King’s History of Maries County

Presents

 

The

ROBERSON

 

FAMILY

 

 

 

Lapse of time has made the early history of the Rober­son family very difficult to assemble, especially so since the oldest members of it now living are the third and fourth generation from the original settlers. The very first record of them is on April 9, 1826, when Hiram Robertson (note the 't') and Elizabeth Coil (Coyle) were married in Osage Township of Gasconade County by James Harrison, Justice of the Peace. (James Harrison's place of business and his Seat of Justice were near present Ar­lington in Phelps County) Elizabeth was no doubt one of the family of that name who had settled on Coyle Creek some years earlier, so the first Robersons appear to have settled in the neighbor hood of where most of the fam­ily have always lived--on and near Dry Creek. (Eliza­beth's brother was the first bridegroom in the county, having married a Johnson in 1824). Hiram Roberson's

 

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name does not appear on our records again; the Old Ones of that family do not know his relationship to their ances­tors, but know that he was related.

 

After 1826 we have no record of the Robersons for about ten years, until Roysdon Roberson entered parts of the Behm and Otto places just south of Vienna. His father was also Roysdon Roberson, and Roysdon Senior was a brother of Stephen and William who settled on Dry Creek, so it is likely that all this branch of the family came here together in 1835 or even before, since all three names begin to appear in our records at the same time. They were Tennesseans and came here directly from that state.

 

Roysdon Roberson, the elder, was married and all his children were born before he came here, and our informa­tion is that he did not live long after settling in his home here. Six children came here with him, and it is thought that one son may have stayed in Tennessee or moved elsewhere--but more of that later. Of the six who came here, William married a Newberry and moved to Laclede Coun­ty many years ago; of his children a son, James R. Rober­son, moved to and died near Claremore, Oklahoma, where William, his son, now lives; there is no record of any oth­ers.

 

Bettie married George Higgins; Nancy married Rufus Edmonston; and 'Doc' also married here. All went to Tex­as and there has been no connection with them since be­fore the Civil War. John P. Roberson also married here but has been gone more than eighty years, and it is likely that he moved to Texas with the others.

 

The remaining son to come here, Roysdon Roberson Junior, seems to have been the businessman of the lot. He entered land, improves it, and was married to Selbrina, daughter of Thomas Petit Fulkerson. The Fulkersons and Robersons were neighbors in Tennessee and left there at the same time, the Fulkersons turning north into present

 

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Indiana and living there a few years before coming to Mis­souri; their Missouri home was a part of the present Harve Tackett place. The young Roberson couple lived here a year or two after their marriage, then sold out and moved to or near Dallas, Texas, likely to the other mem­bers of the family who had gone there before. But they did not like the country and after a few years returned to this county and entered the land where their son, Thomas, later lived, where they spent the remainder of their lives. Roysdon Roberson Junior died in 1864 of pneumonia contracted while at home on furlough from the Union Army. His widow later married Henry Lawson and was the moth­er of one daughter, Nancy, later the wife of Joseph T. Eads. Roysdon Roberson was Presiding Judge of Osage County before Maries County was organized, and was otherwise prominent in the affairs of both counties. Roys­don and Selbrina were the parents of four children living to maturity: Carroll, Thomas, Martha, and Adalida; all of them now dead.

 

Carroll Roberson, who was born before the family went to Texas, married Irene, daughter of Richard Prewett, and was the father of two daughters, Martha and Nancy; the former the wife of Charles T. Parker, lives on Spring Creek in Phelps County, and Nancy, first wife of W. T. Wright is long since dead; her six children were Cleta, Loyd, James, William, Ida, and Oma Wright, but their addresses and married names are not known. Her widow­er, now remarried, lives at Dixon.

 

Thomas Roberson married Martha Isabelle Bull. He died at the Roysdon Roberson place, which he had owned many years, in February 1937, aged seventy-seven, sur­vived by his widow and their four children, John, Glenn, and Mrs. Perry Martin, all of this county, and May, wife of Tade Nelson of Granite City, Illinois.

