I’m in the jailhouse now…

When I first heard about the upcoming celebration of Creemore’s jail, Saturday, October 7 at high noon, I immediately heard in my brain Johnny Cash singing, I’m In the Jailhouse Now.

In the jail’s early years there were men who could have been singing that song. The song tells about playing cards and shooting dice. None of our early jailbirds were guilty of cards and dice. Apparently the strict rules for taverns in Nottawasaga and Creemore meant that no one was found guilty of gambling and had to end up in the lockup.

One of the first major projects of the village council after its incorporation in 1889 was the building of a jail or a lockup as it was called then. The reasons for doing so have not been found in old records. Crime didn’t seem to be much of a problem at all and as the years went by the jail received less and less use. Perhaps one night in our little lockup was deterrent enough to keep people on the straight and narrow.

Creemore approached Nottawasaga and requested a grant of $400. The money was received, land was purchased, the building erected and soon Constable Turner was told to purchase a broom and a pail for the lockup.

There is one story about the jail that could be called The Grand Jail Escape. A man was arrested for stealing flour at Glencairn and when put in the lockup began having “fits.” On account of his unfortunate condition he was given considerable sympathy. Dr. Niddrie came and bled him which was a normal procedure at the time for numerous medical conditions. Constable Turner stayed with him until midnight when J. Adams and Charlie Taylor took up guarding. Because of the prisoner’s condition the cell door and the outside door were left partly open. The man lay down to sleep and as it was a warm night the guards also dozed off. Seizing the opportunity the prisoner slipped out. The guards woke and took chase but it was too late. In the morning Constable Turner and Mr. Adams started on the hunt and found him on the far side of Sunnidale Township. He was brought back to the cooler. Once more he had a “fit.” The doctor, called again, began to see through the “fit” and sternly warned him to cease his fooling. This had the desired effect and after a trial he was taken to Barrie.

Another exciting incarceration happened at the creamery. (Now Mad River Pottery.) At one time there was a balcony over the entrance supported by two pillars.

The Creemore Star reported the incident. This was in December just before Christmas. “A scene was suddenly created on main street Monday evening when a large touring car, which intended making the turn towards Avening, skidded on the ice and the driver lost control with the result that the car shot under the balcony which is supported by two pillars. The both front wheels were broken off the car but none of the occupants were hurt. How the car went between the pillars and the brick wall of the creamery seems a mystery as measurements show that it would take an expert driving carefully to accomplish it.

“Following the accident several score of people gathered at the scene of the wrecked car and found, to their amazement, that at least two of the occupants of the car were under the influence of liquor. Chief Wilson placed the two men under arrest and with the aid of some special assistants had the pair removed to the village lockup, commandeering Leonard Agar’s flat rack as a patrol wagon.

“On arrival at the lockup, which to put it mildly, is anything but a humane place to confine an animal, let alone a human being. A fire was started in the crude box stove, which the corridor afforded, and the detachment of special constables were honourably discharged leaving the prisoners access to the corridor and the stove. Half an hour later some curious boys who were hovering around the gaol, were startled to see the old heating stove coming through a broken pane in a window in about a hundred pieces, followed by pieces of burnt wood, ashes fire smoke, etc… It is said that an obstructed chimney had caused the stove to smoke so badly that the prisoners had to dispose of the stove to prevent suffocation.

“Chief Wilson was soon on the scene with the prisoner’s supper and succeeded in setting up another stove.”