Shown is a contemporary view of this structure now used as county office space.
Lore, Legends & Landmarks of Old Adams
By Stephen Kelley
We continue our narrative regarding the county jail which was opened in April of 1895. A second escape occurred in the spring of 1896 from the new lockup. It was on April 1 of that year when three prisoners managed to break out of their first floor cells and drop 10 feet from a rear window to the ground and flee West Union.
The escapees were Ab Copas, Taylor Bennington, and Pearl Blair who were incarcerated, “…under charges that would have landed them in the penitentiary…” Of the three, Blair was captured in Highland County where he was interrogated concerning the escape. His account of the elaborate plans leading up to the escape electrified the county. According to Blair, West Union’s own Marshall, W.A. “Doug” Copas, had masterminded and engineered the complex escape which had included smuggling jail-breaking tools into the prisoners over a month-long period of time. Based on Blair’s testimony, Marshall Copas’ involvement also included prying the bars out of the rear window on the night of the breakout.
Doug Copas was popular among the voters of the country and had served two terms as a constable in Tiffin Township before his successful election as West Union’s main law enforcement officer. Evidence indicated that he not only helped the prisoners by smuggling in small tools they used for sawing through the bars, but he also smuggled them whiskey. According to Blair’s story, Marshall Copas brought the prisoners bottle of booze on several occasions including a quart of whiskey, “…on the day presiding the night of the escape.”
Despite these escapes from the new county jail, the general public seemed to display a forgiving attitude. Right after the escape of Blair, Bennington and Ab Copas, one local newspaper editor rationalized, “The jail at West Union is a new one, but, like all other new jails, for the first year or two is full of imperfections which must be remedied as the weaknesses show themselves. The Montgomery county jail at Dayton was erected as great expense and was considered perfect, but during the first year became a standing joke because prisoners were able to get out of it at pleasure.”
The new jail was less than two years old before the first reports of “haunting” began circulating. In a news article in the “Defender” of December 10, 1896, it is stated, “Ever since the new jail was completed, numerous stories have been related by different prisoners from time to time about the hair-raising sights and unnatural noises that would be seen and heard withing the prison walls.”
That article goes on to describe a specific incident of a prisoner’s encounter with a “spook.” It states, “Several prisoners claim to have seen a white robed object flitting through the corridor past their cells. Big Food Howell, the Manchester desperado, while in jail here, related to some of the prison attaches that he had seen the apparition a number of times and that one night it stopped before his cell and blew out his lamp.”