 

Martha Roberson married John Bull, and both have been dead many years. Their one child, Lucy, married dark

 

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Nelson and moved to Ohio a number of years ago, where both died; their six children are: Alice who married a Biggs and lives at Lebanon, Missouri; Amos in Hawaii; Or a who married a Briggs in Ashland, Ohio; the other three, Josie, Oral, and Leona, all lived in Ohio at last report.

 

Adalida Roberson was the second wife of Isaac Duke and died several years before her husband. Of her eight children, the six yet living are: Jennie, wife of J. P. Tackett; Josephine, wife of Mart Cook; and Car roll Duke, all of this county; and Isaac, Levi, and David Duke, all of Granite City. Dewey, twin to David, is dead; his descend­ants are noted in the Goforth section of the chapter on Early Physicians. Amanda, the oldest child, married Wil­liam Derrell and died some time before her parents. She is survived by her widower and her son, Joseph, of this county, and her daughter, Mary, wife of William Ray of Pulaski County.

 

Something like fifty years ago the families of James and Joseph Roberson moved to this county from north Missouri and settled near the Maries-Miller County line. Prior to the time they came to this state they had lived in Illinois, and before that in Indiana. Both were men up in years when they came here. James was the father of twelve children, but Joseph had none.

 

They had a tradition in the family that their uncle, Roys­don Roberson, had been a County Judge in Osage County in an early day, and lived in the south part of that county. Such inquiry as they made, however, was in the southern part of Osage County as now constituted, and it may be that both James and Joseph Roberson died before locating their uncle's former home, which was in the extreme part (south) of Osage County as it was before 1855, some­thing like ten miles south of the present south line of that county. We believe that this known kinship establishes them as descending from a son of Roysdon Roberson Senior

 

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who never came to this county and who had likely set­tled in Indiana with the Fulkersons.

 

Of the nine children of James Roberson (they spell it with the 't' restored) who are yet living Joseph lives in Ralls County; Pleasant in Laclede County; Andrew, Hen­ry, and Lafayette in Colorado; Roysdon and Nimrod in Cole County; and James near Safe in this county.

 

Isaac R. Roberson, the son who passed away, was born at Quincy, Illinois, March 23, 1869, and died at Belle Ju­ly 7, 1937. His first wife's name has not been received; she has been dead many years and is survived by her two sons, Roscoe of St. Louis, and Otis of Iberia. In addition, three children died in infancy. His second marriage, to Martha, widow of Thomas Berry, was childless.

 

The other deceased children are: Lucy who married Price Hoskins and died near Eldon a few years ago; she left children, but their names and addresses are not at hand. Callie is the other deceased daughter; she married William Barnhart and is survived by her two sons, Virgil of this county, and Everett of Illinois.

 

William Roberson, the brother of Stephen and Roysdon Senior, was probably the oldest of the three. He was mar­ried to Sarah Sisco in Tennessee and at least five of their twelve children were born before they came to Missouri. His only known home here was on Dry Creek, now owned and lived on by Christy Davis. Like William J. Roberson, his distant kinsman, he was a minister in the Methodist Church and was active in that capacity during most of his adult life. By his first marriage he was the father of elev­en children living to maturity, and after the death of his first wife married Caroline, widow of Willliam Williams, nee McAfee, who bore one more child. He died at his home on Dry Creek at an advanced age more than sixty years ago, and his second wife, who afterwards married John D. Beckman, is also long since dead, as are nearly all the

 

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children of his first marriage.

 

Of the eleven children born of this marriage, three, Lewis, Willis, and Green Roberson died single, Lewis having been killed by bushwhackers while at home on a furlough from the army, and Willis being killed in battle. Another son, Ambrose, was killed during the war. He is thought to have been married and to have been survived by one daughter, Mary, who married George W. Irvin; her present address, if she is living, is not known.

