DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now settle in, because this one starts with a name that nobody uses anymore — and ends with a ghost town that refused to fully disappear. The place was called Oakville.
Or, if you were passing through in the old days and somebody asked where you were headed, you might have said you were going to a spot known simply as 'on the sulphur.' That was the nickname. Not exactly a Chamber of Commerce slogan, but it had a ring of honesty to it. Oakville sat near a Nueces River crossing the old-timers called Puente de la Piedra — Rock Crossing — and in 1856 it became the seat of Live Oak County.
Power had found itself a home. And in 1857, a man named Joseph Bartlett made that official in stone and timber, throwing up a stone courthouse with a log jail attached, planting a center of authority right there on the South Texas brush country. After the Civil War, the cattle industry came roaring through like a blue norther, and Oakville was right in the path of it — in the best possible way.
Freight wagons rolled through, ranchers came to buy supplies, and the town hummed with the particular music of commerce. Having a jail with sheriff headquarters didn't hurt either. Nothing says 'this is a real town' quite like a place to put the people who disagree with civilization.
Then in the 1870s, a man named J.S. Campbell oversaw the rebuilding of the courthouse, this time with the jail tucked inside. They were consolidating authority, tightening things up.
But Oakville wasn't done building. Not by a long shot. By 1887, the town raised something genuinely impressive — a free-standing, two-story stone jail in the Italianate style.
Two stories. Corniced with heavy sandstone, facades and corners finished in white stucco, windowsills still intact to show you how they thought about ventilation back in that era. The first floor held a reception room, an office, and living quarters.
The second floor was all business — four jail cells, three for general holding and a fourth set aside for women and juveniles. Two corbelled chimneys climbed the sides, and a metal cistern sat out back collecting whatever the sky was willing to offer. Now here's the detail that'll stop you cold if you love a good twist.
The design for this Texas frontier jail didn't come from some San Antonio architect or a courthouse builder out of Austin. It came from the Diebold Lock and Safe Company out of Canton, Ohio. Canton, Ohio.
The same firm designed a twin jail over in Mills County, and both of those buildings — those two Diebold-designed sandstone siblings separated by miles of Texas — are listed today in the National Register of Historic Places. The sandstone itself came from a nearby quarry, so the land that built Oakville is the same land that's still holding it together. And it needed holding together, because in 1919, after losing a bid for a railway line, Live Oak County held an election and voted to move the county seat to a town called George West.
Just like that, Oakville's run was over. The commerce dried up. The wagons stopped rolling.
Most of the town followed the county seat out the door. But that jail — that two-story sandstone Italianate jail that once held bar fighters and horse thieves and lord knows what else — it stood. In a town where nearly everything else faded away, the jail became one of the few structures left standing.
Maybe that's fitting. Some things are just built to outlast the trouble they were meant to contain.
What the marker says
Oakville, seat of Live Oak County from 1856-1919, first called “on the sulphur,” was near a Nueces River crossing called Puente de la Piedra (Rock Crossing). Joseph Bartlett built a stone courthouse and attached log jail in 1857 as a center of authority. The county became part of the growing cattle industry following the Civil War. Oakville served as a commerce hub for freight wagons and a place for ranchers to buy supplies. The jail, with sheriff headquarters, made the town seem safer. J.S. Campbell oversaw the rebuilding of the courthouse with the jail placed inside during the 1870s. By 1887, Oakville constructed a free-standing two-story stone Italianate-style jail. The jail held frontier criminals ranging from bar fighters to horse thieves. In 1919, after losing a railway bid, a county election selected the town of George West as the new County Seat. The old jail became one of the few standing structures in Oakville. The Oakville Jail is made of sandstone from a nearby quarry. It is corniced with heavy sandstone as well. The stone facades and corners are covered in white stucco. Windowsills remain, showing period ventilation. The first floor had a reception room, office and living quarters. The second floor housed jail cells, three for general holding and a fourth for women and juveniles. There are two corbelled chimneys, and a metal cistern at the rear of the building. The design is from the Diebold Lock and Safe Company of Canton, Ohio. The Oakville Jail and its twin in Mills County with their unique Diebold architecture are both listed in the National Register of Historic Places.