Business card for John Patterson Osterhout, an attorney and collector of claims for Austin and surrounding counties. On the back of the card is a note concerning that if money was collected from a claim, it would be paid to someone while John would retain half as commission.

Letter from John Patterson Osterhout to his mother, Sarah Osterhout, regarding his time in Bellville, Texas since his recent move there. He was undecided about whether or not he would remain in the county or travel around Texas. He wrote about how sparse buildings were where he lived and that the way wealth was measured there was not by amount of land, but by the amount of slaves owned. Many in the area had begun growing their own gardens and he had learned from them that he needed to be careful of poisonous spiders and centipedes. John told his mother that the mail was arriving with irregularity and they were lucky if they got it once a week.