There have been 23 new counties added to the distribution map.  It has been changed to reflect all counties with calabooses, present or gone.

 

Last week, I set out to record two calabooses and a metal cage in the area around Graham, Texas (Young County).  It was a very eventful trip as I not only visited and documented calabooses in Rochester (Haskell County), Goree (Knox County), and a metal cage that had been moved from Albany to Knox City (Knox County), I also discovered two calabooses that were unknown to me at the time.  They are a metal cage inside a very small room that is part of City Hall in Rochester and a stone calaboose in Jayton (Kent County).  In addition, I visited two jails that I had not realized were within driving distance of my hotel in Graham.  These are the wonderful sandstone jail in the ghost town of Claremont (Kent County) and a very nice rock jail in poor condition in Appermont (Stonewall County).  I also documented several suspicious structures and a most unusual concrete structure that was a gift to the town by the Demosthenean Literary Society in 1922.  This is a very old organization that is still active.

The jails and calabooses I visited are being added to my website and they should all be posted in a day or so.

Most everything I do involves help from someone albeit a minor contribution.  The size of this calaboose project could not have reached its current level without help from lots of folks.  I spent last night and part of day revising my acknowledgments that are by no means totally complete.  Sometimes, I just wrote down a name and later forgot what that person actually did but I am most grateful to anyone and everyone who has been a part of this project.  There was the man in Miles who was working in his yard and when I casually mentioned why I was driving through his town he told me about the calaboose on city property “over there a few blocks.”  I remember that trip well because I was returning from giving a talk on calabooses to the historical society in San Angelo.  They put me up in one of the original officers quarters at Fort Concho and it was a great time.  On the way home, I travelled a different route and found three calabooses that I was not aware of – Miles, Rowena, and Santa Anna.

Back to my story.  I have changed the arrangement of the Acknowledgments.  Instead of organizing the people according to the county they live in, I changed it to a listing by town.  I hope that will make it easier for my readers to find their names.

Any omissions are purely accidental and I am more than happy to make any corrections are add anyone left out by mistake.

 

I’m leaving tomorrow to document calabooses in Goree (Knox County) and Rochester (Haskell County) and a metal cage or cell in Knox City (Knox County).  Hopefully, I will find one I am not aware of.  I am constantly amazed at how many people in small towns do not know there is a calaboose where they live.  I was told by a city official in Rochester that there is no jail in that town.  I explained that the jails I am looking for are very small and have not been used as such for many years.  When I described the one at the water plant I was told that it was their storage building.  Actually, it is a very good example of a calaboose and I am anxious to see it in person.

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Goree

Knox City

Rochester

Darryl Pearson found this suspicious structure on Google Earth.  1922 was the last year a Sanborn map was available for Henrietta. A brick jail or calaboose is not depicted. The building in this picture strongly resembles a calaboose.  The only unusual feature is what appears to be a window on the side.  If it is a window, it is larger than most and windows in calabooses do not tend to be this low to the ground.  However, there are many variations in floor plans and window placement.  This one needs to be investigated.

On September 9, 2015, I documented a city jail in Ennis (Ellis County); calabooses in Crandall, Frost and Rosser (Navarro County); and a metal cage in Blooming Grove (Navarro County.  On this trip I saw some very interesting structures such as the bell tower in Italy and the railroad depot in Rosser.  Most of these calabooses and cages are already posted on this website.

 

 

 

 

 

On our last jail trip, we recorded a concrete building in Barksdale (Edwards County) as a calaboose.  One room had bars and I was told by a local resident that it had served as a jail.  There was something not quite right about it as one room had rather large windows that suggested an office or something other than a jail.  I said I thought it might have been an office for the Night Watchman or Constable.  Today, I received email from Lisa B. Scroggins, the Director of the Claud H. Gilmer Memorial Library in Rocksprings.   She posted my photo on Facebook and got several responses form local residents that suggest it was never a jail.

Floyd Collins is a life-long resident of the neighboring community of Camp Wood and the only use for this building that he remembers is being told it was an icehouse connected to the old Wallace Grocery Store.

The building is on land owned by Lisa Whittley de Aguilar’s Grandmother.  Her father told her that it is the remains of  an old hotel.  The two larger rooms were bedrooms and the smaller one was a bath.  Lisa also said it was part of a dancehall and a saloon that was once two stories, but her grandpa took off the top floor.

This building has been removed as a calaboose and is now regarded as a suspicious structure.  I greatly appreciate Ms Scroggins for taking time to share with me what she was told.

Suspicious structure in Barksdale, Texas