Historic jail on display - Corsicana, TX - News Article Locations on Waymarking.com

"The half-acre park is home to a historic war cannon, authentic oil derrick preserved from the big oil boom days, and now is also home to a cypress two-room jail, which one held the “rowdies” from the roughneck oil towns.

Harriet Emerson of Powell said her grandfather, J.R. Ritchie, protected the old jail for 82 years, after it was built during the first big oil strike in 1923. Larry Turner of Citizens National Bank, an oil history buff, said for a time in 1923 and 1924, the Powell oil field was the highest producing field in the United States.

“The wooden jail donated by Harriett Emerson and the J.R. Ritchie family was located on the north end of the Powell oilfield near the town of Powell,” Turner said. “It housed law breakers from the boom time Powell fields. The jail was located on the opposite end of the field from Tuckertown ... J.R. Ritchie, a Powell area farmer, used a mule team to drag the old jail out of the oil field probably in 1925 or 1926 and preserved the jail in a barn on his Powell farm.”

Emerson, who has toured the world as a concert violinist, and owned a travel agency in Manhattan, N.Y., returned to Navarro County in the 1990s to care for her mother, Pearl. Though her mother has since passed away, Harriett Emerson has continued to call Navarro County home to the benefit of residents and tourists alike who will enjoy visiting Petroleum Park.

A joint effort was utilized in the moving of the old jail, and included Haynie Drilling, Corsicana Sign and Crane, the City of Corsicana Parks and Recreation Department, the Navarro County Historical Society, Corsicana Preservation Foundation and the Heritage Preservation Foundation.

Ironically, according to Emerson, the two-sided jail was used on one side to hold five to six hoodlums, and the other side held the workers’ valuables while they worked in the oilfield.

A dedication ceremony is tentatively planned for 3 p.m. March 6 at Petroleum Park."