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China Man LbNA #57124

Owner:Baby Bear
Plant date:Mar 4, 2011
Location: Calvert Cemetery
City:Calvert
County:Robertson
State:Texas
Boxes:1
Found by: Walksfar
Last found:Aug 17, 2013
Status:FFFFFFa
Last edited:Mar 4, 2011
Difficulty: Easy
Distance: drive by

*** Part of the Immigrants of Texas Series ***


****** Log is damaged, but box and stamp still active ***

The first in any numbers of Chinese in Texas worked on railroad construction crews. Nearly three hundred Chinese workers were brought from California to Texas (through St. Louis and down the Mississippi before the railroads they would build) to work the Houston and Texas Central construction in late 1869 and 1870.

Living in tents and shacks, the workers were provided daily food and a small wage. Contracted for five years, these arrivals worked less than two in the Hearne-Calvert-Bremond area of Robertson County. Labor and wage problems brought their work to an end, and, in the central East Texas setting at the construction head, they were rather obvious.
At the end of their employment, over a hundred individuals stayed in or near Robertson County as sharecroppers. Their presence started the rumor that the Chinese were brought in as farm laborers. Almost certainly, sharecropping was the only work they could find—a condition they shared with African Americans in many areas. Of the Robertson County Chinese, one was later called a "huckster"—probably a peddler or salesman. Three men married local blacks and one a white, but they kept a low-enough profile to have been almost forgotten.

This box is in the Calvert Cemetery, where I'm sure some of these old immigrants are located.


Directions:
From Hwy 6 coming from Hearne, as you enter town you will go left on Harper (but it is not marked here - so just past the bridge and before reaching La Mission Beatista on left, turn left on street which is Harper). Go to M L King (on right) and look left for "Zone 6" sign at entry of cemetery. Turn left into cemetery and go straight back to far side and park by big tree near triagle of road.

To the Letterbox:
Find headstone for "Inez Lyles". Go east from the tree near her for 15 steps to Large tree in the brush. Box is on back side base of the large tree.