Fourth Generation

45. John Orville ROBERTS^{585,586,587,588} was born on 9 June 1830 in Albemarle Co, VA.⁵⁸⁹ In 1847 he was in Clarksville, Pike, MO.⁵⁹⁰ He appeared in the census in 1850 in Clarksville, Pike, MO.⁵⁹¹ John sold in Clarksville, Pike, MO on 2 September 1850.⁵⁹² In 1851 he was a Packet clerk, St Louis & Keokuk Packet Co. in Clarksville, Pike, MO.^{593,594 595} In 1857 he was a Road builder in Clarksville, Pike, MO.⁵⁹⁶ John owned Est of Jeremiah Roberts - Sheriff's Sale on 12 May 1860 in Bowling Green, Cuivre Township, Pike, MO.³¹⁹ Pike County, MO
Deed Book V
Pages 336, 337

Brown & others by Sheriff to Roberts Heirs

This Sheriffs Deed made and executed this 4th day of March AD 1860 by and between Masten H. Arthur Sheriff of Pike County in the State of Missouri party of the first part and John O. Roberts James B Roberts Richard M Roberts Ellen L Downing & Caroline V Roberts of Said County of the Second part Witnesseth that whereas the circuit Court of Said County at its September Term AD 1858 in the matter of Joseph W Brown against Thomas F Boseley and others Petition for Partition made an order that the Sheriff Sell the real estate hereinafter described lying in Said Pike County Missouri on the following terms to wit on twelve months Credit In Obedience to Said Order. I Masten H Arthur Sheriff as aforesaid offered for sale at public outcry and auction before the Court House door in the town of Bowling Green in Said County on the 8th day of March AD 1859 between the hours of nine and five o’clock of said day, and deeming the Selling of the Circuit Court for Said County of Pike after having given at least twenty days previous notice of the time terms and place of Said Sale and what real estate was to be sold, and whence situated by advertisements printed in the Louisiana Democratic Herald a public newspaper printed in Said County and State aforesaid and John O Roberts James B Roberts Richard M Roberts Allen L Downing & Caroline V Roberts being the highest and best bidders because the purchase of Lot No. two hundred (200) Situate in the City of Clarksville in Pike County, Missouri at and for the sum of Ten Cents (10)cts now therefore know you that I Masen H Arthur Sheriff as aforesaid for and in consideration of the premises and for the Said Sum of money above mentioned to me in hand paid the receipt whereof I do hereby acknowledge I have Sold assigned and transferred to Said heirs of Jeremiah Roberts party of the Second part his heirs and assigns forever all the right title and interest which the Said Joseph W Brown against Thomas F Boseley v. others had in and to the real estate above described in form as I may or can by law Sell transfer and assign the Same to have and to hold forever – In testimony whereof I Masten H Arthur Sheriff as aforesaid hereunto Subscribe my name and affix my seal the day and date first above written.
Masten H Arthur Sheriff (Seal)

State of Missouri
County of Pike
Be it known that on the 17th day of March AD 1860 personally appeared in open Court before Hon A H Buchner Judge of the Pike circuit court Masten H Arthur Sheriff of Said County who is personally known to said Judge to be the Same person whose name is Subscribed to the written deed as a party thereto and he acknowledged the Same to be his act and deed for all the uses and purpose therein contained, which acknowledgement is ordered by Said Judge to be certified by the Clerk of Said Court
In testimony whereof I James M Martin Clerk of Said Court hereunto set my hand and affix the Seal of Said Court at office in Bowling Green in Said County this 21st day of April AD 1860.
J M Martin Clerk
Filed for record 12th May AD 1860
Attest J. M. Martin Recorder In 1862 he was a Manager, Clifford, Roberts & Co. in Clarksville, Pike, MO.⁵⁹⁷ On 11 December 1866 he was charged with [description]⁵⁹⁸ John O Roberts had to have a statement notarized that stated that at the date of enlistment of the said Joseph Clark into the military service of the US, that he was a slave lawfully owned by the claimant; that this claimant obtained his title to him ... By inheritance from the estate of his father Jeremiah Roberts. In 1870 John was a president of E B Carroll & Co flour mill in Clarksville, Pike, MO.⁵⁹⁹ In 1871 he was a Banker, Clifford Banking Company in Clarksville, Pike, MO.⁶⁰⁰ In 1875 he was a farmer/land owner in Pike Co, MO.⁶⁰¹ John was elected as Councilman on 21 April 1875 in Clarksville, Pike, MO.⁶⁰² He Liquor Ban in 1879 in Elsberry, Lincoln, MO.⁶⁰³ He died on 6 February 1915 at the age of 84 in Clarksville, Pike, MO.^604,605 John was buried on 8 February 1915 in Clarksville, Pike, MO.⁶⁰⁶ He has reference number 508.⁶⁰⁷ History of Pike County, Thompson & West, 1883, pp 592, 593

