A very considerate reader of my article in Texas Co-op Power magazine sent me this letter.  I really appreciate these stories about calabooses.

Darryl Pearson sent me photos of the Helena jail and courthouse.  The all metal jail is a good find.  My research on metal jails and cages has suggested that they were usually housed in a building.  However, this jail has a solid metal floor and roof.  Perhaps it could have housed prisoners on the outside.  calabooses were often placed near the courthouse.  In the picture of the old Helena courthouse in 1967, there is a small wooden building behind it.  Given the small size of the metal cage, it may have been inside of this tiny structure.

Darryl Pearson sent these photos of the calaboose in Weesatche, Texas (Goliad County).   He has shared photos of several calabooses and his generosity is greatly appreciated.  I don’t know the age of this calaboose but the toilet is very primitive.  I have documented several calabooses with toilets but this is the first one of wood that resembles what one would find in an outhouse.

Nancy Sherbert is the Curator of Photographs and Acquisitions Coordinator at the Research Collections Division of the State Historical Society in Topeka.  She sent me this picture of a most unusual calaboose that is on display at the Kansas Historical Museum.    A description of the jail and brief history can be found on the website under the tab “Calabooses in Other States.”

Earlier, I received a comment from a lady in Comfort asking if I had any pictures of the calaboose near her house.  She claims to have vivid memories of one made of poured concrete and having two cells.  My cousin Roger Moore took pictures of a suspicious building when I was in Comfort earlier this year but he was not able to talk to anyone about it.  While I don’t discount the possibility of this building having been constructed for another purpose, it has many characteristics of a calaboose.

Benny Poulson sent me this picture of the calaboose in Lorenzo.  The tin exterior is believed to be original.  For sure, it is not recent.  His father remembers it in the 1930s when he was a young boy. It used  to be located at the city water tower on city property in the late 1950s.  Benny remembers walking by it on his way to school.  It is now at the Ag Farm in town.

I received a comment from Bill Strangmeyer who claims he spent a night in the calaboose in Lott, Texas in 1961.  His crime was a “spirited disagreement with the local Constable.”  Mr. Strangmeyer read the article entitled “The Texas Calaboose” that I wrote and was published in the June 20015 issue of Texas Co-op Power magazine.  He disagreed with a statement that I made that he interpreted as all Texas calabooses were gone by 1950.  What I said was “My review of Sanborn maps failed to turn up one calaboose still standing after 1950 that was not vacant or being used for another purpose.”  There was no Sanborn map for Lott at the time.  Therefore, I cannot confirm or contradict his statement.  His comments are greatly appreciated and I encourage more of the same.