 

Patsy, the oldest child of William Roberson, married 'Doc' Doyle and was the mother of one child, William, who married Tabitha, daughter of Hiram Perkins. Both are now dead, survived by their three children, Claude of Pulaski County, Bruce of New York, and Ida whose mar­ried name and address are not at hand.

 

Amanda Roberson married Jack Beckham, and her record is given in the Beckham chapter.

 

J. Clark Roberson married Jennie Carter, and both are now dead, as is Will, one of their five children; Will's wife was Lou Davis, and he is survived by his two daugh­ters, Leta, wife of Floyd Crawford of Dixon, and Obedi­ence (Bedie) who married a Vaughan and now lives in Tulsa. The four living children of dark Roberson are: James who married Lillie Harroll and lives in Bennington, Okla­homa; Martha, wife of Iral Bolte of Sterling, Color ado, Mrs. Minnie Pettit of Houston, Texas, and Lottie, wife of William Southard of Rolla.

 

Ewing Roberson's first wife was Addie, daughter of George Shelton, from along the Maries-Miller County line, where she was born and raised. At least one child was born of this union, but if it survived there is no record of any descendants. His second wife was Martha Carter (sis­ter of dark's wife) by whom he was the father of two chil­dren: Sarah who first married George McAfee and is now

 

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the wife of Pearl Sparks of Jefferson City, and Rebecca who died in early girlhood. During his first two marriages he had lived at least a part of the time in Arkansas, to which state he now returned, and where he spent the re­mainder of his life and died. He married the third time in that state, but the maiden name of his wife and the names and number and present addresses of his several children by this marriage are not known here.

 

Hilda (Hulda) Roberson, one of the family known to have been native of this county, was born about 1844. She mar­ried Mason Woods, who was born in Tennessee more than one hundred twenty-five years ago (she may have been his second wife). He lived for a time in Illinois, but spent his mature years in Missouri, in the southern part of this county and around Hancock in Pulaski County, where he died. Two of the three children born of this marriage are yet living: Mason Junior lives in Oklahoma where he has practiced as a veterinarian more than thirty years, and Sally, wife of Pat Malone, lives east of Dixon just over the line in Pulaski County. Mason Junior had no children, but adopted a daughter. Sally Malone is the mother of five children living to maturity: D. W. at Newburg; Mrs. Mary Stickney and Mrs. Maud Dempsey, of St. Louis; and Mike and Woodrow, of Pulaski County. Mrs. Eula Sage, daugh­ter of a deceased daughter, lives in St. Louis, and in ad­dition, two other children died in infancy. Robert Woods, the third child, died in a nitroglycerine explosion in Okla­homa May 16, 1934. His wife was Grace Dowling, and he is survived by his widow and their three children, Jack, Robert, and Mrs. Marilla Coates, all of Tulsa.

 

Sarah Roberson married William N. Fortune, who was born in Georgia November 14, 1849, and died in this coun­ty March 13, 1929. They made their home most of their married life in the Dry Creek vicinity, where all of their nine children were born and grew to maturity. Of the nine Tom was killed by a horse about 1909 or 1910, single; Elijah, the oldest son, enlisted in the army at the outbreak

 

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of the Spanish War, served most of his enlistment, and possibly a second, in the Philippines, and thereafter made the islands his home; so far as known he is still living; the other seven children are Tony, Mason, Harvey, Mrs. Sallie Thomas, Mrs. Mary Fowler, Mrs. Cansada Peters, and Mrs. Victoria Yoakum, the last a widow. All live in Oklahoma, most around Pawhuska.

 

Jane Roberson, the youngest daughter and next to the youngest child of the first marriage, married Robert Brock, and now of very lately lived at Phoenix, Arizona. She has been a widow for many years.

 

Walter Roberson, the only child born of William Rober­son's second marriage, lives in this county, he and Mrs. Brock being the only members of the second generation now living.

