Ellettsville (IN) Farm, August 3, 1911, p. 4. In 1910, Charles Allison
lived with his wife and adult son on Indiana St., Spencer, Indiana. He was
employed as a dry goods salesman and owned his home free of a mortgage. In
1920, Charles Allison lived at 305 Montgomery St., Spencer, Indiana, in the
household of John Bennett who managed a dry goods store and owned his home
with a mortgage. Apparently Charles lost his wife between 1910 and 1920, as
he was noted as a widower in 1920, and left him home on Hillside Drive, one
of Spencer's oldest and most beautiful areas.
OLD COUNTY JAIL GONE
The old county jail is no more. On Monday the last wall was torn down and
now only the iron door that led from the sheriff's residence into the jail
proper is standing upheld by two stones. All that remains to be done now is
to clear up the rubbish before the contract taken by Mr. Babbs is finished.
The brick and stone in the structure were purchased by Charles Allison. The
brick will be used in the new addition to Sadler's store and the stone in
Mr. Allison's new residence on Hillside Avenue.
The jail was erected in 1854 by John N. Miller who as a contractor did much
work in Owen County at that time. It was regarded as a model of structures
of those kind in the early years but in recent years it has been neither
adequate for the needs of the county, strong enough to confine any prisoner
who had energy enough to attempt to escape, nor provided with scarcely any
sanitary arrangements. -Spencer Journal