“Another handsome brick building in historic York…..T. H. Smith, contractor.”
City Directories and History: 1908 – Hugh G. Brown (Alma) Sheriff of York Co., living at jail, also: Farmer’s Mutual Fire Insurance, John R. Rainey, Pres. D.E. Boney Sec. – Trea., Farmer’s Mutual Life Insurance Co; W.S. Wilkerson Pres., J. Frank Ashe, VP, and D.E. Boney, Sec. – Trea., 1958 – Gist W. Finley, Melvin L. Roberts, 1966 – Finley and McKeown, Industrial Minerals Inc., Robert M. Weaver (Wilson Building)
This pivotal building was designed by Robert Mills in 1823 for York County as a jail. The plain facade, broken only by the lines of the windows and fan lighted doorway, shows the simple symmetrical lines of the Federal Period. When a new

York was the political and economic seat of power in York County for decades until post Civil War development in Rock Hill, skyrocketed the small community into dominating York County’s education and urban success. Postal Map image from ca. 1896, courtesy of the Un. of N.C.
county jail was erected on West Liberty Street, William A. Latta, a wealthy merchant, whose lovely home still stands next door, bought the old building (In 1853 Mr. Latta purchased the property for $9,710.) and give it to his daughter, Annie Latta Wilson. After converting it into a residence, gave it to his daughter, Anna Latta Wilson. Her heirs bequeathed the income from the building to Episcopal Church Home for Children, and the proceeds of the sale of it, if ever sold, to Thornwell Orphanage in Clinton, S.C. It is presently occupied as offices for commercial purposes. This building is on the National Register of ***Historic Places. [Courtesy of the Yorkville Historical Society – 2002]
Yorkville Enquirer, April 13, 1887:
Page 2 of the Enquirer had extensive coverage of a lynching in Yorkville. It included a grand jury report, a very long article, and articles from a number of other papers covering the event. Several African American men were accused of the murder of a white boy, Johnnie Lee Good. They were held in the York County Jail on West Liberty Street. On April 5, the jail was surrounded by a large body of armed men. The prisoners were seized. They were identified as Giles Good, Mose Lipscomb, Dan Roberts, Bailey Dowdle, and Prindley Thompson. The Sheriff later discovered the bodies of the five men on the Adair’s Ferry Road about one mile from the court house suspended from two trees. (The extensive coverage was much too much to copy – the articles are very detailed.)
The Yk Enquirer reported on Jan. 6, 1870 – “The law firm of Wilson and Witherspoon has dissolved by mutual consent, according to W.B. Wilson and I.D. Witherspoon.”
The Yorkville Enquirer contained an ad in Nov. 6, 1906 for Finley and Jennings, attorneys with offices at the Wilson Building, opposite the courthouse.
The Rock Hill Record for June 14, 1909 – “York County will remodel the upper floor of the present jail building to house new cells. The General Assembly has appropriated $4,000. for this purpose. The county has received a bid for eight steel cells and has accepted this bid from the Southern Structural Steel Company of San Antonio, Texas.”
THE NEW JAIL (Note the completion of the new jail took place in accordance with Latta’s purchase of the old jail.) Our new jail is now completed, and as it has been received by the Commissioner of Public Buildings, we suppose the work has been done in a satisfactory manner. It is a beautiful building, reflecting equal credit on the Commissioners and our townsman Capt. Thomas H. Smith, the architect and (contractor). We congratulate our worthy sheriff on his removal from the old to the new building, and hope it will prove a pleasant retreat to him during his term of office. We have no doubt a fandango of some kind, from the Lord of the Mansion would not be at all objectionable to the young bloods about town. We give it as our opinion that the occasion demands something of the kind, and trust that our Sheriff [S. C. Youngblood] will be as prompt to discharge his social, as he is his official duties.
***R&R Note: We find it rather interesting that at the same time in York, ca. 1820s, there were three major contractors working within feet of each other on three distinct buildings – T.H. Smith, Thomas B. Hoover and Andrew Giles.
We can now challenge the State to produce a better Court House and Jail than ours. They are both large and commodious, and well-adapted to the comfort of the unfortunate inmates of either – believing the term unfortunate to be as applicable to one as to the other.
—Yorkville Enquirer, Apr 12, 1855

Photographs of the fine brick work done here and at the Latta house next door. Images courtesy of photographer Bill Segars – 2015
*** The 1910 Sanborn map list this as #56 South Congress.
The donation of the building to the Thornwall Orphanage may have been connected to the fact that the Rev. Thornwell once studied law here under the tutelage of Wilson and Witherspoon.
“Lt. James Henley Thornwell, Jr., born 13 May 1846 in Columbia, S. C., was the son of the famous philosopher and distinguished leader of the Presbyterian Church and also controversial president of South Carolina College, Rev. Dr. James H. Thornwell and Nancy White (Witherspoon) Thornwell. He was only 16 when he joined and was appointed lieutenant. He was later elected lieutenant of Co. B, 4th Regt, SC Reserves and Co. C, 19th Battalion of Cavalry. After the war he entered S. C. College and graduated in 1868. He read law with Wilson and Witherspoon in Yorkville and was admitted to the bar in 1869. He switched to the ministry a few years later and was licensed to preach in 1874. From 1882 to 1907 he served Unity Presbyterian in Fort Mill and Ebenezer in Rock Hill. He died 30 December 1907. Dr. Thornwell married Florence Earle and they had nine children.” Information from YCGHS, September 1993
Informative links: Federal Style Architecture, Robert Mills
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