2 blocks west and 1/2 block north of this location is an 1873 jail. During Ellsworths earlies days, Wild Bill Hickocks common law wife, Indian Anne, lived in a shack near this 1873 jailhouse. After Hickock abandoned Indian Anne, she made ends meet washing clothes, scrubbing floors at the Grand Central Hotel and reading fortune cards.
Deputwy US Marshall Hickock once helped Sheriff Kingsbury and Township Constable tie offending drunken troublemakers to fence posts to cool off before this jail was built.
This was the first building erected in Ellsworth for the purpose of holoding prisoners. The first prisoner J.M. Gruber escaped. The sheriff was not all to blame as the jail was not full ready for prisoners. It was said that the new jail was the most comfortable place in town but that not to many should crowd into the place at one time.