My Genealogy Hound

David C. Roberts. Prominent among the leading men of Randolph County, Ark., and among those deserving special notice for their public spirit and energy, is the gentleman of whom this notice is given. He was born in Cleveland County, N. C., July 23, 1833, and is a son of Thomas and Mary (Collins) Roberts, who were born, reared and married in North Carolina, and after residing a few years in their native State after the latter event, moved to Cherokee County, Ga., where the mother’s death occurred in 1854 or 1855, when about thirty-five years of age. Here the father afterward married Rebecca Wickett, and made his home until 1882, when they came to Randolph County, Ark., where Mr. Roberts quietly breathed his last the following year. He had been an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church for a great many years, and while a resident of North Carolina was engaged in farming; also acted as overseer at the King’s Mountain Gold Mines. When the Rebellion was in progress he was a member of the Home Guards in Georgia. His father, Stephen Roberts, was an Englishman by birth, and died in Alabama. David C. Roberts was the eighth of ten children, and at the age of twenty-three years he left home and commenced farming for himself, continuing until the mutterings of war foretold the struggle that was to follow, and in 1861 he enlisted in Company I, Twenty-third Georgia Infantry, Confederate States Army, and held the rank of orderly sergeant. He was in the battle of Seven Pines, the seven days’ fight at Richmond, Second Manassas, South Mountain, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, Mechanicsville, Ocean Pond, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, and was then around Richmond until the final surrender. He was taken prisoner twice, first at the battle of Mechanicsville, but was exchanged after twenty days’ imprisonment, and then at the close of the war at Appomattox. He was never wounded. He returned to his home in Georgia after hostilities ceased, and remained there until 1868, at which time he moved to McLean, Ky., and three years later to Arkansas, and has since resided on his present farm, which is one of the best in the county. It embraces a tract of 200 acres, and is all bottom land with the exception of about ten acres. In 1851 he was married to Miss Malinda Finley, a daughter of Aaron Finley, of Cherokee County, Ga., and her death occurred in Randolph County, Ark., in 1872, when about thirty-five years of age. She left six children (four of whom are now living): Stephen, John, Mary (wife of Ezekiel Hum, of Washington County, Ark.), Regina (wife of William McQuay, of Lawrence : County, Ark.), and Martha and Leander who are deceased. In 1874 Mr. Roberts married Mrs. Susan Deaver, of this county, and by her has five children: Rachel J., Thomas H., Jacob H., Richard T. and Lucy A. Mrs. Roberts’ maiden name was Weddle, and by her first husband, Isaac Deaver, she became the mother of three children, only one of whom is living, Matilda; those deceased are Mary T. and William F. Mr. and Mrs. Roberts are members of the Methodist and Christian Churches, respectively, and he is a Democrat in his political views, and a member of the Masonic fraternity.