History of Lee County, Illinois - Bushnell Historical Society

32 HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY
the Modern Woodmen of America. He gives his political allegiance
to the republican party and for eleven years served in a capable
and efficient manner as commissioner. He has spent his eutii-e
life in Bradford township and for the past twenty years has made
his home upon the farm which is yet his place of residence. He
has won success and prominence and because he has always followed
the highest and most honorable standards has commanded
and held the confidence and regard of all who are associated with
him.
BENJAMIN ROBERTS.
Benjamin Roberts has been a resident of Lee county since 1868
and for the greater part of the time since the beginning of his
active career he has been connected with agricultural interests
here, owning and operating one hundred and thirty-seven and onehalf
acres of excellent land on sections 11 and 2, Wyoming town-
ship. He was born in Pavilion, Kendall county, Illinois, October 8,
1860, and is a son of H. H. and Elizal)eth (Scott) Roberts. The
father was a carpenter by trade, following this occupation in Penn-
sylvania for a number of years. In 1848 he came west to Illinois
and settled in Kendall county, where he engaged in farming. In
1868 he moved to Lee county and bought the farm now owned by
the subject of this review, payiug fort,y dollars an acre for land
now worth three hundred dollars per acre. He passed away in
1868 and was survived by his wife until 1905. Both are buried in
the East Paw Paw cemetery. They M^ere the joarents of eleven
children: Crawford, who died in the Union army during the Civil
war; Annie, the wife of R. M. Morgan, a farmer in Oklahoma;
Jennie, who married John Wolcott, a farmer in Kendall comit_y,
Illinois; Henry, ^\•ho died in 3910 and is buried in the Wyoming
cemetery; Emma, the wife of Joe Agler, who is engaged in farming
near Wakefield, Neliraska; Etta, who became the wife of Henry
Litz and died in Abilene, Kansas, in 1888; Lizzie, who married
Matliew Goodyear, a farmer at Philip, South Dakota; Benjamin,
of this review; George, a farmer in Wayne, Nebraska; Mary, the
wife of James Britton. ccmnty judge of Wayne county. Nebraska:
and Delia, the w'ife of George Hicks, a clothier in Paw Paw, Illi-
nois.
Benjamin Roberts acquired his education in the public schools
of Paw Paw, laying aside his books at the age of seventeen. He