Shelby County

Timpson

The Sanborn map dated 1927 (Sheet 5) depicts a jail in block 38 just east of the Gulf Coast & San Francisco RR tracks.  It was in the upper center of the block on Marcos Street just west of the fire department on the corner of Marcus and North Railroad Avenue.  Its address is given as “A.”  It was the same in 1941 (Sheet 5).  Does not appear on Google Earth.

Waterman

A wooden calaboose is mentioned in a book entitled Nameless Towns: Texas Sawmill Communities, 1880-1942 (Texas A&M University Press 2010), p. 94 as having been present in the sawmill town of Waterman.  These sawmill jails were most often referenced as calabooses but another term was the “cattle pen.”  These buildings often consisted of “a small room, strongly constructed of two-by-four boards, in which drunks and fist fighters were placed to sober up and cool off.  These were interim holding areas, only; lawmen transported serious lawbreakers to courthouse town jails the next day.wood calaboose in sawmill town. “The town of Waterman began without a calaboose, but after the mass street fight described earlier by George Williams, the company decided to build one.”