CHEROKEE COUNTY. 293 



J. M. Hurt, now of the Court of Appeals, and Judge D. E. Thomas, of Austin, 

 who assisted in the completion of the report and the contract with the build- 

 ers of the prison cells at Rusk. 



This committee also recommended the location of the western penitentiary 

 at San Marcos, for the manufacture of woolen goods, but no contract was 

 carried into effect, on account of the failure of the Legislature to make an 

 appropriation for that purpose. 



The official report of this committee was made to the Governor, delivered 

 to the Secretary of State, and destroyed, as before stated, by fire in the old 

 Capitol building. 



Through the courtesy of Major Thomas J. Goree, Superintendent of Peni- 

 tentiaries, the following particulars were obtained by the writer: 



The principal object in establishing the penitentiary at Rusk was the de- 

 velopment of the iron industry in East Texas. The cell building was built 

 with that object in view, but fearing that the manufacture of iron (without 

 railway facilities) would be unsuccessful, the first Board of Directors, consist- 

 ing of Governor 0. M. Roberts, Treasurer Lubbock, and Attorney-General 

 McCormick, directed that the walls be completed around the cell building 

 and brick workshop. . ' . 



Under the law reorganizing the penitentiary in 1879, a State Board of 

 Directors was created, consisting of the Governor, State Treasurer, and Su- 

 perintendent of Penitentiaries. By direction of that board Major Thomas J. 

 Goree, Superintendent, made an examination of the iron ores with the view 

 of manufacturing iron as first contemplated. His report was favorable, and 

 resulted in a contract for the construction of the State furnace, which was 

 named "the Old Alcalde" in honor of Governor 0. M. Roberts. 



E. C. Darley, of St. Louis, became the contractor, and the work was done 

 under the immediate supervision of his agent, Mr. R. A. Barrett, by convict 

 labor. While in course of construction, in 1883, this Penitentiary, with a num- 

 ber of convicts, was leased to Comer & Fairis, who took charge of the same 

 January 1, 1884, the furnace being finished about that time. Under their 

 management the "Old Alcalde" furnace went into blast in February, and 

 ran a few weeks under the direction of Mr. Veach, of Alabama, as superin- 

 tendent, making seven to ten tons of pig iron per day. On the representa- 

 tion to the State Board that the cause of their ill success was a faulty con- 

 struction of the bosh — that iron could not be made to the full capacity of 

 the furnace with such a steep bosh — the contractors got permission to take 

 out the bosh and put in the old style flat bosh, which being in plac^ the 

 furnace went into blast again, making the highest yield in any one day fif- 

 teen tons of pig iron. 



In September some of the tuyeres were burned out, the contractors claim- 



