About Chicken Ranch
Texas Chicken Ranch LaGrange was an illegal brothel that bartered chickens for sex to stay afloat. The prostitutes collected and provided intel to the local law enforcement. The Ranch is a longstanding centerpiece of Texas lore. It has found a wider audience through its fictionalized depiction in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. The city where Chicken Ranch operated, La Grange, Texas, bills itself as The Best Little Town in Texas, in homage to its most widely-known claim to fame.
But what is the real story behind the legend?
The Founding of Chicken Ranch
In 1905, 25-year-old Faye Stewart, operating under the alias Jessie Williams, was already an experienced madam. She and her co-owner, Francie Walker, ran a small brothel in Austin’s notorious – but legal – Guy Town district. Unfortunately for Jessie, Austin city council voted to shut down Guy Town in 1913. This made Austin one of the first cities to criminalize business in its vice district, hearkening the end of legal brothel houses in Texas.
In 1915, Miss Jessie and her new business partner decided to open up shop in La Grange, founding what would later be known as Chicken Ranch. La Grange was a small town located on the Colorado River. Its prostitution industry was undeveloped and unsightly. Most prostitutes worked out of dingy hotels in the La Grange downtown or in the dilapidated buildings “The Shacks,” a de facto vice district just outside town. None of these local establishments could compete with the quality and comfort of big-city brothels like those in Houston and San Antonio.
Noting this unmet need in the market, Miss Jessie purchased a small farmhouse just outside the city, which she billed as “Jessie Williams’ Fashionable Boarding House ” aka Texas Chicken Ranch in LaGrange Texas.
Chicken Ranch Texas: A La Grange Institution
While brothels like Miss Jessie’s technically existed outside the law in Texas, thanks to state-wide prohibition, madams like herself would often ally with local law enforcement. Jessie Williams, ever the shrewd businesswoman, took advantage of any opportunity to assist with ongoing investigations. She quickly made nice with the Fayette county sheriff, a Prussian immigrant named August Loessin.
Jessie also endeared herself to August’s brother, Will Loessen, who served as La Grange City Marshall for several years before taking on his brother’s title of Sheriff. He and Jessie maintained a friendly relationship for many years, founded on Jessie’s unending font of intelligence about local criminals.
When criminals patronized the “boarding house,” they would often brag about their illegal exploits to impress the women that served them. The prostitute they spoke to would relay these confessions back to Miss Jessie. She would, in turn, tell Will everything. The information was valuable enough that he frequented the house on a nearly daily basis, gathering intelligence and gossiping about goings-on around town. He spent so much time at the brothel, in fact, that his coworkers began to jokingly referred to Miss Jessie’s as his “office.”
The Texas Chicken Ranch in LaGrange Texas brothel was also protected from legal crackdowns thanks to its status as a reputable business. It did not tolerate drunkenness or gambling. While prostitutes were not allowed to have social interactions with townsfolk, they did contribute to the La Grange economy by regularly patronizing local businesses. All the girls underwent medical examination every week, checking for signs of then-fatal venereal diseases like syphilis.
One Chicken, One Screw
Miss Jessie’s brothel took on its legendary nickname, Texas Chicken Ranch in LaGrange Texas, during The Great Depression. Despite her brothel’s positive status in the community, Miss Jessie’s reputation could not fully insulate her businesses from the ravages of a failing economy. She was forced to lower prices and, when that wasn’t enough, come up with a novel idea: bartering chickens for sex.
Rather than paying money to visit the girls, Miss Jessie allowed patrons to purchase intercourse at the rate of “one chicken, one screw.” Soon enough, she was able to supplement the brothel’s revenue with the income from her sale of chicken meat and eggs. Thanks to her creative problem-solving, Chicken Ranch was born, and the business survived.
Jessie further endeared herself to the La Grange community with her generosity. She organized support for soldiers overseas, conscripting her girls to send letters and care packages abroad. In the late 1940s, when the town was in desperate need of a new hospital, Miss Jessie donated $10,000 – over $100,000 in 2021 dollars. While social conservatives in the town may not have approved of prostitution, Chicken Ranch was protected by the social good it brought to La Grange.
