My Genealogy Hound

Henry Roberts, justice of the peace, notary public, and proprietor of the Valle Mines boarding-house, was born near the Crystal City Glass Works, Jefferson County, Mo., January 1, 1819. His father, William F. Roberts (deceased), was a native of Newmarket, Frederick Co., Md., and was born in 1787; he removed to Jefferson County, Mo., in 1813, and was a millwright by trade, which trade he followed for many years in Southeastern Missouri. In 1817 he was married at Waterloo, Monroe County, to Elizabeth Forquer, sister of George Forquer, formerly attorney-general of this State, and half-sister of the late Gov. Thomas Ford. Mrs. Roberts died in 1842. In 1829 Mr. Roberts removed to Washington County. Of the eight children born to this marriage, six grew to maturity, five sons and one daughter, only one of whom survives him, Henry Roberts, of Jefferson County. William F. Roberts served under Gen. Harrison in the War of 1812, and was the oldest Mason in the county where he died, having taken the first degree in Masonry in the latter part of November, 1810; he assisted in establishing the Grand Lodge of Missouri, in 1820, and was a man of great reading and information. In 1839 Henry Roberts, eldest son of W. F. Roberts, went to Oregon, Ogle Co., Ill., where he read and practiced law one year with his uncle, Hon. Thomas Ford; he was appointed circuit clerk of Ogle County in 1843, which position he held five years, serving also as master in chancery during the entire term of his clerkship. He then went to Galena, Ill., where he engaged in the mercantile business with a brother-in-law until the spring of 1850, when he located in Jefferson County, Mo., where he has since resided. He has been engaged in teaching and mining. January 3, 1841, he married Martha Pickett, daughter of William Pickett (deceased), a niece of James Pickett, the great tobacco king of Kentucky, and a sister of Hon. Thomas J. Pickett, now of Lincoln, Neb., formerly editor and publisher of the Peoria Register. Mrs. Roberts was born in Louisville, Ky., in 1826, and died in March, 1852, the mother of three children, only one of whom is now living, Mildred, wife of Francis A. Brickey, a physician of De Soto; one son, Thomas F., died in Louisville, Ky., in his twenty-fourth year. In April, 1856, Mr. Roberts married Jane Fletcher, also of Kentucky. To this union four children were born, but three of whom are living: Harriet C., wife of Stephen S. Outman, of Lynn County, Kas., and has five children; Anna married James E. Outman, of Greenwood County, Kas., and is the mother of three children; and Martha Ellen. Mr. Roberts was appointed justice of the peace in 1886, which position he still holds. He became a member of the I. O. O. F., in Galena, Ill., in 1848.