Harrison County Iowa Genealogy

HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY, IOWA, 1891
BIOGRAPHIES
Page 872
JAMES A. ROBERTS

James A. ROBERTS, now a resident of section 32, Lincoln Township, came to Harrison County in the spring of 1872. He commenced farming on the place he now occupies, consisting of three hundred and twenty-seven acres, a part of which was improved. He commenced work there by breaking, building barns, sheds and cribbing, also dug a well and erected a wind engine. He has been successful in his farm labors, and has added to his original tract until he now has five hundred and sixty-seven acres, all under cultivation, and all in one body. But this is not all of his possessions, for he also owns five hundred and seventy acres more on section 16, 20, and 21. This is all enclosed by a good fence, and three hundred acres under the plow, and is all located on the borders of Willow Creek, which affords one of the richest farming sections in all Harrison County. The most of these lands he has acquired through his own good management since come to Harrison County.

He was born in Vermont, and hails from good old English stock which seems to improve by allowing one generation to mature, in the Old Green Mountain State. The date of his birth was March 19, 1831. His parents were Edward and Mary (NEWELL) ROBERTS, natives of England and Vermont respectively. They reared a family of eleven children, our subject being next to the oldest child. His brothers and sisters were as follows�Eliza, Jane, Margaret, Hyrum, John, Henry, Elmer, Ann, Adalaide, and two who died in infancy.

Our subject remained in Vermont until he was thirteen years of age, enjoying the sports of youth, as only a New England lad can. From that time on he 'paddled his own canoe," drifting to New Hampshire, where he worked on a farm, attended school and learned the carpenter trade. He followed this business until 1849, and worked at the same in Boston about seven years, and then came to Burlington, Iowa, having bid farewell to Boston, the day on which President James Buchanan was elected. He still continued to shove the jack plane after coming to the Hawkeye State, contracting and building, until the spring of 1861, when he received a commission from Gov. KIRKWOOD as Second Lieutenant, and assisted in getting up a regiment, but before leaving for the front was stabbed, his lung being penetrated, and his life was despaired of, so he resigned. His regiment was commanded by Col. Fitz Henry WARREN. He received this wound in May 1861, and did not recover until the spring of 1862, when he started for what is now known as Idaho where he remained until 1869, when he came to Council Bluffs, and there lived until 1872, when he came to Harrison County.

Unlike most of the large land owners, of this section of Iowa, this man is a stranger to married life, but is however a highly respected resident of the county. He belongs to the Masonic fraternity, and is a member of the Council Cluffs Lodge No. 75.

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