My previous post was about the calaboose in Walburg.  I talked with the owner who said it is a metal cage that used to be on wheels and used to transport prisoners.  He is using it for storage.  The bottom was badly rusted so he poured a concrete slab to put it on.  The exterior is covered with tin to keep out rain.  I hope to find out if there was a stationary calaboose in town also.

Walburg, originally called Concordia, is in Williamson County, Texas.  Jack Brooks recently told me about the old calaboose in that town.  He got the following information from a Mr. Mitchan, a resident of the town who was 80 years old at the time of the interview.  According to him and paraphrased by Jack, the calaboose used to be around the Northeast corner and about 100 yards from the cotton gin.  The frame was made from flat bar stock and would hold a maximum of 8-10 people. There were no places to sit.  The spacing was about 6″ x 6″ for the open gaps in the calaboose strap spacing.  In the 1960s, Carl Doering sold the gin.  The calaboose was left there for awhile.  Later, it was given to a local family who covered it with tin and still use it as a storage shed.

This is a great example of a calaboose that would never have been documented if it were not for people like Jack Brooks.  Although it is not in its original location and its exterior has been altered, it still exists and adds to the data base for calabooses in Texas.

One of my informants is Jack Brooks from the Taylor, Texas area.  He follows the website and has shared information in the past.  Today, he was in the Taylor library an he stumbled upon an interesting article about the town of Rogers, Texas in Bell County).  This is just the kind of information that I hope to find.  A first-hand account of a calaboose in 1930.  I found it to be most interesting and says something that Rhonda and I said when we first saw the little calaboose in Gause, Texas.  “Cold as Amarillo in the winter and hot as blazes in the summer.”

Ringgold, Texas is a small town in Montaque County near the Oklahoma border.  I have been working with Max Brown to find a way to save the old calaboose there.  He has been successful in getting it donated to the county and plans are starting to become reality to make this happen.  The attached pictures show the view from the highway before clearing brush and afterwards and a great closeup.  Thanks to people like Max some of these historic structures are being saved and protected.

Clairemont is a ghost town in and the former county seat of Kent County, Texas, United States. It is at the intersection of U.S. Route 380 and Texas State Highway 208, 14 mi (23 km) southwest of Jayton and 43 mi (69 km) east of Post. Clairemont lies near the center of Kent County, and the estimated population as of the 2000 census was 15.

I want to visit this one.

The magazine” Texas Co-op Power” has accepted my short article on calabooses to be published in June.  If it is permitted by the magazine, I will post it on my website.

Rhonda Holley, the creator of this website, has changed the Landing Page so that readers will first be able to read the various blogs by myself and others as well as replies to the blogs.  I think this is a definite improvement.  For those who want to know about how this project got started and my methods, etc. this information can be found by opening the tab “The Project.”

Today, Rhonda K. Holley accompanied me to Sealy, Texas (Austin County) to document a small calaboose.  We found it to be one of the more interesting of those visited so far – and they are all interesting.  It was the construction methods that intrigued us.  The boards that create the floor were measured at 1 x 12 inches (probably 1 inch thick).  It consists of two rooms. The front room was for the guard and other officials and the cell was behind a very thick wooden wall and door that is four boards thick.  The floor and walls of the cell were once covered with thin sheet metal but only the floor and some on the walls remain.  There is a large metal ring in the middle of the floor that could have been used to chain the most unruly prisoners.  The original calaboose was built in 1884 but it burned and the town rebuilt it in 1887 using much of the same lumber.   The inside of the cell is only 7.5 x 9.4 feet.  More information will be posted on the website at a later date.

Danny Gillespie is the City Secretary for the city of Frost in Navarro County.  He visited the calaboose and took some photos for me.  According to his research the building that was built later and attached to the calaboose was the old City Hall.  The calaboose can be entered through the metal door in front or from inside City Hall.  I don’t know if there was always two entrances.  There is no page for Navarro County on the website and I don’t know how to make one.  Therefore, a few photos are posted here.

This photo shows the original calaboose and part of City Hall behind it.  The old roof was removed so that the roofline for the two joined structures would be the same.

This photo shows the side with one of the windows.  The window on the building behind the calaboose also has bars.  I don’t know if there was a cell inside that building.

This photo sows the inside of the calaboose and the door that allows entry into City Hall.  The bars on the doors are our old friend “strap iron.”  The lines in the roof testify to the fact that the original roof was poured concrete.  There is something unusual about the unevenness of the ceiling.  To me this suggests that there may have been two cells but the wall separating them has been removed.

I just talked with the City Manager in Frost and he confirmed that this was a calaboose.  The bars are still in place in the door and windows.  He is taking some pictures for me.  It is privately owned and I hope to get permission to see the inside.  This makes 76 calabooses that are still standing that I am aware of.