Sylvia Jail

The Sylvia jail cell is a classic single cell with two bunks designed and manufactured by E.T. Barnum. The cell still sits under an awning to try and shield it from the elements. It is similar to that of the jails in Muscotah and Tescott. Some stories involving the jail are located below:

Sylvia Sun January 3, 1907 –  “….Roy Bennett is the man whom Marshal Housinger arrested and put in jail in Sylvia one Saturday night over a month ago for being drunk on the streets and disturbing the peace of other people. And the next morning took him out to a restaurant for some breakfast leaving him to go to the rear end of the restaurant to wash, [Bennett] snuck out the back door ran down to the livery barn, jumped on his horse and went straight out to McElroy’s where he could not be found. After thinking the matter over he decided to come in and settle up with the officers and paid a fine of $5.75.

The Hutchinson News September 20, 1923 – A.B. Leigh, juvenile court officer received a telegram this morning from the state boys’ reform school at Topeka, advising him that Joe Minnis an inmate of that school had run off. The Minnis boy who is 16 was sent to the refor school from this county, his mother living in Sylvia. He was sent up for breaking jail at Sylvia, after being arrested for some offense…

Gallery Below of Sylvia Jail

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