John O. Roberts, Clarksville. This sketch outlines the life of a gentleman who has for almost half a century been a citizen of Pike and who has had business and official connections with may of the most important enterprises looking to the advancement of the material interests and general prosperity of the county. Mr. Roberts is a native of Virginia, Born in Albemarle County, and almost within the shadow of Monticello, the home of Jefferson, on the 9th day of June, 1830. He is the son of Jeremiah Roberts, who emigrated to Missouri in 1835, and settled near Prairie City, where he continued to reside, following the avocation of a farmer until a few years before his death, when he moved to Clarksville and engaged in mercantile pursuits. Mr. Roberts, mother, a lady of wonderful native intellect and the most liberal intellectual culture, was Mildred Fagg, a daughter of Major John Fagg, and a sister of the Hon. T.(Thomas) J. C. Fagg of St. Louis, an able lawyer and distinguished jurist, and once a member of the Supreme Court of Missouri. In 1847, when but seventeen years of age, the subject of our sketch removed to Clarksville and began clerking in a house of general merchandise, where he remained until 1851, when he engaged in steam boating, running first from St. Louis to Keokuk, and for a while clerking for some of the best and fastest steamers plying between St. Louis and New Orleans. Charmed with the constant change of place (pace?) and the excitement incident to a life on the river, he continued for five years (until 1856) to preside over the offices of some of the magnificent steamers then traversing our own national water highway. Three years previous to his abandonment of the river, Mr. Roberts was united in marriage to Miss Mary Malvina Swain, daughter of Warren Swain, on of the first settlers of this portion of the county and who came on a flatboat much of the distance between his eastern home and this, and then far distant west. In 1856 Mr. Roberts resumed the mercantile business, forming a partnership with Capt. B. P. Clifford, a gentleman of large wealth and great probity of character, in which he continued until the year 1862, when he engaged in milling, and is at this time the president of the Imperial Mill Company of Clarksville, where he is and has long been successfully conducting one of the largest interests of the county. In 1870, assisted by a few of his fellow townsmen, he organized the Clarksville and Western Railroad Company and originated the plans by which means for its partial construction, at least, could be raised; chosen its first president, he so entirely devoted his energies to the work that the enterprise at first regarded as chimerical, assumed, after a time, the aspect of feasibility and finally culminated in the construction of the road whose northern limit is Keokuk, and whose southern terminus is St. Louis. His is also interested in the paper mill at Clarksville, and through the efforts of himself and his associates the enterprise has proven highly satisfactory. Mr. Roberts was the clerk of the first board of trustees of the incorporated town; has served long as a member of the common council; was largely identified with the construction of the excellent system of gravel roads to be found in the county, of one of which he is now and has been for nearly twenty-five years secretary and has persistently sought by all the means in his power to contribute to the upbuilding of all the interests, material, social, and moral of the community of which he has so long been a member.

Pike County History, 1981
John Orville Roberts was born on June 9, 1830, near Charlottesville, Virginia. He came with his parents, Jeremiah and Mildred Fagg Roberts, to Missouri in 1835. They settled in what is now Edgewood, later moving to Little Ramsey and then to Clarksville in 1848. John began his business career as a young boy carrying mail from Clarksville to Paynesville. For one trip, which took an entire day, he received 25 cents - out of which he had to deduct feed for the horse. At the age of 17 he began clerking for a general merchandise store. He then joined with the St. Louis and Keokuk Packet Company and made the first packet trip up river to Keokuk, Iowa. He helped build and then became president of the Imperial Mill in Clarksville. He was instrumental in building the Clarksville and Western Railroad and later became its president. Alone with B P Clifford and Henry Carroll he established the Clifford Banking Company and served as its president. He helped establish the gravel road system of Pike County in 1857.

