When Nueces County was organized in 1846, the county commissioners conducted business in meetings held in their own homes. After several years of this, they decided a courthouse was needed. Felix von Blucher, a surveyor by trade, was hired to design the new building. Construction took three years but in 1853 the new $4,000 shellcrete building on Mesquite Street was ready for business.
However, the plans that included a jail were left out. So when Sheriff Mat Nolan had people to lock up, he had to either put them in a boarding house at his own expense or let them go. Deputy Tom Nolan, Mat’s brother, was killed in an Aug. 4, 1850 shootout by a man who probably should have been in jail. The man, a local storekeeper, got drunk and started a fight. The sheriff took him home to sleep it off, but he got back up and headed to La Retama Saloon to fight some more. He stabbed the saloon owner and in the ensuing shootout, Tom Nolan was shot and killed. Townspeople chased down the drunk and shot him to death.