Hardin County

Silsbee                                  

The following information was taken from Nameless Towns: Texas Sawmill Communities, 1880-1942, p. 94 by Thad Sitton and James H. Conrad. This book was published by The University of Texas Press in 2010.

“At the Kirby town of Silsbee, lawman William Badders at first brought Saturday night troublemakers back to his rooms in the company hotel and chained them to the ends of his son’s beds, but soon the company built a subjail called a calaboose.”

According to an unidentified newspaper article there was a wood calaboose in Silsbee.  I am checking on this.

The Sanborn map dated 1937 (Sheet 3) depicts a small jail in the east half of city block 59 (lot 17) next to 2nd Street and in the same area as a wood yard.  It was still there in 1942 (Sheet 3) but a grist mill and hay & feed warehouse occupied part of the wood yard area and a building for junk storage was in lot 18.