I found the following article while researching in Raymondville. It is undated and the author is identified only as E.G.L. I believe it was probably written sometime in the 1950's.
THE TREE THAT WAS A JAIL
Another landmark of pioneer days disappeared
last week from Raymondville when the old mesquite tree on the vacant lot in
the rear of the Raymondville State Bank was felled. The tree stood alone and
had reached a height of forty feet and girth of over seven feet.
In the early years of the 1900's, cowboys used it for hitching post and families
from distant ranches sat in its shade in their wagons while buying supplies
at the old frame Lacoma general store where the bank now stands. Shining late
model cars now find it a convenient parking place.
But most thrilling is the recollection of early settlers of the dramatic days
of 1915 and 1916 and bandit raids from across the border, when the tree served
as this little community's only jail. Handcuffed to this tree the "bandito"
was soon in a Model T Ford with officers bound for Brownsville, the county
seat of Cameron County of which this section was a part prior to 1925.
If on the 50 mile trip, detours thru pasture gates to be opened were a part,
rumors were sometimes afloat that no expensive trial was needed for the culprit
who may have been the "feroz alternativa" of the "ley de fuga"
and by many a pasture gate a newly made grave and boots barely covered with
earth was marked with a single cross. The verdict may well have been "shot
while attempting escape".
The more timid settlers returned to the less hectic life of the stayed communities
of the far north but some thru the nearly forty years that have elapsed have
watched the primitive life of the pioneer replaced by modern living of today.
The tree that was a jail is only a memory and soon a modern office building
will occupy the ground where its stubborn roots stretched out in search of
food and water from the soil.