Burlington

Front of Calaboose

The original location of this calaboose was in downtown Burlington, Texas near Church Street.  It was later moved to private property next to the post office  located at 14 Church Avenue.  Billy and Frances Prescott donated it to the City of Rockdale, and it will rest permanently at the site of the new Rockdale police station.  This move was made possible by the efforts of  Zach Reeves (Director of the Rockdale Public Works Department), Chris Whittaker, and many others.   At the time of this negotiation, the calaboose was leaning drastically and in danger of eventual collapse.  Its location in a small town made it an ideal target for vandalism.

The exact age of this jail is not known, but the general consensus is that it  was constructed in circa 1910.  Its dimensions are 3 meters across the front and 2.47 meters on the sides (72 square feet).  The distance from the ground to the roof is only 2.2 meters, and the door is a very narrow 66 x 69 centimeters.  The two windows are on the front and back walls.  The front window measures 32 x 112 centimeters and the rear window is only 26 x 60 centimeters.  The bars were made locally of flat iron and are attached to the wall with bolts.  The floor was dirt and the roof consisted of wooden boards covered with tin.  The boards are nailed to vertical beams with wire nails and average 23 centimeters in width. The roof consists of sheets of tin over a wooden frame.

Back of Calaboose

Leo Helpert (now deceased) was a native of Burlington and he remembered prisoners in the jail circa 1936-1938 when he was in elementary school.  At the time, the jail was across the street from the Prescott’s property and there were three saloons on Church Street.  Helpert said that it was not uncommon to see prisoners in the jail on Sunday morning after too much drinking or fighting the night before.  When there was not enough room for everyone, some prisoners were shackled to trees.  At that time, Constable Carl Marberger enforced the law.

There are two historic photos of the jail hanging in the Burlington Volunteer Fire Department.  One is an aerial view taken in 1928 that shows the jail in its original location.  Virtually all of the buildings in this photo have been demolished.  The other photo is a close up of the jail that was taken in the 1970s after it was not longer in use.

1970s Photo

There were no Sanborn maps at the agencies visited for Burlington, Texas at the time of this study.   This structure conforms to Floor Plan 1a (see Floor Plans).  It has been recorded at TARL as historic site 41MM389.

Floor Plan for Burlington Calaboose

BURLINGTON CALABOOSE SAVED

I have been working with Billy and Frances Prescott, owners of the Burlington calaboose to find a place where it will be preserved.  Today, I am happy to report that the City of Rockdale has acted to move it to that town where it will be placed under a shelter and serve as a reminder of the early days of Milam County.  Jack Brooks of the Milam County Historical Commission has taken an active role in the effort to protect this old jail.  I want to personally thank him and everyone else who recognizes the importance of preserving these unique buildings as too many have already been destroyed by fire or human indifference.

ROCKDALE ACTS TO PRESERVE MILAM COUNTY HISTORY

Submitted by Curtis Chubb

Rockdale is fast becoming the hotbed for preservation of Milam County history. Last year, they asked for and received the Milam County Commissioners Court’s help in moving the Sheckels Bridge and the Galbreath Crossing Bridge to their new resting place east of downtown Rockdale. They also voted unanimously to move the calaboose from Burlington to a new location behind City Hall.  Jack Brooks of the Milam County Historical Society, Chris Whittaker (Rockdale City Manager), and Precinct 2 Commissioner Donald Shuffield were some of the people responsible for making this happen. Mr. Whittaker said that a shelter will be built to protect the calaboose from rain and that a plaque describing the building’s historical importance will be attached to the building.

The following photo depicts the calaboose at its temporary location behind City Hall.

Cameron

Cameron Calaboose

According to Joan Upton Hall (2007:61) the first jail in Cameron, Texas was a log cabin built over a dungeon.  She does not mention its location or the date it was built.  Charles King is the Director at the Milam County Jail Museum.  He stated to me that it was a one-room building located on what is now 1st Street and he also said that the prisoners were housed in a room below the ground.  At one time it was housed in a barn and protected from the weather.  Today, it stands in the open and only the walls remain.   In 1875, the first major county jail was built in Cameron.  It was a two-story brick building located at 133 Belton Street in city block 12.   The first Sanborn fire insurance map available for Cameron was published in September of 1885 and this jail is depicted on Sheet 1.

Cameron, Texas in 1885

The Cameron City Council accepted a bid from the firm Westmoreland and Mullinax to build a city jail or calaboose for $262.50.  It was constructed on May 16, 1892.  According to the city records it was to be a one-story wooden structure that would occupy a footprint of 10 feet x 20 feet (200 square feet) and its height was to be 12 feet. The thick wooden walls were formed by the placement of 2 x 4 inch timbers that were laid flat on top of each other creating a wall four inches thick. The floor was of similar construction. The jail has two cells, and a door at each end allows access to the individual cells. There are two windows, one for each cell and they have two sets of iron bars. Twelve round bars are built into the facing of the window, and nine flat bars are attached on the inside. Wooden shutters were added to the outside to keep out the rain, and they could be lowered and locked with iron bars as an added method of security.  The building of this calaboose and other jails is discussed by Pamela Neeley (1965) in The Junior Historian. Charles King said it was behind the old police station but this has not been confirmed using the Sanborn maps.

