Carroll County Sheriff's Quarters and Jail, Carrollton, Missouri.Photo byKeith Snyder, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The historic Carroll County Sheriff's Quarters and Jail is at 101 Washington Street (the intersection of Washington and Folger Streets) in Carrollton, Missouri. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 11, 1979.

In the 1800s, it was common for towns to have a combined sheriff's residence and a jail in the same building. This two-story building in Carrollton was constructed in 1878. Between the sheriff's quarters and the jail were the kitchen and office. The current jail attached to the building was constructed in 1958 and replaced the original jail that collapsed.

When the building was nominated for the National Register, it was owned by Carroll County. The T-shaped building is at the southwest corner of the Courthouse Square. Both floors of the sheriff's quarters consist of two rooms and a central hallway. The new sheriff's office is adjacent to the historic building at 106 Folger Street.

The new sheriff's office at 106 S. Folger Street is adjacent to the historic building to the right.Photo byGoogle Maps screenshot.

The notorious Taylor brothers

This old sheriff's office building is linked to the history of brothers, Willlam and George Taylor, who were part of the American West chapter in Missouri along with the likes of the James and Dalton Gangs.

William and George were well-known in northern Missouri. Interestingly, William had a law degree from the University of Missouri. He also married into a wealthy family. Later, William became a rancher and farmer. Before George became a rancher, he taught school.

The Taylor brothers were implicated in crimes that included embezzlement and murder in their early careers. Allegedly, the crimes were covered up.

Eventually, an ex-convict named George Meeks threatened to expose their horse rustling activities (stealing farm animals). Meeks had supposedly been involved with horse stealing, check forgery, and arson with the Taylor brothers. Meeks was set to testify against the Taylor brothers, but as the story goes, the Taylor brothers would see that never happened.

Meeks and his wife and two children were brutally killed by the Taylor brothers and placed in a shallow grave. They covered the grave with straw. A third child, Nellie Meeks, amazingly survived and would be the one to implicate the Taylors.

Nellie testified at the Taylor brothers' trial. The trial occurred when Sheriff George E. Stanley was in the Carroll County Sheriff's Building. The Taylor brothers were sentenced to be hanged on April 30, 1896.

While the Taylor brothers were in the Carroll County Jail, which was the old jail, they tried to escape. They had help from insiders who provided them with a rope and hacksaws.

William Taylor was recaptured and hanged on the above date as scheduled. When this historic building was nominated for the National Register, William Taylor was the only man ever officially put to death in Carroll County.

Visit here to learn more about the alleged acts and trial of the Taylor brothers against the Meeks family. This was an excerpt from The Complete History of Sullivan County, Missouri, Volume 1, 1886-1900.

William Price "Bill" Taylor, born on September 22, 1861 in Missouri, died at age 34 at his hanging. Although a Find-a-Grave record indicates he was buried in Linn County, he was buried at St. Mary's Cemetery in Carrollton. Visit here to see his last statement. His wife, Maude Leonard Taylor, died in 1934 at age 65-66. She's buried at Mount Washington Cemetery in Independence, Missouri. Their daughter, Bertha Alma Taylor Hoops, died at age 90 in 1934 in California.

George was never recaptured although several claimed to have seen him in various parts of the country.

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