June 21, 2021 - Published author and San Augustine resident Neal Murphy spoke to the Timpson Area Genealogical and Heritage Society at their June monthly meeting last Wednesday about the historic 1919 San Augustine County Jail Museum. “I'm one of two docents at the museum and I work there three days a week. We give guided tours and I always ask visitors to sign our guest registry. I was recently looking through the entries for April and part of May and I was shocked to see how many out-of-state visitors had come to our little town and toured the museum, some from as far away as Canada,” Murphy declared.
Originally built in 1919 and located near the courthouse on the city square, the former San Augustine County Jail replaced the old jail because of the deterioration of that structure. “I have reviewed the Commissioners' Court records from that time and there were frequent complaints from the sheriff about the condition of the old jail.” The sheriff's complaints became more strident after two prisoners were able to escape from the jail and the County Commissioners agreed to have the sheriff get a bid for repair of the old jail. “In a couple of weeks the sheriff presented a bid for $5000 to the Commissioners. In 1919 that was a lot of money so the Commissioners decided the county would just build a new jail,” Murphy said. “They got two bids for the construction of a new jail, one for $26,000 and one for $25,000. Two of the Commissioners voted for moving forward with the construction and two voted against. The County Judge cast a tie-breaking vote for the project and construction commenced on the new two-story jail in April of 1919 and was completed that October.”
“Of course, the old jail was never air conditioned and they barely had any heat. Later, some window units were put in for the offices downstairs but not in the cells upstairs. Finally, in the year 2000 the State of Texas refused to re-certify the jail, prohibiting its further use for housing prisoners,” Murphy continued. This necessitated the construction of a new modern jail which met all of the state requirements. “The old jail housed the Probation Department offices for a while but after they moved out the building was just sitting there. The County decided to allow other county offices to use the old jail for storage, which just made matters worse,” Murphy shared. Finally, a group of citizens objected to allowing the historic structure to deteriorate and be misused. “Betty Oglesby, a local community leader, organized a committee to raise money to restore the old jail. They raised $225,000! After the building's restoration was completed, it was decided that it should be made into a museum,” Murphy revealed. “We took out all the offices downstairs and made a common area to house the museum.” The work was finished in October of 2017.
“We decided that we would dedicate the museum to the law enforcement officers of San Augustine County who had died in the line of service, both in the county and elsewhere,” Murphy said. Research revealed that seven San Augustine County peace officers had been killed since 1900. It is known that others died prior to 1900 but documentation for those officers has not been established. Memorialized at the museum are George W. Wall (1900), John D. White (1918), Robert L. Watts (1919), Henry I. Chandler (1932), Robert J. Crosby (1954), Ronnie L. Germany (1973, and Bill Garsee (1984). Also featured in museum displays are other persons important in San Augustine history, including Robert M. “Three Legged Willie” Wilkinson, an early Texas Supreme Court Justice, David Crockett, who spent a week in San Augustine on his way to the Alamo, and Dr. John S. “Rip” Ford, who later became a Texas Ranger.
Lawlessness reached such a point in San Augustine County in the 1930s that citizens petitioned Gov. James Allred to send the Texas Rangers to deal with the situation. Gov. Allred responded by sending two Rangers to San Augustine who remained in the county for a year, filing 29 murder cases and restoring order. “One of the Rangers was Leo Bishop, who was sent back to San Augustine after the Rangers' departure, at the citizens' request. He stayed another four years and his home still stands across the street from the hospital. San Augustine has the distinction of being the smallest town in Texas to have had a Texas Ranger stationed there. The last Ranger stationed in San Augustine was Sandy Seay, who left in the early 1970s. Now you have to go to Lufkin to find one,” Murphy revealed.
“We have researched all of the past San Augustine County Sheriffs. We have had 48 different sheriffs, beginning in 1827 with George English. The second sheriff was Col. Alexander Horton in 1831, who was my great-great grandfather. We have as many photographs and as much information about each former sheriff displayed as we were able to collect”, Murphy said. A recent addition is the shotgun used by Lycurgus “Curg” Border to kill Sheriff George W. Wall in 1900, which was donated by a Jasper lawyer recently. “We also have an extensive list of all the Texas Rangers who have served in San Augustine County as well as all the Game Wardens, State Troopers, City Police Officers, Constables, and Deputy Constables who have served our county,” Murphy shared.
“We also have the Texana Library”, continued Murphy. “Our collection has a number of old and rare books, many of which came from the library of Willie Earl Tindall, wife of our longest serving Sherrif, Nathan Tindall, for whom the jail building has been named. After the death of the Tindalls, the remaining family donated the books to the museum. We have been advised by our insurance company that this collection is valued at $300,000. Visitors may view the books but not check them out,” Murphy explained.
Through the efforts of Betty Oglesby, the museum received two grants of $250,000 each to fund the restoration and digitization of old San Augustine County records dating back to the 1830s. “We spend almost five years on that project,” Murphy revealed. “Now you can sit down at the computer and type in a name and, within fifteen seconds, it will search through about 3.5 million documents. The researcher can then read or print out the results.”
The Timpson Area Genealogical Society meets at 2PM on the third Wednesday of each month in the meeting room of the Timpson Public Library on the corner of Austin and Bremond Streets in downtown Timpson. The TAGHS library is located within the Timpson Public Library and is open and staffed from 9AM until 5PM weekdays. Telephone 936-254-2966 and ask for the Genealogical Library.
