----- Original Message ----- From: "Michael J. Vaughn" <[email protected]> To: "Scott Fitzgerald" <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, January 13, 2003 8:05 AM Subject: Supplement to Saturday's program > Scott: > > Could you post the statement below to the various lists, and email to > our members if we have a master mailing list. Bonnie Woolverton > raised a good question about the prison system and I did some further > checking. Several people seemed very irritated about this, notably > Charles, and I wanted to try to clear this up. > > Thanks for your help. > > Mike > > > Here is what I came up with: > > _____________ > > At the ETGS meeting on Saturday, January 11, 2003, during the program > on "Prisons, Asylums and Other Custodial Institutions", I made the > statement, and it is also contained in the handout, that records exist > for all prisoners in Texas prisons, beginning with prisoner #1 > sometime in the 1880's. > > That was the information provided to me by the Texas Department of > Criminal Justice when I prepared the presentation. > > In attendance at the meeting was Bonnie Woolverton, immediate past > president of the Anderson County Historical Commission and formerly an > employee of TDC. Bonnie said that the prison system had begun much > earlier than 1880, possibly as early as 1846. > > Further investigation has revealed that she was correct. Construction > on the first central state penitentiary was begun in 1848 in > Huntsville, and it housed prisoners as early as 1 October 1849 -- a > convicted horse thief from Fayette County. > > The "New Handbook of Texas" (available online) has a good discussion > of the Texas Prison System, found on Pages 341-344 of Volume 5. I > commend it to anyone who is interested in this subject. > > The only thing that I can deduce from the conflict in what I was told > and the information in the "Handbook" is that it is likely that there > are no records prior to the early 1880's. In 1879 the structure of > the prison system was radically changed, and that is probably when > record keeping began. > > Additionally, a question was raised about a penitentiary at Rusk. > That same article states that the Rusk Penitentiary opened in 1883; it > was opened to provide convict labor to develop iron ore deposits in > East Texas, and operated until 1917. Prisoners from that penitentiary > built the Texas State Railroad from Rusk to Palestine between 1893 and > 1909. > > I hope this helps clarify this matter, and apologize for any confusion > about this subject. > > Mike Vaughn > ______________________ > > >