sold to the Cave family. They lived in it briefly while their house was built, and then used the structure as an outbuilding. In 1953 the structure was moved to the Washington County Fairgrounds where it remained until 2003. Beginning in 2003, the building was restored at a cost of $75,000 and relocated from the county fairgrounds to the Washington County Museum.
Read more about this topic: Washington County Jail (Oregon)
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“We aspire to be something more than stupid and timid chattels, pretending to read history and our Bibles, but desecrating every house and every day we breathe in.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“It gives me the greatest pleasure to say, as I do from the bottom of my heart, that never in the history of the country, in any crisis and under any conditions, have our Jewish fellow citizens failed to live up to the highest standards of citizenship and patriotism.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
“There is a history in all men’s lives,
Figuring the natures of the times deceased,
The which observed, a man may prophesy,
With a near aim, of the main chance of things
As yet not come to life.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)