The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 65, July 1961 - April, 1962 Page: 41
663 p. : ill., maps (some col.), ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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D. A. Orviss: Texas Merchant
pictures and plates. The better buggies sold from $175 to $300.48
Wagons sold at Calvert were the Studebaker wagon and those
manufactured at Jackson, Michigan, and Moline, Illinois. The
cost of each was from $85 to $ioo depending upon the width of
tire and the make." Orviss listed the standard of excellence as
the Studebaker with the Jackson as second best, although he
wrote of the good qualities of the Moline. Other brands and
makes were not popular in the Calvert trade territory.
Goods sold at Calvert received a substantial markup over the
invoice as shown by the price of wide brim, black Planters hats
which were purchased for sixty-five to seventy-five cents each and
sold for $1.oo to $1.25.45 A cross section of other items for the
Calvert market would include flour, ducking, groceries, whiskey,
leather, saddles, bridles, Mexican spurs, blacksmith coats, shoes,
brogans, pistols, gin supplies, violins, garden seed, drug store
items, looking glasses, sewing machines, and women's underwear.
Besides being engaged in the mercantile store business, Orviss
speculated in Texas real estate. By 1871, he owned twelve com-
plete and two one-half lots in Calvert, on which some of the
property had store buildings and some had houses;46 a half league
of land near Jefferson, in Marion County, approximately 19o
miles to the northeast of Calvert;47 8,097 acres in Brazoria County
which was west of Galveston near the coast, and approximately
150 miles south of Calvert;48 a league near Quitman, in Wood
County, approximately 16o miles northeast of Calvert;49 and, 289
acres in Trinity County, approximately eighty miles east of Cal-
vert.50 Orviss also owned one and one-half blocks at Richland in
3SD. A. Orviss to F. R. Lubbock and Son, Galveston, May 4, 1869; D. A. Orviss
to James Ford, Howard, Bell County, June 4, 1870; D. A. Orviss to Demarest
Atkinson Company, Galveston, June 3, 1870o, ibid.
44D. A. Orviss to D. D. Streeter and Brother, St. Joseph, Missouri, April 1, 1872;
D. A. Orviss to Austin, Tomlinson, and Webster, Jackson, Michigan, September 21,
1871, ibid.
45D. A. Orviss to E. M. Stackpole, May 1, 1869, ibid.
46D. A. Orviss Ledger, 1868-1874, ibid.
4TD. A. Orviss to W. L. Alexander, Quitman, April 28, 1869, ibid.
48D. A. Orviss to J. E. Wilson, Brazoria, April 12, 1870, ibid.
49D. A. Orviss to J. W. Alexander, Quitman, Wood County, August 6, 1870,
June 28, 1872, ibid.
8oD. A. Orviss to E. A. Bush, November 3, 1872, ibid.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 65, July 1961 - April, 1962, periodical, 1962; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101195/m1/55/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.