A second county jail was built on the site in 1895 by the Pauly Jail Building and Manufacturing Company of St. Louis, Missouri. The company furnished all supplies, including St. Louis pressed bricks. This structure was designed with Romanesque revival features and stone detailing above the windows and it had three main floors.  The first floor had ten rooms, three for storage and the remainder serving as a residence for the sheriff and his family. The second and third stories consisted of cell blocks for prisoners.  The Sanborn map dated July 1891 (Sheet 2) shows the 1875 brick jail still in place.  There is a small wooden structure next to it that may have been used as a temporary lockup while the new jail was being constructed.

Cameron, Texas in 1891

The next Sanborn map for Cameron was published in April of 1896 (Sheet 2).  It depicts the newly constructed two-story brick jail.  The small wooden building that appeared on the 1891 map is no longer present.  This suggests that the new jail fully operational and the temporary lockup was  no longer needed.

Cameron, Texas in 1896

1895 County Jail and possible calaboose

The small jail in the photograph above resembles the one that is standing today at the corner of East Main and Fannin streets.  The calaboose present today could have been built next to the county jail and moved in 1895 or 1896.

Side view of Cameron calaboose

The next two Sanborn maps for Cameron were published in 1901 and 1906 and the calaboose was no longer present on city block 11 on either map. The U.S. Census does not list any prisoners in the Cameron calaboose as of January 1, 1910; nor, were any committed that year  (Hill 1918:294)  In 1920 (Sheet 4) there was a small one-story wooden county jail next to the fire department on South Houston Street in city block 12.  In 1931 (Sheet 4), the county jail on South Houston Street was referred to as a jail house.  This is the last year that a Sanborn map was published for Cameron, Texas.

In 1975 a new county jail was constructed and the Commissioners Court  gave the 1895 jail to the Milam County Historical Commission. After renovation, it was opened as a museum in 1978 and recorded as a Texas Historic Landmark. The City of Cameron owns the calaboose  located on the northwest corner of East Main and South Fannin streets.  It is across the street from the Milam County Courthouse on East Main and the Milam County Jail Museum on South Fannin. It was a moved to its current location in 1994.  In 1998, it was restored.  This calaboose conforms to Floor Plan 2e (see Floor Plans).  It has been recorded at TARL as historic site 41MM387. 

 Gause

This Calaboose is located in Gause, Texas on an unnamed dirt road behind Coats Store located at 120 East Gause Boulevard and it is privately owned.  According to Edrie Wilson Browder (1997:25), this jail was built in 1921.  This date is consistent with the “poured in place” method of concrete construction that was in vogue from 1908 to sometime during the 1920s.  At this time, it is not known how long this jail was used.  According to the owner (personal communication to William E. Moore on April 23, 2013), the door has been missing for sixty years.  Adrian McCowen was a night watchman in Gause who regularly locked up drunks and other criminals in this jail.  Mr. McCowen served as a Texas Ranger from 1921-1924.

This calaboose is 2.5 meters across the front and 3.6 meters on the sides (9 square meters).  It is 2.28 meters tall.   The door opening is 87 cm (width) by 6 feet.  There are three windows, and they are 60 cm x 60 cm.  There were no Sanborn maps at the agencies visited for Gause, Texas at the time of this study.  This structure conforms to Floor Plan 1a (see Floor Plans).  It has been recorded at TARL as historic site 41MM384.

Thorndale

 

Front of Calaboose

This calaboose is located in Thorndale, Texas and is privately owned.  It is behind the Top Donut shop at 102 West United States Highway 79.   According to the Milam County Appraisal District, the property identification number is 20513245.  It is oriented approximately north and south.  The calaboose measures 7 ft. wide and 20 ft. long (140 square feet).  There are three rooms that appear to be of equal size.  Ventilation and light is provided by four windows with four vertically placed round bars over a diagonally set of flat bars.  Three windows are on the east side (spaced roughly equidistant) and one is on the west side opposite the third window on the east side. The windows are 48 cm x 53 cm in size.  The entrance is through a solid metal door in the center of the front wall.  According to the Chief Keefer (former Chief of Police for Thorndale), construction of this jail was one of the first expenses by the city following its incorporation in 1929. It was made of concrete using the “poured in place” method and the exterior has been covered with plaster.

Window Detail

It was locked at the time of my visit; therefore the only information I have concerning the interior was from Chief of Police Fred Keefer and his replacement Martin L. Jackson.  They looked through the windows and described what they saw.  The front room or cell is being used for storage and full of trash.  It has two metal bed frames on the east wall.   The middle room also has two metal bed frames on the east wall.  The third room as a sink in the northwest corner and a toilet to the right near the northeast corner.  The second and third rooms are separated by a wall and metal door with bars. This is the only jail in this study that appears to have had a room solely to be used as a bathroom. On the back of the jail is a metal pipe that probably provided ventilation. On the west side is a circular feature made of cement with a metal band around the top. This feature may be related to the sewer system that serviced the jail. The writing on the metal band states that it was made by the Dallas Foundry. Not all of the writing is legible.

Metal pipe and cement feature

There were no Sanborn maps at the agencies visited for Thorndale, Texas at the time of this study.  This structure conforms to Floor Plan 2g (see Floor Plans).  It has been recorded at TARL as historic site 41MM385.  William E. Moore visited this jail on April 27, 2013.

 

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