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Sunday, January 5, 2014

Video Of The Texas Prison System In 1955


I came across this video as I was doing some research on the prison farm west of Sugar Land.  The sound is missing, and it covers sites other than the prison farms west of town, but it turned out to be a real find.  

There are quite a few clips of 'our' prison locations, so I want to thank Jon Pitts, Dale Pitts, and John Frierson for providing the following annotations to what is shown.  I've provided time markers with their comments, so you can make the correlations.


Comments from Jon, Dale, and John:

1:42 George Beto, if anyone is unclear, was the prison director who succeeded Ellis after he died, and is the man reading the notes with the woman to his right.

2:10 When O.B. Ellis is clicked, Ellis is indeed the distinguished looking man in the dark suit and gray hair.  Richard Jones is the man to his right in the light blue suit.  (I am pretty sure he was director of prison industry.)  Byron Frierson (director of prison agriculture) is to Ellis's left.  

2:33 When Byron Frierson's link is clicked, that is A.G. McCain. (I think he was director of prison construction.) 

9:56-10:12  I. D. Pitts, Dehydrator Plant Manager, Ramsey 1 Unit.

12:13-12:25 Scenes from the Packing Plant  at the Central Unit in Sugar Land. (A Mr. Baker was the Manager.)

12:25-12:43 Scenes from the Canning Plant at the Central Unit in Sugar Land.

13:36-13:46 Scenes from the Brick Plant at the Harlem 1 Unit (now Jester 1) at Richmond. (L. D. Puritt was the Manager.) (The Rotary Cutter shown was purchased in 1955, so it was brand new at the time of filming.)

18:35-18:47 Scenes from the Textile Mill at the Walls Unit in Huntsville.

21:55 Hal Husbands was of course warden of the Central Units at that time.

22:23-22:39 Warden C.L.(Beartracks)McAdams is identified, in the center, on the right is Field Major Fred Duncan, on the left is Asst. Warden Bill Green (former sheriff of Limestone county).