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#5260 Jesse James Bailey Papers, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The good doctor
Jesse James Bailey, who served one term as sheriff in Madison and later Buncombe counties, said he often doled out confiscated liquor to friends and others with a “doctor’s note.”
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Anna Oakes photo
The teenage years
Jimmie Presnell Daniels gives a tour of the old Avery County Jail, where she lived as a teen. Daniels’ family lived at the jail when her father, Jim Presnell, was the jailer. Jim Presnell served as chief deputy and jailer in Avery County from 1954 to 1962.
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Anna Oakes photo
Nice and cozy
A view inside a cell in the old Avery County Jail, which closed in 1970. The building now serves as a history museum.
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Jimmie Daniels photo
This just in
Chief Deputy Arcus Benfield and Sheriff Wilburn Hughes with Wilburn’s sons Jack, left, and Lynn, right, with a liquor still they had busted up that day.
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Jimmie Daniels photo
A fine time picking
Bob Church plays his banjo on the jail porch. “Folks accused him of playing so the prisoners could escape jail, but nothing was ever proven,” said Jimmie Presnell Daniels, who lived at the jail as a teen when her father was the jailer. “Bob was ambushed and killed a year or so later. His assailant was captured but escaped and was never caught.”
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Jimmie Daniels photo
Jailhouse wedding
Della Presnell, sister of Jimmie Presnell Daniels, was married at the Avery County Jail when her family lived there.