Roberts Family (Click for Family Tree)
The obituary of Charles Roberts tells us a bit about his life and family.
“Charles Roberts was born in Switzerland county, Indiana, Sept. 30, 1828, and removed to Jefferson County, where his boyhood days were spent on a farm.”
This corroborates information we already had that the family was farming in Indiana during those years.
“He afterwards became a carpenter and worked at that trade there and after coming to Nebraska.”
Knowing his occupation helps to differentiate him from others with his common name, and gives us an idea of what his everyday life might have been like.
“Mrs. Roberts [Amarilla Reynolds], his wife, having died in 1879, Mr. Roberts came to Nebraska in 1883 and settled in Polk County, where he has since resided, making his home with his daughter, Mrs. B. F. Brown.”
This gives us the actual year the family migrated to Nebraska. Before, we only knew that they had migrated by 1885, when his granddaughter was born in Nebraska.
“Mr. Roberts united at an early age with the Baptist church and lived a consistent Christian life.”
We did know that the Roberts family were members of the Westfork Baptist Church in Ripley County, Indiana. This tells us though that the family were members when Charles was young, so possibly in the 1830s.
The obituary even tells us a bit about his last weeks on earth:
“He had been in bad health for some time but his final illness was of but ten days duration, arterio sclerosis (hardening of the arteries) being the disease.”
Charles died on a Friday at the home of his only surviving child, his daughter, Mrs. B. F. Brown [Elsina (Roberts) Brown]. He was 77 years, 7 months, and 18 days old. His funeral was just two days later, that next Sunday, so it is understandable that his brother, Henry S. Roberts, was a day late in trying to attend the funeral- there were almost 800 miles between Osceola and Holton, Indiana, where Henry lived.
“Sunday afternoon, in the quietude of a peaceful summer day, the remains were borne to the Osceola cemetery and returned to its kindred dust; the sorrowing relatives have the assurance however that his passing is but to the greater life beyond…”
Notes, Sources, and References:
- Find A Grave Memorial for Charles Roberts–https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/67434717/charles-roberts
- Osceola Record, 24 May 1906– http://polkcountyne.advantage-preservation.com/viewer/?k=charles%20roberts%20iowa&i=f&d=01011880-12311922&m=between&ord=k1&fn=osceola_record_usa_nebraska_osceola_19060524_english_5&df=1&dt=10
Click to enlarge any image. Please contact us if you would like an image in higher resolution.
We would love to read your thoughts and comments about this post (see form below), and thank you for your time! All comments are moderated, however, due to the high intelligence and persistence of spammers/hackers who really should be putting their smarts to use for the public good instead of spamming our little blog.