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Fear, Force, and Leather - The Texas Prison System's First Hundred Years, 1848-1948

Table of Contents

Rough Beginnings (1848-1861)

- State Penitentiary Commissioners to Governor George T. Wood, July 20, 1848

- Plan for the Texas Penitentiary, August 15, 1848

- Abner Cook to the Directors of the Penitentiary, September 30, 1849

- Directors of the State Penitentiary to Governor Peter H. Bell, November 11, 1851

- Thomas Carothers to the Directors of the State Penitentiary, undated

- List of Convicts in the Penitentiary, September 1, 1859–August 31,1861 (second page)

The Civil War and the Collapse of Civil Authority 1861-1871

- Major General Thomas C. Hindman to Governor Francis R. Lubbock, August 6, 1862

- Henry E. Perkins to the Texas Legislature, February 13, 1863

- John S. Besser on his confrontation with Texas State Troops, December 8, 1863

- Thaddeus C. Bell to Morgan C. Hamilton, June 10, 1867

- Samuel R. Peacock to Thaddeus McRae, December 9, 1867

- Charles Kirsch to General [Benjamin?] Butler, April 4, 1869

The Lease Era (1871-1883)

- Testimony of Fred Stone, April 15, 1875

- J.K.P. Campbell, Present conditions and facts relating to returned convicts, 1875

- J.K.P. Campbell, Monthly Report, September 1875

- Statements on the death of Frank Furlow, January 26, 1877

- D.M. Short to Governor Oran M. Roberts, July 19, 1879

- Thomas J. Goree, Circular to Sergeants in charge of convict camps, April 2, 1880

- List of convicts under seventeen years of age, August 15, 1881

Convict Leasing and State Account Farming (1883-1909)

- John Dickinson to Haywood Brahan, January 29, 1886

- Time Made by Convicts Nights and Sundays, December 31, 1889

- Excerpt from the Report of Superintendent L.A. Whatley, November 1, 1896

- Minutes of the Regular Meeting of the Penitentiary Board, November 12, 1903

Scandal and Reform(1909-1911)

- Minutes of the Special Session of the Penitentiary Board, November 30, 1909

The Perpetual Inquiry (1911-1927)

- Notification of Discharge of Guard, March 12, 1917

- Excerpt from Escape Analysis, May and June 1928

- Henry Helms, Convict Biography, September 6, 1929

- Committee on Prisons and Prison Labor on proposed Texas penal colony, 1931

Reform & Retrenchment (1927-1947)

- Excerpt, Report of the Texas Prison Centralization Commission, 1929

- Poetry Corner, The Echo, October 1933

- Minutes of the Texas Prison Board, July 24, 1934

- Committee Report on Investigation of Penitentiary, 1947



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Page last modified: July 23, 2019