The Last Days of Chicken Ranch
Miss Jessie ran the Texas Chicken Ranch in LaGrange Texas with a strict hand until 1961, when her failing health made her unable to oversee the business as usual. Without her strict hand to maintain decorum, the house became disorderly and drew negative attention from the new Sheriff, Jim Flournoy, and ordered its temporary closure. Nearing the end of her life, Miss Jessie sold the business to one of her employees, Edna Milton. Upon her marriage to Powell Chapwell, Edna reserved her maiden name as a middle name and became Edna Milton Chadwell. But to her patrons and employees, she was always Miss Edna.
Miss Edna had taken on management responsibilities at the Texas Chicken Ranch brothel already for several years, and was well acquainted with Jessie’s way of doing business. She took after Miss Jessie in many ways, continuing the establishment’s dedication to philanthropy and rebuilding the brothel’s reputation with law enforcement. Sheriff Flournoy did not visit the ranch in person as frequently as his predecessor. However, he had a direct phone line installed in Edna’s office, so he could contact her daily to learn the newest gossip.
The Best Little Whorehouse Salary
In some ways, Miss Edna was more lenient with her employees than Miss Jessie had been. She encouraged bawdy jokes with clients, and gave her employees one week off per month so that they would not have to work while on their menstrual cycle. However, Miss Edna remained strict in other ways. She had a zero tolerance tolerance for drug use, and hired only veteran prostitutes with plenty of industry experience. Those she did hire at the Texas Chicken Ranch in Lagrange Texas had their medical and living expenses paid for, in addition to their take-home salaries. In the 1950s, prostitutes took home approximately $300 per week (about $2,500 in 2021 dollars).
Texas A&M Brothel Initiation
By the mid-century, Miss Edna’s Chicken Ranch was a local institution. It was known far outside the city limits of La Grange. Male freshmen at the nearby Texas A&M University often patronized the brothel as an initiation into the university culture. Female students were rumored to work there. The business ran without major scandal for decades. As long as Edna ran an orderly house, law enforcement remained satisfied.
That all changed in 1972, when Houston reporter Marvin Zindler ran an investigation of Chicken Ranch, looking into allegations of its involvement with criminal organizations. For Marvin, organized crime was a way in to a potentially salacious story. Although local law enforcement was satisfied with their arrangement, prostitution was still illegal in Texas. Zindler saw an opportunity to expose the corruption that he suspected kept Chicken Ranch afloat.
While he was originally unphased by the inquiry from this reporter out of Houston, Jim Flournoy eventually was overwhelmed with negative press. Although Fournoy denied all claims that the brothel was tied to organized crime, and although no evidence was found to substantiate the claims, social conservatives were shocked by law enforcement’s tolerance toward prostitution.
In 1973, Texas Governor Dolph Briscoe ordered Jim Fournoy to shut down the ranch. Left with no choice, Miss Edna closed its doors forever. She left La Grange to live a quiet life with her second husband, Clayton Chadwell.
Can you visit the Texas Chicken Ranch in LaGrange today?
Chicken Ranch in La Grange, Texas is no longer in operation today. Brothels have been illegal in Texas since the early 1900s, and there are no legal brothels in operation in Texas today. There is, however, an operational legal brothel in Nevada named Chicken Ranch Brothel, in honor of the original Texas institution.
The La Grange Chicken Ranch was the inspiration for runaway hit musical The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. Fans wishing to learn more about the “little whorehouse” and its real history can consult several books on the subject, most notably Jayme Lynn Blschke’s Inside the Texas Chicken Ranch: The Definitive Account of the Best Little Whorehouse. ZZ Top’s La Grange is also inspired by Chicken Ranch.
Chicken Ranch Texas Memorabilia
The ruins of the original Chicken Ranch are now on private property. Though many visitors to La Grange ask whether you visit Chicken Ranch, the owners have not publicized any tours of the property. However, Chicken Ranch memorabilia can be purchased from the City of La Grange Visitors’ Bureau gift shop, accessible online here. These pieces of Texas memorabilia include a Chicken Ranch coin, beer koozie, stickers, and even a framed (though not legally binding) deed to the property! There are other places to visit in Texas, especially if you are coming from California such as Texas spiritual retreats, Texas spas, Texas road trips and the art world in Austin and Dallas.