In 1853 he married Mary Malvina Swain, daughter of Warren and Mary Raynolds Swain. They were parents of three children: Mary Augusta (born September 10, 1854), Jeremiah Warren (born May 9, 1856) and John O. Jr. (August 4, 1861- December 31, 1915). John O. Roberts died in February, 1915.

Mary Augusta married Calvin Carroll. They were parents of seven children, two of whom died in infancy. Jeremiah died of a gun accident at the age of 26. John O. Jr married Sarah Augusta Mackey, daughter of Samuel F. and Edna Alice McIlroy Mackey, in January 1897. They were parents of two children, John O., III (August 1, 1901 - February 25, 1957) and Mary Alice (born May 8 1907). John O. Roberts Jr owned several farms and was vice-president of Clifford Bank.

John Orville ROBERTS and Mary Malvina SWAIN were married on 20 November 1853 in Pike Co, MO.^608,609,610 They^608,609,610 appeared in the census in 1860 in Clarksville, Pike, MO.⁶¹¹ They⁶¹¹ appeared in the census in 1870 in Clarksville, Pike, MO.⁶¹² John and Mary⁶¹² appeared in the census in 1880 in Clarksville, Pike, MO.⁶¹³ They⁶¹³ appeared in the census before August 1900 in Calumet Township, Pike, MO.⁶¹⁴ Mary Malvina SWAIN⁶¹⁵, daughter of Warren SWAIN and Mary RAYNOLDS, was born on 16 February 1828 in Clarksville, Pike, MO.^608,610 She died on 18 August 1900 at the age of 72 in Clarksville, Pike, MO.^610,616 She was buried in Clarksville, Pike, MO. Mary has reference number 516. Obituary from the Calumet Banner, Friday, August 24, 1900 Vol III, No. 1, p. 1

Mrs. John O. Roberts
For three score, ten years and two, she lived and had her being in the quiet and unassuming village of Clarksville in which she was born and of which she had the honor of being its oldest inhabitant. At 5:30 o'clock last Saturday afternoon she laid down the cross of life in this world and took up the crown of glory in another.

Mary Malvina Swain was born February 16, 1828, and Clarksville was always her home. She was the daughter of Warren Swain, one of the pioneer settlers of this community and one of the founders of this city. Her ancestors were of the original intrepid Pilgrims who crossed the Atlantic in the early days of this country in the little ship Mayflower, and many of the characteristics of those sturdy advance agents of the new and freer civilization were retained by Mrs. Roberts.

On November 20, 1853, she was united in marriage to Mr. John O. Roberts, who has long been one of Clarksville's most substantial citizens, and who has taken an active part in its progress and development. At an advanced age, but still in possession of vigorous physical and mental faculties, he is left to mourn the loss of his companion of half a century.

Mrs. Roberts was a devoted member of the Methodist church and had taken great interest in its work. She had long been a pillar in the support of the Women's Christian Temperance Union and no member of that organization was ever more loyal to its object to hold up the hands of men given to indulgence in alcoholic stimulants and to point them to a higher, better and more useful life.

She was the mother of three children, two of whom, Mrs. C. L. Carroll and John O. Roberts, Jr., survive and live in this city, and one of whom, Jerry W., died in 1881. She was a mother of mothers, as she was a wife of wives, and her devotion to her children, like her devotion to her husband was always constant, loving, kind and true.

The funeral occurred from the family residence on Main Street at 4 o'clock Monday afternoon and was conducted by Rev. H. I. Cobb, pastor of the Methodist Church. The funeral was largely attended by the friends and acquaintances who had known her sterling qualities of womanhood for many years.

At the conclusion of the funeral services at the residence the body was transported to the city cemetery - a beautiful and well kept city for the dead - and gently laid to rest.

As she lies in her grave there is pinned to her shroud a bow of soft white ribbon, the insignia of the organization of noble women who have fought a brave fight for the sterner sex. In life she always wore this emblem of her faith - at home and abroad - in the pursuit of her household duties and in the society of her friends - and it was among her requests that as she slept silently through the infinity of years, the bow of white ribbon should rest in its accustomed place.

John Orville ROBERTS-174 and Mary Malvina SWAIN-182 had the following children: