Town's first jail house converted into winery

Jail built by local settlers, structure survives century

Laura L. Woodring/The Andrews Journal Alan Malone squeezes corks into Jailhouse wine bottles on Saturday as Calaboose Cellars bottles forty cases of wine.

 Calaboose Cellars may be a new business, but the old jailhouse that houses its award-winning wines has been a part of Cherokee County since the 1900s.

   Eric and Judy Carlson own Calaboose Cellars, which opened for commercial wine selling in July. The Carlsons' home and property were bought, built and maintained by the Mehaffey family, one of the earliest settlers to the area.

    "We didn't know what we wanted to do with it but we wanted to do something special," Ms. Carlson said. When she first saw the property, she had no idea that the small stone building on her land had such a colorful history.

    "It was engulfed in vines when we bought it," her husband said.

    After purchasing the property, Carlson began digging up archives to locate the deed for the land. What he discovered started a journey into the past.

    "Deeds are difficult to read when they are from 1913," he said. He learned the land belonged to the Mehaffey family, and the home was built by a brother and sister, Jack and Francis Mehaffey. The youngest sibling, Frank, took up post as the town's first jailer inside a 50-square-foot building.

    "Whoever Mehaffey thought was a criminal would be held in there before going in front of the magistrate," he said, describing the one-room cell as dark and dreary. "It was all unofficial, but that’s how things were back then."

    Back then, as explained by Carlson, it was the early 1920s in the Valleytown township. Francis purchased the three parcels of land for $75.

    The lower parcel, where the calaboose vineyard lays, was bought from the Snow Bird Valley Railroad. The railroad trailed the border of the property, and carried timber and logs down from the mountains to begin development of the township.

    As Andrews was forming into a small village, Frank Mehaffey took it upon himself to provide law and order for the settlers.

    "He tossed bad guys in there to cool them down," Carlson said. Such people would include violent criminals who needed safe housing and, of course, the town drunks.

    "We play it up," Ms. Carlson said. "We have a tremendous appreciation for the history of this place.

    It was the history of the building that inspired the jailhouse theme seen throughout the winery's marketing scheme. The cellar also derived its name from past use, as a calaboose is described as an old western jail.

    Since opening for commercial wine use, the jail has had a few additions. The original stone architecture remains, with bars still on the windows. A front porch, loft and new doors have been added to the structure.

    The novelty of Calaboose has attracted fans such as Cherokee County Sheriff Keith Lovin, who proudly displays a bottle of wine in his office.

    The cellar offers a line of wines that look like they came straight from an Appalachian hoochmaker with names like Jailbird Blueberry, Watchtower White and Sweet Freedom Mead. These spirits and more are available at The Daily Grind & Wine in both Andrews and Murphy.

    The winery is the smallest in the country and, unfortunately, no direct descendants of the Mehaffeys are alive today to see its glory. It's in the hands of the Carlsons to continue to tell the story of old Andrews and those who made it possible.

    The task is one they take with fervor, as Carlson is on the board of directors for the Valleytown Cultural Arts and Historical Society. He joined after moving onto the Calaboose property and began collecting historical documents, written interviews, and artifacts from the past.

    It is his goal, he said, along with the society, to create an index of these pieces of history inside the Valleytown Museum.