n those days (1930s and ‘40s), the Sheriff served on a fee basis — which meant he had to earn not only what salary he received but had to buy his own equipment, including an automobile, gas, gun, and pay any deputy he had. He furnished the county a monthly list of prisoners and their time incarcerated and was paid by the county a fee to feed them for each day they were incarcerated.

Needless to say the jail is a place to meet interesting people and learn of their experiences.

About this time, in 1937, the State Patrol was organized and the city of Conyers had one policeman. The Sheriff often served by himself or had one deputy. The Sheriff and his family lived downstairs of the prisoners, who were on the second floor.

Coming into 1940, the living quarters of the old jail building on Milstead Avenue consisted of the original four rooms and a hall, plus a porch with a bathroom on the north end of the porch. Behind that was a dining room with a kitchen behind the dining room. The front rooms were heated when necessary with two open fireplaces. There was no heat in the bathroom and a one-eye Franklin heater in the kitchen which heated the water and the dining and kitchen areas.

The space for prisoners was as much as it is now (in the Olde Jail).

The Grand Jury used to inspect county buildings including the jail. In the mid-1940s they began to ask that the wooden part of the Sheriff’s living quarters behind the originals building be replaced. Eventually this was done with the porch and the bathroom being replaced. The dining room and kitchen were replaced side by side with a porch on the right side to access the door serving the upstairs jail. A dirt floor space was left underneath the dining and kitchen area. A carport was added behind the dining area with a deck on top.

In the Sheriff’s living quarters, the back right room has a small iron oblong door for passing food into the jail lobby for the prisoners. In the front right room there is a small peephole so the Sheriff could look from that room into the jail lobby to see if anyone was in the lobby. There is a sliding cover over that hole. The meals for the prisoners were cooked in the kitchen usually by the Sheriff’s wife.

When Sheriff Walter L. McCart moved in the jail, he moved his pigs to town also. That was OK until they were reported rooting up the courthouse lawn. Needless to wonder what happened to the pigs. They made a trip back to the farm early the next morning.