This log jail was built in Lawrenceville in the 1820s. It was later sold and moved from Lawrenceville to Moon Road in the 1930s and used as a corncrib. Mr. B. C. Bagby donated the building to the historical society in 1986 and it was moved here to the location of the original county jail, which had been demolished in August 1933. This jail is similar in size and construction, based on recollections and archaeological evidence, to the original jail.
The logs are locked together in tongue-and-groove style. Handmade square nails are hammered all the way through the walls from inside to the outside, making it impossible to escape. The first roof was not peaked like this one; rather, heavy logs were simply laid across the walls. This made it impossible for anyone over 4 feet tall to stand erect.
A jailer or “turn key” lived nearby and was paid 50 cents to a dollar to feed, clothe, and provide blankets for prisoners. Usually his wife did the work, but sometimes the men even did sewing to repair breeches or shirts of prisoners.
The most famous prisoners ever in Gwinnett’s jail were Moravian missionaries who refused to get permits to live in Cherokee territory across the Chattahoochee River. They broke Georgia law and brought their case to the U.S. Supreme Court. Meanwhile, they were housed in the jail, which proved to be too small, and they were sent to Walton County and eventually served time in state prison in Milledgeville. They were charged in Gwinnett’s Inferior Court for “living in Cherokee Territory and digging for gold.” Georgia’s governor pardoned them after 18 months.
The original jail had been converted to the storage of cotton seed by the Sims family by sealing the front door and using a sliding door on the roof through which to store and retrieve the seeds.