My Genealogy Hound

N. T. Roberts, the present efficient county clerk of Jefferson County. Ark., was born in Greene County, Ala., in June, 1836, being the son of John and Martha (Jones) Roberts, of North Carolina and Alabama, respectively. John Roberts, a native of Edenton, N. C, was married about 1829 in Alabama, where he lived until 1852, when he came to Jefferson County, Ark., with a brother-in-law, John M. Jones, and purchased a tract of land where Wabbaseka now stands, on the Texas & St. Louis Railroad. It is at this time in possession of Capt. Roberts and his brother, John C. The tract, which consists of 634 acres, was then very wild land, with but seventeen acres cleared, a log house being the only improvement. There are now 800 acres under cultivation. The land was first located in 1844, by Jordan Embree, during the great overflow of that year. The parents of our subject had six children, only two of whom are living, N. T. and John C. John Roberts, Sr., was a planter, and followed that occupation until his death, which occurred at the age of seventy-four. N. T. Roberts was reared on the farm, and educated in a private school at Buchanan, Va. In 1860 he came to Pulaski County, Ark., and engaged in farming until the war broke out, when, in 1861, he enlisted in Company G., of Pulaski cavalry. At the organization of the First Arkansas Mounted Rifles he was chosen sergeant-major, and was appointed first lieutenant and also assigned as adjutant of the same. He held this appointment until May, 1862, when he was appointed captain in the Provisional army, and was assigned to the command of his regiment and company, a position which he filled until January, 1863, when he was ordered to report to Gen. Smith, in the Trans-Mississippi department, remaining there until the close of the war, in the meantime having been ordered to raise a company of scouts inside the Federal lines and there to operate until further orders. Prior to Price’s Missouri raid, being directed to report to Gen. James F. Fagan, commanding the Arkansas cavalry, he was put in command of four companies, forming his advance guard, and was on this duty until the surrender. At the battle of Oak Hills, Capt. Roberts was wounded (August 10, 1861) by a gunshot through both shoulders, and was off duty six months. He was in a number of important battles and several skirmishes. From 1865 to 1884 he engaged in farming. He came to Jefferson County in 1868, and has since been a resident here. In 1884 he was elected to his present office, and has been twice elected successively since, filling the office with honor and credit. He was first married, in 1867, to Miss Lucy Jones, who died in 1868. In 1880 he took for his second wife Miss Florence White, of Pine Bluff, by whom he has one son, King Talmage. Mr. and Mrs. Roberts are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He is also a member of the Masonic order, and has taken degrees in the Mystic Shrine. He is popular and highly esteemed, and an important factor in the development of this community.