About the Calvert Historical Foundation

The earliest known settler in the Calvert area was Joseph Harlan, whose 1837 land grant laid five miles south of what is now the City of Calvert. In 1850, Robert Calvert, for whom the town was named, established a plantation west of the town. Calvert, who was a former Texas Representative and area farmer urged the Houston and Texas Central Railway to build through the area. The Houston and Texas Central Railroad agreed to stop in the town, at the encouragement of town leaders, in 1868.

In January 1868, a group of investors purchased land at the townsite and platted the community; by February of that year, merchants from the nearby communities including Sterling and Owensville were uprooting and moving to the community. A post office also opened in Calvert in 1868. The first trains arrived in Calvert in 1869, and the town was incorporated the next year with an aldermanic form of municipal government.

Although the Stroud family owned most of the land, the town was named for Robert Calvert because he was a driving force behind getting the railroad to stop in the town. The order of election for the incorporation of Calvert was issued July 5, 1869, but a majority actually voted against incorporation. This election was set aside because it was believed that "a fair expression of the qualified voters was not had," and a new election was held Saturday, July 24, 1869, a majority voted for incorporation, and the town was ordered incorporated on August 13, 1869.

After the railroad made Calvert the major trading center of the area, it was reported that It was a common sight to see six or eight wagons drawn by oxen slowly passing through the one and only street of these towns en route to Houston to dispose of their cotton. These wagons averaged ten miles a day. The team-masters usually owned their teams and were paid so much per hundred pounds for hauling freight.

In 1870 the former county seat of Owensville was replaced by Calvert. Just nine years later the voters of Robertson County voted to move the county seat to nearby Morgan, now named Franklin. The original courthouse i n Calvert still stands today, is privately owned and operates as a bed and breakfast.

By 1871, the town claimed to have the largest cotton gin in the world. Eventually, P.C. and J.H. Gibson, Jr., took over the gin. It had 21 stands and a connected oil mill. The gin served a significant portion of the Brazos River bottoms. A total of 32,000 bales were reported received in 1882.

In 1873 a severe yellow fever epidemic killed many in the community, severely depopulating the town. The disease was brought to town by a traveling printer from Louisiana where the fever was raging. He took a room over the restaurant in the Bailey building and died there. As many persons as could made an exodus before the town was quarantined. Calvert lost between three and four hundred persons. The fever was a terrible epidemic, and Calvert suffered because they did not know how to treat the disease. The trains were not allowed to stop in Calvert and the windows of the coaches were closed until they were far out of town.

A county jail was built in 1875. By 1878, Calvert had 52 businesses. 

In 1909, Calvert established Texas’ first chapter house of the American Woman’s League. Today, the restored, Prairie School-style building is the Katy Hamman-Stricker Women’s Heritage Center and local visitors’ center. 

Pick up a map and drive through Calvert’s 37-block National Historic District. See a multitude of historic homes, churches, other building and cemeteries. 

Antiques stores, restaurants, art galleries and specialty shops operate behind colorful, pressed-tin and brick facades. Residences exemplify the Queen Anne, Italianate and Colonial Revival styles. Home tours each December celebrate Calvert’s lavish past. Year-around you can sample the delicacies that have brought this Victorian community 21st Century renown: Excellent dining, artisan coffee, award winning winery, first class bakery and more. 

Material in this section is sourced from Wikipedia and local sources within the Calvert area.