 

Stephen Roberson, the third of the brothers, was born in east Tennessee about 1809, and came here with the rest of the family some time in the decade between 1825 and 1835. He was married here to Nancy Colvin and they made their lifelong home on Dry Creek, their home farm being now owned by Raymond Nelson. Mrs. Roberson died several years before her husband, who several years afterward married Mrs. Eliza Kinney, who was first the widow of Nicholas Cox Senior; no children were born of this mar­riage. His five children were: William. Lorenzo, Martha, Elizabeth, and Lindsay.

 

William (Wid), likely the oldest, was born here Febru­ary 5, 1838, and spent his entire life in this county. He was married here March 7, 1858, to Mary Ann McNabb, who was born in Tennessee October 11, 1840, and who died here April 3, 1874. Of the four children born of this mar­riage Lucy died single; Charles M.Roberson lives in this county, and William A. Roberson lives at Rolla; the fourth child, Rhoda, later wife of James H. Minzes, is dead, sur­vived by her four children, Arminta, widow of Stephen

 

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Martin and now wife of Christy Sheldon, and Margaret, wife of Ben Jennings of this county, Lucy wife of James Clayton of Rolla, and Perry Minzes of near St. Clair. William Roberson's second marriage, on March 21, 1875, was to Lucinda, widow of George Bullock and daughter of Stephen Mason, by whom he was the father of two children, Dollie, widow of Henderson Copeland, and Edna, widow of Joshua Sneed, both of this county. William Roberson died December 25, 1909. His second wife is also long since dead.

 

Lorenzo (Ran) Roberson, son of Stephen, married Maria Davis. He spent most of his adult life in Franklin and Crawford counties, where he died in early middle age sur­vived by his widow (now deceased) and his four sons, Rich­ard, Stephen, Thomas, and Monroe. The first three still live in the same general territory where their father lived. Monroe, who married Cynthia Campbell, died at Competi­tion, Laclede County, twenty of more years ago. His two sons, Earl and Wayne, live at Topeka, Kansas. His only daughter, Delphia, later wife of Colmar Glawson of Rolla, is also dead, but her descendants, if any, have not been received.

 

Martha Roberson, daughter of Stephen, married a man named Austin, and her sister, Elizabeth, who died Novem­ber 23, 1883, married David Fulkerson; no children were born of either marriage.

 

Lindsay G. Roberson, the fifth and remaining child of Stephen, married Polly Hicks, who seems to have been a daughter of William Davis' second wife by her first mar­riage. Like his father, he and his wife spent their entire married lives on Dry Creek on the farm where they first settled after their marriage, and where all of their nine children were born. Seven of these are still living, as follows: Stephen (Bud) and Gordon on Dry Creek; Mar­tha, wife of Jim Tom Fulkerson in Pulaski County; Fred in Wisconsin; James and Warren, both policemen, and

 

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Nancy, wife of Levi Copeland, also a policeman, in St. Louis. Lumima, who married Henry Saak and lived most of her married life in Wisconsin, died childless. Mary, the remaining child, and her husband. Perry Wilson, are both dead, survived by four of their five children, Albert and Rosetta, widow of James Doyle, in this county, Alfred in Wisconsin, and Eugene at Red Lodge, Montana; Mary, the fifth child, died single.

 

We do not know the exact relationship of Reverend Wil­liam J. Roberson and his brothers and sisters to Roysdon, William, and Stephen Roberson; Thomas Roberson, grand­son of the first Roysdon, told me he thought they were cousins of some degree. All came here about the same time, and all lived in the same general neighborhood, their father is nowhere mentioned, but their mother, Drucilla Roberson, is known to have lived here and to have died prior to 1846, and they seem to have, at least at first, lived alongside of and adjoining the Roysdon Roberson land just south of Vienna.

 

So far as they have been identified, her seven children seem to have been: Matilda, wife of Henry Parker; Drucil­la, wife of Harland Edmondson; Polly Helton; William, and James Roberson, and another sister who never came here but who evidently started, for she died near Belleville, Illinois. The second wife of Reverend Edward Moss, for­merly the widow Hutton, was the seventh child, and her descendants will be found in the Moss chapter. If, as some of the old records seem to indicate, there were eight brothers and sisters in all, the other never appeared in any records to be identified, and no trace of any descend­ant has come to light.

