Rose Marie Kelp remembers a happy home in the Cole County Jail, at least when the inmates weren't trying to scare her by banging their cups against the iron bars.
Kelp's father, Bernard Markway, resided on the premises with his family and the inmates while serving as sheriff from 1948-60. Kelp lived there two years before she was married in 1950. When she returned to Jefferson City decades later, she wanted to see her former home, where she used to rush passed cells full of inmates while doing the laundry and once thwarted an escape attempt.
This story and many more can be found in "Cole County Sheriff's Office and Jail History." The book was compiled by Robin Blevins, support services supervisor for the Cole County Sheriff's Department.
"I had seen there was a history done on the fire department and the JCPD, but I thought, 'No one has done one on the sheriff's office,'" Blevins said, taking it upon herself to fill in the historical gaps.
She began the book in 2014 and worked periodically until it was officially complete.
"I just started going through the archives and collecting old photos from around the office, and we went from there," she said.
Blevins received the completed books from Brown Printing last week. About 20 books have been pre-ordered, and more than 150 copies are available for $25 at the sheriff's office.
The book is full of old pictures, news articles and summaries of the department's history, such as sheriff biographies and descriptions of the different facilities used throughout the years, beginning with the first jail in 1821.
One news article tells of the jail's most ruthless murderer, a pet terrier tasked with ridding the facility of rats that had evaded cats and survived poison. It turned out the terrier was too natural a killer for even the jail. After ridding the grounds of vermin, the dog had to be dismissed after taking out one of the jail's best red roosters when let outside for recreation time.
There is a section dedicated to years of jail breaks, some more successful than others. For example, one runaway inmate escaped by breaking through the ceiling and hiked all the way through the thick brush to Jamestown before deciding he was better off in jail and turning himself back in to police. He was so tired from the trek that he had to be carried into the courtroom.
The book also includes personal anecdotes from deputies and sheriffs, such as the time deputies confiscated a field of marijuana plants. After the authorities removed the contraband, "there was so much marijuana cut down and stacked on the truck. It went passed the tailgate, covered the roof of the truck. There was so much marijuana in that truck they seeded half the county driving it to the disposal site."
Blevins hopes to honor the efforts of Cole County law enforcement officials by compiling the book. She said this call to duty has carried over to new sheriffs and deputies throughout the years.
"One thing that has really held true is that people do it because it's a job that needs to be done," she said.