1859 Jail and Marshal’s Home

The Jackson County Jail and Marshal’s Home in Independence, Missouri, was built in 1859 under Sheriff John Burrus to replace an earlier jail that dated from 1841. Its limestone cells, 12 in all, stand beside a house in which the jailer and his family lived, so prisoners and the marshal’s children shared a single roof. Independence was the starting point of the Santa Fe, Oregon and California trails, and its jail saw all of the violence of the Missouri–Kansas border.

The Civil War turned the building into a political prison. It held both military and civilian prisoners, and it served as the Union provost marshal’s office, with many women and children among those held because of suspected links to guerrillas. William Clarke Quantrill spent a night there in December 1860; in 1862 his men seized the jail during the First Battle of Independence and freed the prisoners. In 1866 the Rev. Abner Deane was held for refusing the Ironclad Test Oath, and was freed after public protest and a painting by George Caleb Bingham. Frank James was held in 1882 and 1883 and was treated with unusual comfort before he was acquitted. According to local accounts, a deputy marshal was killed in a jailbreak in June 1866.

After the jail closed in 1933 it served as a New Deal work-project site and an American Legion post, and it was due to be demolished in 1958 before the Jackson County Historical Society, with help from Harry Truman, restored it as a museum that opened in 1959. It joined the National Register of Historic Places in 1970. The ghost stories come from the museum’s own volunteers and guides, and they concentrate on the first cell inside the entrance. Staff and visitors describe nausea, chills, footsteps, growls and gasps and, occasionally, a man in a blue coat. Radios are said to switch themselves on, and objects are said to move.

Two candidates are offered for the man in blue: Marshal Jim Knowles, who is said to have died in the Civil War while trying to settle a quarrel between prisoners on opposing sides, and the deputy killed in the 1866 breakout. The museum’s volunteers also say that the women and children held in the Civil War add to the activity. These are accounts passed along by guides, not documented investigations, and the museum itself puts its main emphasis on the history. It runs night “lights-out” investigations for adults and teenagers over 13, which keep the stories alive.

Reported nausea and chills in the first cell, footsteps, growls and gasps, a man in a blue coat, radios switching on and off, objects moved, and the sounds of children, according to museum hosts and visitors.

The first cell inside the entrance, the other limestone cells, and the adjoining Marshal’s house.

The jail is on Independence’s ‘Paranormal Path’ of historic sites, features in the Legends of America list of haunted Independence, and hosts night investigations during October.