Old Hidalgo County Jail
Hidalgo, Hidalgo County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Built in 1886 by S. W. Brooks, who also constructed the nearby courthouse, this jail served Hidalgo County during a turbulent period in its history, when outlaw raids were still occurring. The city's first newspaper, "The Hidalgo Advance," was published here from 1904 to 1908. The two-story jail, which features handmade brick and a corbeled cornice along the roofline, served the county until 1908, when the seat of government was moved to Chapin (now Edinburg). Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1984
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Built in 1886 by S. W. Brooks, who also raised the nearby courthouse, this two-story jail with handmade brick and a corbeled cornice served Hidalgo County through years still troubled by outlaw raids along the border. Its rooms also housed the county's first newspaper, "The Hidalgo Advance," from 1904 to 1908. The jail's working life ended that same year, when the county seat moved to what is now Edinburg.
Why it matters
This sturdy little jail marks the effort to plant law, order, and even a free press along a contested and often lawless stretch of the Rio Grande.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · S. W. Brooks
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Town of Hidalgo
Hidalgo, TX
Founded as Edinburgh in 1852, this Rio Grande town served as the seat of Hidalgo County for more than half a century. In 1861 it was renamed for Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, the parish priest who launched Mexico's struggle for independence in 1810—a fitting tribute in a borderland deeply shaped by Mexican heritage. A devastating overflow of the Rio Grande in September 1887 nearly washed the town away.
Elder B. Barton
Hidalgo, TX
Born in New York City in 1806, Elder B. Barton threw in his lot with the Texas cause and fought at the Battle of San Jacinto in 1836, the decisive clash that secured the Republic of Texas's independence. Settling along the lower Rio Grande, he married Santitos Balli of Matamoros, raised sixteen children, and parlayed his veteran land grants and a supply business into a lasting mark on Hidalgo County's frontier economy. He died on his ranch in 1884, a bridge between the Anglo republic and the older Mexican society of the borderlands.
Louisiana-Rio Grande Canal Company
Pharr, TX
After Wisconsin native John Closner built the lower Rio Grande Valley's first steam-powered irrigation system in 1895 and won a prize for his sugar cane at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, investors poured in. In 1909, H. N. Pharr and partners formed the Louisiana-Rio Grande Canal Company, building pumping stations to draw Rio Grande water across some 40,000 acres of arid land and turn it into farms and planned communities. The harvests that followed made the Valley the "Winter Garden" of Texas and drew a wave of Anglo settlers into a largely Hispanic region.
Jackson Ranch Church
Pharr, TX
Methodist missionary Rev. Alexander H. Sutherland founded this fellowship in 1874 on Juan Manuel de La Vina's El Capote Ranch in the Rio Grande Valley. By 1883 the congregation was meeting on the Jackson Ranch, where owner Martin Jackson donated land and built a small chapel. Though most members moved to the new city of McAllen in 1910, the church endured as one of Hidalgo County's earliest Protestant congregations.