Freestone County, Texas
Reflections




[SPECIAL THANKS to Linda Mullen for transcribing and Margaret Tolar for locating.]



Diary of Mrs. Frances “Fannie or Frankie” (Noland) Anderson
(Fannie was born in 1850.  She married Judge Asa Green Anderson on May 14, 1868 
 in Freestone County. )

FREESTONE COUNTY HISTORY With J.R. (Sonny) Sessions, Jr.
Freestone County Times, Nov. 16, 2004:  Mrs. Anderson’s Ledger #4

“Fairfield”
  When the Civil War broke over our Southland there were several Companies of 
Troops organized at Fairfield, one called the Butter Milk Calvary.  They were 
the Home Guard, the young men.  We don’t know what Co. was camped in the suburbs 
of town, one day they learned the officers had a white woman in jail.  Now that 
was something never happened in our county and they would not stand for that, 
so they planned to take her out that night.  Now we never knew she was, where 
she came from or what she had done.  Our Sheriff was no coward, he just didn’t 
want any of these men hurt so decided to hide out with the keys but that never 
daunted them.  They got crowbars and an axe and went to work on that jail.  We 
had a two-story brick courthouse though the jail was a hewn log building (this 
the first of five jails and located just north of the Calvary Baptist Church 
parking lot).
  I was spending the night with my chum Sue, she had two older sisters and a 
younger brother, all were sitting around the table with a lamplight.  One of the 
girls was reading aloud, Aunt Mary sitting by sewing or knitting.  All at once 
we heard a HO Rah and men laughing in the streets, we children jumped up and ran 
out to the front gate where we had a good view of the jail as it was on the 
opposite side of the street just a few blocks away.  They had a bonfire that lit 
up the front of the jail and a number of men milling around and talking and 
laughing.  We heard the ax going wack, wack, when a big chip flew out all would 
yell.  Billie being a boy he ran over there to see the fun and bring us girls 
the news.  He said they never stopped cutting those logs until the woman could 
crawl out, they sent her home that night and she was never brought back as there 
were more important things on hand.