Home Area of Chinese Farmers
Calvert, Robertson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Imported from Asia about 1874 to help in cotton fields, these exotic workers wore queues and attracted much notice. At least 24 families were brought here; many became permanent residents, respected for their good work. Over 25 ethnic groups settled in Texas-- many having preceded the Chinese. Other than American Indians, first permanent Texas settlers were cattle raisers from the Canary Islands. Other migrant groups included Cuban cigar makers and European lace makers. Given new opportunities, their descendants now are in industry, business, professions.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
About 1874, at least two dozen Chinese families were brought to the Calvert area to labor in the cotton fields, arriving with queues and drawing much notice from their neighbors. Many stayed on as permanent, respected residents, and their descendants moved into industry, business, and the professions. The marker sets their story within Texas's broad immigrant tapestry—more than twenty-five ethnic groups, from Canary Islanders and Cuban cigar makers to European lace makers, who helped settle the state.
Why it matters
It records an often-overlooked chapter of Chinese immigration to the rural South and Texas's remarkable ethnic diversity, showing how newcomers put down lasting roots far from the coasts.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Casimir Drugstore
Calvert, TX
Sometime after 1869, Jean Pierre Casimir, a native of Toulouse, France, built this structure in the thriving cotton town of Calvert and opened a drugstore his family would run until 1949. A rear patio linked the store to the Palace Opera House, which the Casimirs also owned and operated. For eighty years the building anchored one immigrant family's remarkable footprint on a single Texas main street.
Jacques Adoue Building
Calvert, TX
Jacques Adoue was the youngest of three French brothers who came to Texas in the 1860s and rose to become business leaders in Calvert, Dallas, and Galveston. This handsome store, built for the Collat, Adoue & Risser dry-goods firm, set an ambitious commercial tone for the town, and when Adoue died in 1906 of injuries from a Calvert cotton-compress fire, friends felt an era had passed with him.
Mistrot-Adoue House
Calvert, TX
Built in the 1870s by either Henry B. Mistrot or Bertrand Adoue—business partners linked through Adoue's brother Jacques—this two-story Calvert residence blends Greek Revival and Victorian styling, its French owners' heritage reflected in fleur-de-lis patterns worked into the woodwork. The prominent businessman Jacques Adoue bought the home in 1888, and it remained in his family until 1977. It was named a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1980.
Calvert Jewish Cemetery
Calvert, TX
In the decades when railroads stitched Texas together, the Houston and Texas Central line brought a small but thriving Jewish community to Calvert. Merchants like the Sanger brothers, Rudolph Oscar and Jake Abrams opened stores, a grand hotel and a saloon, and by 1870 Jewish families ran roughly sixteen downtown businesses. Without a synagogue or rabbi, the community still kept its traditions and, beginning in the 1870s, consecrated this cemetery — the first section bought during a yellow fever outbreak — where about 125 people now rest.