Harrison County Iowa Genealogy

HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY, IOWA, 1891
BIOGRAPHIES
Page 934
HON. BENJAMIN F. ROBERTS

Hon. Benjamin F. ROBERTS, et al, will form the subject of this biographical notice. Among the early settlers of Harrison Township was William M. ROBERTS, a native of Vermont, of Welch and Scotch parentage. When a young man he left his native state and settled in Connecticut. In 1818 he was married to Maria MACK, a native of Watertown, Conn. Thirteen children were the result of this marriage, nine sons and four daughters. Two sons, two daughters having died previous to his removal to Iowa, they, therefore occupy no important place in this history. Of the remaining sons and daughters we will make especial mention herafter.

Mr. ROBERTS, for many years after locating in Connecticut, was engaged in the book trade, and for a term of years was manager of the Buckland Hotel, or tavern as called in those days. He was quite prominent in politics, and twice elected to the State Legislature of Connecticut, besides holding many other important positions of trust. In Masonry he stood high and was for many years an active worker in the order.

In the spring of 1860, with his wife, two daughters and on son he removed to Iowa, and settled in Harrison Township, where four of his sons who had already preceded him were there living. Here he passed the remainder of his days and died February of 1869, at the age of seventy-eight years.

His wife survived him three years and died at the age of seventy-two years. Mrs. ROBERTS was one of those quiet, unassuming women of New England type, who by her influence and example imparted to others those principles so necessary in the development of true character. She organized the Farmer's Wives Society, a full description and history of which will be found elsewhere in this volume.

Jonathan W. ROBERTS, the oldest son, although at no time a resident of Iowa, manifested a deep interest in the early development of this portion of the state. In 1858, he employed a missionary, paying all his expenses for one year, to travel through Western Iowa establishing churches and Sabbath-schools, and otherwise encouraging religious societies among the early settlers.

George C. ROBERTS came to this place from Texas, in the spring of 1857, and purchased the James WELCH farm, on section 33, the only land then under cultivation in the township. In 1859, he married Miss Emma JOHNSON and settled on Mill Creek, where he continued farming until 1877, when he removed to Califonia. Here he found schools sadly neglected and prompted by his Iowa ambition for schools he set about at once organizing a district and soon secured the erection of the first school building in that vicinity.

James L. ROBERTS was the first of the family to settle in the township. He came here in the fall of 1856 and after enduring the privations of that hard winter of 1856-57, opened up a farm the following spring on section 23, and built the first frame house on Mill Creek. In 1859, his family consisting of a wife and two sons joined him in his new home. Mr. ROBERTS was one of the organizers of the township and recorded the proceedings of the first meeting held for that purpose. For a term of years he held the position of County Supervisor. After engaging in agricultural pursuits for several years he entered the mercantile trade and finally in 1886 opended a ranch in Montana, where he engaged in cattle-raising.

J. H. ROBERTS, the only bachelor in the family, after spending many years in California and Mexico came to Iowa in 1868 and engaged in farming for a short period, but the monotony of farm life was more than his active and uneasy nature could withstand, he finally abandoned farming and engaged in more congenial pursuits in the Far West.

Albert F. ROBERTS settled in the township in 1857. He with an ox-team made the first track down Mill Creek Valley. In 1862, he enlisted in Company C, Twenty-ninth Iowa Infantry, but his health soon gave away inder the exposure of camp life, and many months of his service was passed in the hospital and convalescent camp. At the close of the war he married Clara HAVENS, and a few years later removed to Michigan.

Bnjamin F. ROBERTS, from whom was obtained much of the early history of the township, was born in Tolland County, Connecticut in 1839. When seventeen years of age he came to Iowa and began farm life on Mill Creek, in Harrison Township, working on a farm at $10 per month, which at that time was fair wages. Two years later he opened up a small farm on section 23, and sold the products of his first year's labor, after hauling it with ox-teams to Council Bluffs, at the following prices: corn, eighteen cents; wheat, forty cents; dressed hogs, $1.50 per hundred pounds. In response to the call for volunteers in 1862, he left his farm and enlisted as a private in Company C, Twenty-ninth Iowa Infantry. He was soon promoted to Corporal, and after the battle of Jenkins' Ferry, upon the recommendation of commanding officers, was promoted to Sergeant. During this engagement, while charging a Confederate battery amid a shower of minie balls, his life was saved by the happy intervention of a frying-pan, which he carried in a haversack. He not only participated in every battle in which his regiment was engaged but was for three months almost constantly under fire, being detached to sharp-shooters on the U. S. gunboat, "Prairie Bird," in Lower Mississippi Squadron. At the close of the war he returned to his farm, only to find his fences destroyed by prairie fires and buildings in a dilapidated condition.

In the spring of 1866, he was married to Miss Ellen ROGERS, a native of Michigan, but one of the pioneer school teachers of Western Iowa, having taught her first school in a sawmill in North Grove, and her second term in a new barn built by Reuben VORE, of Crawford County. Mr. ROBERTS and his wife began house keeping in the house formerly occupied by J. L. ROBERTS on section 23, and in which they still reside. His deep interest in school matters led him to consider the education of his children paramount to all other interests. Although not an active politician, he was nominated by the Republican party and elected to represent Harrison County in the Twenty-Second General Assembly, but refused the candidacy for the second term. He is now one of the three among the first settlers of the township, who still reside within its borders.

Arthur S. ROBERTS, the youngest son, who came with his parents to Iowa, in 1860, was one of the youngest of the early settlers, being but fifteen years of age. In 1875, he married Miss Maggie BENTLEY, a native of Canada. For a number of years he was engaged in farming, occupying the old homestead on section 14, after which he removed to Dunlap, where he now resides.

The two daughters, then young ladies, who came with their friends to Iowa, om 1860, found wide contrast between New England society and pioneer life. They soon found a field of labor and in many households, in time of sickness, new hopes were kindled by the cheering words and heavy burdens lifted by their steady hands.

Harriet A. ROBERTS, the oldest daughter, was married in 1867 to C. O. HATCH, a native of New York. She died eleven years later, leaving a family of five children, two of whom soon followed her.

Altha J. ROBERTS was married in 1869 to Perry J. BROWN, of Clinton County, this State, and died September 7, 1873, leaving one child.

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