Off The Beaten Path - Calvert, TX

[joe817]

CALVERT, TEXAS. Calvert is at the intersection of State Highway 6 and Farm roads 1644 and 979, on the Southern Pacific line nine miles north of Hearne in west central Robertson County. The earliest white settler in the area was Joseph Harlan, whose 1837 land grant lay five miles south of what is now the site of Calvert. In 1850 Robert Calvert, for whom the town was named, established a plantation west of the townsite. Calvert and other area farmers urged the Houston and Texas Central Railway to build through the area; the railroad arrived in 1868.

A group of investors purchased land at the townsite and platted the community in January of that year, and by February merchants from nearby communities such as Sterling and Owensville were moving to the new town. A post office also opened at the community in 1868. The first trains arrived there in 1869. Calvert incorporated with an aldermanic form of government in 1870. In 1870, as part of the Reconstruction political maneuvering in Robertson County, Calvert replaced Owensville as county seat.

Early that year the town was briefly occupied by federal troops; that year also the first school was founded in the community. The Republican party in the county drew much of its strength from black voters on the plantations in the Calvert area, and for a number of years the party was able to elect blacks from Calvert to county and state office. As a rail center and as county seat, Calvert prospered, and in 1871 the town claimed to have the largest cotton gin in the world. In 1873 a severe yellow fever epidemic killed many in the community. A county jail built in 1875 was still a local landmark more than a century later.

In 1878 Calvert was a thriving community with some fifty-two businesses. The next year the town of Morgan became county seat, but Calvert continued to prosper as a commercial center. By 1884 Calvert had an estimated 3,000 inhabitants, with Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, Episcopal, and Catholic churches, public schools, two banks, an opera house, and the weekly Courier. Around 1900 the community was a major cotton center, with a number of gins, cotton compresses, and cottonseed oil mills.

In 1899 the town was damaged by floods, and two years later a fire destroyed much of its business district. Calvert's population was reported as 3,322 in 1900, but thereafter it began to decline. The community had 2,579 residents in 1910, 2,099 in the mid-1920s, 2,366 in 1940, 2,561 in 1950, 2,073 in 1960, and 1,950 in the mid-1960s. In 1968 many former residents of the town visited to help its citizens celebrate Calvert's centennial. The population was 1,714 in 1980, 1,536 in 1990, and 1,426 in 2000.

[oohrah]

Calvert is also a notorious speed trap for folks traveling SH6 between Waco and College Station, not exactly off the beaten path. The city limits signs are way out of town and set the 55MPH limit signs coming from 75MPH. Many folks get nailed speeding up too early, or not slowing down quickly enough. They vigorously enforce speed limits.

[joe817]

Calvert is also a notorious speed trap for folks traveling SH6 between Waco and College Station, not exactly off the beaten path. The city limits signs are way out of town and set the 55MPH limit signs coming from 75MPH. Many folks get nailed speeding up too early, or not slowing down quickly enough. They vigorously enforce speed limits.

, and it's been that way since at least 1962, when I first started traveling down SH6, from Henrietta to Bryan where I attended Allen Military Academy. And I'm sure not everybody has either heard of have been through Calvert.

[n5wmk]

Calvert is also a notorious speed trap for folks traveling SH6 between Waco and College Station, not exactly off the beaten path. The city limits signs are way out of town and set the 55MPH limit signs coming from 75MPH. Many folks get nailed speeding up too early, or not slowing down quickly enough. They vigorously enforce speed limits.

Yep. It used to be common to see the Calvert patrol officer with his car backed up so his rear bumper was almost touching the city limit sign.

Years ago, I lived in Bryan, and we had a microwave relay site just outside of Calvert. Needed to make weekly visits to that site. On one of the first trips, my boss told me that I'd be going to a place that the Mayor of Los Angeles would like to go to as well. When I asked why, he said that the then Mayor of LA (Tom Bradley) was born in Calvert.

From Wikipedia: Bradley, the grandson of a slave, was born on December 29, 1917, to Lee Thomas and Crenner Bradley, poor sharecroppers who lived in a small log cabin outside Calvert, Texas.

[C-dub]

Calvert is also a notorious speed trap for folks traveling SH6 between Waco and College Station, not exactly off the beaten path. The city limits signs are way out of town and set the 55MPH limit signs coming from 75MPH. Many folks get nailed speeding up too early, or not slowing down quickly enough. They vigorously enforce speed limits.

That’s what I thought this thread was going to be about. And only that!

[oohrah]

Joe817- I love your posts. Keep 'em up.

[joe817]

Joe817- I love your posts. Keep 'em up.

Thanks oorah for the kind words!