JAMES T. ROBERTSON

 The following bio was taken from page 367 of the book entitled “Rusk County History” compiled and edited and used with permission of the Rusk County Historical Commission.

 Transcribed by Claudia Schuster

 Submitted by Gloria Briley Mayfield, Cemeteries of TX 

Jim Robertson was born near Buchanan, Georgia, October 30, 1854.  He died in Rusk County, Texas on September 16, 1917 and is buried in New Prospect Cemetery, nine miles north of Henderson off the Marshall highway.

 Jim had two sisters, Alice and Rithey.  Alice married William Free and Rithey married a Moore.  (A Manco Moore moved from Alabama to Georgia to Honey Grove, Texas.)  Jim also had two brothers, Ahaz and Billy, who were opposites in all respects, in fact they are similar to Cain and Abel.  I quote Jim’s daughter, Ella;  “Billy was sandy haired, fair and web-footed – two toes on each foot webbed.  He was a kind, soft-spoken man.  Ahaz was dark and tall and rough spoken. Cursed a sight.  Pa didn’t like his habits a-tall. He never harmed anybody but hisself, though.”

 About 1878, Jim married Martha Jane Weaver, a tall green-eyed, auburn-haired lass from a nearby community.   Martha Jane recognized him as her future husband when he appeared at a country-dance with another girl because “she had seen him (his reflection) in a well on May Day.” 

Martha Jane’s mother was Kizzie Jordon.  Her siblings were: Andrew Jackson, known as “Dude” who came to Rusk County as a young man; Isham, who also came to Rusk County; Isabelle, who married Charlie Darnell of Overton; Susan, who married Hezy Tuck and lived in Georgia; Calloway, “Cal”’ and Allen.

 Martha Jane grew up in a family of twelve children.  Her father had formerly married a Boatright and had several children by that marriage.  Three names Ella recalled were: Dent, Mary Ann, and Fronie. 

All Robertson males were fiddlers.  Seated around a fire at night, each could play a tune and pass the fiddle to the next one.

 At Buchanan, Jim and Martha Jane parented five children; Sultia, born July 8, 1880, married Andrew Pool; Nollie, born December 25, 1882, married Paul H. Craig; Ella, born April 11, 1884 (Good Friday), married Ben Craig; Ellis, born April 11, 1884, married Jessie Mae Deason; and Sherman, born May 16, 1886,died September 21, 1908 in Rusk County.

 When the twins, Ella and Ellis, were three years old, the Robertsons moved to Round Mountain, Alabama to what any mother, Ella, describes as “ the last house before you got to the Gulf.”  Also she added, “It was one mile down the mountain to a little post office and store in Taff, Alabama.  We passed the hangover rock when we went down the mountain to Taff (or Taft).”

 The move to Alabama was made by covered wagon drawn by oxen.  Jim’s oxen were “Buck” and “Ball”, steers.  The William Free family moved with the Robertsons and the children moved from wagon to wagon in route. Ella related that Uncle William Free was a big man with whiskers that hung to his belt, while Aunt Alice was one of the least women she ever saw.  Martha Jane sat up front and helped Jim drive the distance of about sixty miles over rough roads - a three or four-day journey.

 Visitors camped out near the Alabama home each summer.  Many came to see the laurels. 

When the twins were six, the Robertsons and the Frees moved to Rusk County at the behest of Dude and Isham.  “We expected to see money hanging from every tree,” said Ella.  The trip was made by ox-wagon, ferryboat, and train.  In one town a horse-drawn streetcar was ridden to get to a railroad depot.

 The first home was a log house in Prospect. Community.  I believe that a Joe Montgomery owned it.  The Robertsons, being staunch Methodists, joined the church at Church Hill.  Ella told how Jim fanned Martha Jane with a turkey wing bound with strips of her dress as they took vows.

 Soon Jim bought a farm in Roquemore Community where the family lived until they went their separate ways.  The Robertsons were the only Methodists in a totally Baptist community; however, they provided shelter and food for all the preachers and entered into fellowship.  Their home, near church and school, was “hospitality house.”

 Jim was an expert carpenter, and many of the homes he built here at the turn of the century still stand.  His handsaw is in the Henderson Depot Museum.

 Martha Jane, widowed in 1917, continued an active and useful life until her death in 1948.  She was noted for her witticisms, many of which are still quoted.

 Jim and Martha Jane, and Sherman are buried in New Prospect Cemetery.

 Submitted by Mary Craig