 

The married name of the sister who died at Belleville was Orton, and she was the mother of three children, Sid­ney, Joseph, and Malinda; their father does not appear on our records. Relatives here went to Belleville and brought the children, all small, to this county where they made

 

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their home with the members of the family until their ma­jority. Sidney and Joseph Orton married here and moved to Arkansas after the Civil War, since that time all con­nection with them has been lost. Malinda first married a Benton, and after his death was the second wife of Barnett Finn, under which name her descendants are listed.

 

Henry Parker and his wife, Martha, lived in the Bloomgarden neighborhood, and both died there, the par­ents of seven children: James, William, Drucilla, wife of Squire Coffey, Mrs. David Cox, Mrs. Myscal Johnson, Polly, wife of Joseph Myers, and Malinda, wife of William H. Spratley. James Parker's account will be found in the Lane and Wherry chapter. William married a daughter of William Followill Senior, and both he and his wife died early in life leaving a son and a daughter, the latter dying single before 1860. The son, Monroe Parker, went to Wright County with his uncle James. All the other children are treated under their married names except Mrs. Ma­linda Spratley.

 

Malinda, probably the youngest child of James Parker, was born August 9, 1849, and died August 6. 1918. She was married July 3, 1865, to William H., son of William E. Spratley, one of the old-time linemen for the Western Union Telegraph Company. She spent all her married life in this county, surviving her husband something like ten years. Of the seven children born of this marriage three are yet living: James H. at Valparaiso, Indiana, and Ed­ward and Charles in this county. The four who have passed away are William, Alfred, Lydia, and Ada.

 

William Spratley died about 1928 or 1929 at Granite City, survived by his widow, Mrs. Maggie Spratley, and four children: Mrs. Freda Fiesler of Hammond, Indiana, Leota, single, and Hiram of St. Louis, and another daugh­ter who married and later died, leaving three children in St. Louis; her married name is not recalled by relatives here. Another son, Howard Spratley, died before his

 

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father, single, having been killed in the wreck of the diri­gible Shenandoah. Alfred Spratley died in Oregon in the flu epidemic of 1918. He was married in the west, but it is not known whether or not he left children. His widow, now Mrs. Reynolds, lives in Los Angeles. Lydia Spratley left one son, Albert, of this county, by her marriage to Albert Curtis. Ada Spratley died childless.

 

Drucilla Edmondson and Polly Helton have not been identified, nor has any descendant been traced to them. They may have moved away, died without issue, or their identity have been lost through second marriage. No de­scendants of James Roberson have been found, nor the maiden name of his wife, Lucinda.

 

William J. Roberson, the remaining brother, spent his entire adult life in the ministry of the Methodist Church. He was born November 6, 1816, and died May 14, 1872. His first wife was Nancy Crawford who was born in 1818 and died August 1, 1853. The date and place of their mar­riage are not known. The three children born of this mar­riage, the first two certainly and the third probably, dead, were: Jane who married Riley Duncan and whose only daughter, Amanda, widow of B. F. Eads, lives in this county. Drucilla who was born March 28, 1847, married G. W. Capehart and died July 2, 1872, leaving one child, Mary, who married William Baker and whose descendants have not been traced. Richard, the remaining child, moved to Little Rock, Arkansas, many years ago; relatives here believe him to be dead, but know nothing of his family.

 

Reverend Roberson's second marriage, in the early fifties, was to Mary M., widow of Perry F. Edds, nee Lambeth, who was born January 1, 1831, and died March 12, 1900. The three children born to them are also dead. Dan, the oldest, married Nancy, daughter of John Dodds, and moved years ago to Oakland, Laclede County, and then to near Fairfield, Oklahoma, where both he and his

 

 

 

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