Residents of Magnolia woke up on the morning of May 24, 1957, to learn about what would turn out to be one of the strangest and most unusual events in the history of the county. It all began earlier that morning when a man driving a ton-and-a-half truck filled with a load of hogs heading west on East Main stopped at the red light in front of what was then the post office. The building, located at the corner of East Main and North Pine, has also served in the past as the Columbia County Library but is now a part of Farmer’s Bank.
After the light turned green, the truck driver accelerated and changed gears as he sped westward toward the courthouse. According to a witness, that’s when something happened and the strange sequence of events began.
The driver, J.W. Roach of Mt. Pleasant, Texas, apparently lost consciousness for whatever reason with his foot on the accelerator, and the truck gained speed as it approached the courthouse. According to another witness to the events, the ton-and-a-half truck failed to negotiate the turn and struck the curb at the courthouse head on with “the sound of an explosion.”
The truck hit the curb in front of the courthouse with such force that the rear end flipped up and soared into the air, clipping tree limbs off at a height of 30 feet and sending the hogs in the back of the truck flying. The truck struck the east front steps “with the sound of another explosion” as it landed and finally came to rest, the witness reported.
According to the story in the Banner-News that day, extensive damage was done to the courthouse steps, some to the front of the building, and debris from the wreck, including hogs, ended up on the second floor balcony. The momentum of the crash and the rear end of the truck being thrown into the air resulted in hogs being scattered all over the grounds of the courthouse, some living and others dead.
Jimmy Furr, a Magnolia resident who was 17 at the time, said he heard about the wreck that morning and went up to the square to see what was going on. “When I got there, I found out that the story was true. Hogs were running around everywhere, and people were trying to catch them. There were even people trying to rope the hogs,” he laughed.
Furr confirmed that some of the hogs were thrown onto the second floor balcony of the courthouse in an area where a number of retired gentleman played checkers every day. All this lends credence to the report that one or more hogs were loose in the area just outside the courtroom on the second floor.
A news story in the Hope Star gave a slightly different depiction of the crash and its aftermath. It reported that the truck, loaded with about 100 hogs, crashed into the Columbia County Courthouse early on the morning of May 24, injuring the driver and killing several of the hogs. According to the events reported in this newspaper, some of the animals were thrown through first and second story windows of the courthouse building, and the survivors roamed the streets around the square in downtown Magnolia.
The Hope Star indicated that the truck, traveling U.S. Highway 82, struck the courthouse square curbing and flipped end over end, smashing into the granite building. One of the hogs thrown through a second-floor window landed in a hallway outside the courtroom. Police said two of the hogs were later killed by early morning traffic, according to the news article in the Hope Star.
Another witness reported that when one of the hogs, which was lying on the sidewalk opposite the courthouse, suddenly rose up squealing, an elderly gentleman took flight for the safety of Whitlow’s Steakhouse just down the street on South Washington.
The driver of the truck suffered chest injuries, had the top of one kneecap gouged off, and had extensive bruises and other injuries. At the time of the report, his injuries were not considered to be life-threatening, though he was hospitalized.
This is one of the most unusual accidents and series of events that has ever occurred in Magnolia and Columbia County. Pigs flying, pig roping, pigs in the courtroom, pigs roaming the downtown area, pigs stopping traffic on U.S. Highway 82, and other pig stories caused quite the stir, and was the subject of conversation for some time, according to residents who are old enough to remember it.