Tomorrow, Rhonda K. Holley is going with me to Zapata to help with an archaeological project I have in that town.  While there, we plan to visit Roma where there should be two tiny jails and on the way back we will stop at Moore and record the calaboose there.  While on this trip, we will check out as many small towns as possible for more jails.

Today, I added information from Blackburn’s book “Wanted: Historic County Jails of Texas” to the website under Vanished.  Those added were for Archer, Armstrong, and Bandera counties.

I am going through Ed Blackburn, Jr.’s book “Wanted: Historic County Jails of Texas” and looking for references to vanished calabooses. So far, I have found quite a few.  In a few hours, I will have added information for Austin, Bailey, Bastrop, Bee, Bell, and Brewster counties.  There will not always be Sanborn maps to check against the statements in his book but he does cite his sources.  Some of the jails described by Blackburn were two-story buildings that do not fit my initial definition of a calaboose but they are included because they are reported to be the first in the counties and they were unusual in their construction.

Charles Fiedler wrote me earlier about the calaboose in Comfort.  Today, he was there and took some pictures and shared some interesting information.  His cousin, Louis Faust who is 82, grew up in Comfort and he vividly remembers individuals being locked up for the night in this calaboose. Pictures and more information will be posted on the website when a page for Kendall County is created.

Earlier this year, I discussed the possibility of a calaboose in Comfort, Texas (Kendall County) with a lady who supposedly is the local historian and knows a lot about the town.  She categorically denied the presence of a jail in town citing that (paraphrased here) crime was never a problem in Comfort (guess that is why the town is named Comfort).  I called her because a lady wrote to my website and asked if I had any interior pictures of the old calaboose about 1.5 blocks from her house.  Another reader referred to it as well and wondered why I had not seen it.

Darryl Pearson found it on Google Earth and went there and took pictures of the non-existent calaboose.  I plan to go there as well.  I will add this one to the website later with what information I can obtain at this time.

The Texas Collection is a website created by Baylor University. It contains hundreds of interesting photos. While looking for a calaboose I found this image of Marlin, Texas depicting the courthouse. There is a small building to the left that appears to be the calaboose shown on the Sanborn map dated 1885. If that is the case, the building behind it would have been the county jail.

Today, I went to an artist’s workshop east of Jewett in Leon County to pick up a metal sculpture that I had commissioned him to create for me.  Rhonda K. Holley took her truck because it would not fit in my car and her mom, Donna Smith, accompanied us.  We had planned to eat at a local cafe in Marquez where they make good burgers, chicken fried steaks, and onion rings.  It was closed so we headed to Jewett.  Rhonda noticed some buildings across the highway and commented that she did not think we had look for calabooses there before.  We drove around town when I spied a small wooden building that was the right size but in very poor condition.  Her mother was the first to notice bars in the window on the far side.  Next door, a lady in the yard said that is indeed the old jail and that the city had plans to fix it up. We took lots of pictures and we plan to return to take measurements and hopefully talk to someone in town who has information about it.  It appears to be one of the smallest that we have found so far.  Additional pictures and a description of this jail can be found under the tab Calabooses on this website under Leon County.

Darryl who previously reported on the smokehouse in Comfort found the calaboose that I have been trying to locate.  He saw it on Google Earth and he said that the doors with bars were clearly visible.  He plans to visit it soon and take pictures.  I will be happy to see them.  I lived in Comfort when I was a High School teacher and never saw it.  Although I was not looking for jails. I was fascinated by the German architecture and I certainly would have found the small calaboose interesting.

Darryl is one of the followers of my website.  He was in Comfort (Kendell County) on july 2nd. A resident of Comfort told him about an old saloon next to the Karger Building where rowdy behavior was common.  At the time, the sheriff did not have a regular jail so he put prisoners in  a smokehouse for the night, when it was not in use (see photo below).  Thanks Darryl.

Today, I decided to call some of the towns with interesting jails or calabooses and see if I could get a picture for the website.  These are towns that I may not visit for some time and I can’t use the internet photos without permission.  So far, I have been successful in getting promises of photos and information on the jails in Gail, Marathon, Seymour, and Van Horn.  Perhaps the most exciting contacts was Crystal Graham in Goree (Knox County) and Lisa Mahler in Gail (Borden County).  I had called Crystal at city hall to get a phone number for Seymour and she told me about their calaboose.  Lisa sent a wonderful historic photo of the jail in Gail. More photos will be posted on the website soon.

Goree

Gail calaboose in 1896