Part 8, Note 56

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Harrison, "The Epidemic of 1873, in Columbus, Texas," Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, vol. 2, no. 3, September 1992, pp. 131-157; Colorado County District Court Records, Minute Book F, p. 63; Fayette County New Era, October 24, 1873, November 7, 1873, November 14, 1873, November 21, 1873, December 5, 1873; Galveston Daily News, October 21, 1873, October 22, 1873, October 23, 1873, November 7, 1873, November 19, 1873, November 23, 1873, December 2, 1873, December 11, 1873; Colorado Citizen, July 20, 1876, September 12, 1878, March 25, 1880, May 22, 1884; Colorado County District Court Records, Minute Book E, p. 366. The incarceration in the countryside provided Colorado County's prisoners with their second easy opportunity to escape in three months. On July 26, when a woman named McCarter had been arrested for stealing, the jailor refused to put her in the jail's single cell because eight men, most of them black, were already inside. Instead, he let her sit in the office; and when he left the building, she unlocked the cell door and she and all the other prisoners escaped (see Fayette County New Era, August 1, 1873).