Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 09.djvu/131

 ROBERTS

ROBERTS

son of Orin P. and Eliza Varney (Dean) Roberts ; grandson of Tristram and Betsy (Page) Roberts, and of Samuel and Eliza( Varney) Dean, and a des- cendant of Thomas Roberts, who settled at Duer

Neck, N.H., about 1633, and Dean, who settled

on t-he Maine coast about the middle of the 17th century. He was graduated from the Highland Military academy, "Worcester, Mass., in 1877, and at the law department of Boston university in 1881 ; was admitted to the bar in 1881, and set- tled in practice in Boston, Mass., making his home in Chelsea. He was a member of the city council of Chelsea, 1887-88 ; represented Chelsea in the general court of Massachusetts, 1894-96, and was a state senator, 1897—98. He was mar- ried, Nov. 13, 1881, to Nella Lue Allen of Albany, N.Y,, and a second time, Feb. 2, 1898, to Sara M., daughter of Hiram B. and Sarah M. (Burgess) Weeks of St. Albans, Vt. He was a Republican representative from the seventh Massachusetts district in the 56th and 57th congresses, 1899- 1903, and was re-elected to the 58th congress in November, 1903, for the term expiring 1905.

ROBERTS, Howard, sculptor, was born In Philadelphia, Pa., April 9, 1843; son of Edward Roberts, a Philadelphia merchant. He attended the public schools ; studied art in the Penn- sylvania Academy of Fine Arts at Philadelphia, at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, Paris, and under Dumont and Gumery. He opened a studio in Phil- adelphia, Pa., and there produced the statuette " Hester and Pearl," from Hawthorne's "Scarlet Letter" (1872), which he exhibited at the Penn- sylvania Academy of Fine Arts. He was again in Paris, 1873-76, where he modeled La Premiere Pose (1876), which received a medal at the Phil- adelphia Centennial exposition. His life-sized- statue of Robert Fulton was installed in the hall of statuary of the capitol at Washington, D.C., in 1883, as one'of the two sculptured representatives to which Pennsylvania was entitled in that col- lection. He was married, June 1, 1876, to Helen Pauline Lewis. He was made a member of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1872. Among his works not already mentioned are : Hypatia (1870); Lucille, a bust (1873); LoVs Wife, a statuette, and many ideal and portrait busts. He died in Paris, France, in April, 1900.

ROBERTS, Jonathan, senator, was born at Up- per Merion, Montgomery county, Pa., Aug. 16, 1771;

son of the Hon. Jonathan and (Thomas)

Roberts ; grandson of Mathew and Sarah (Wal- ter) Roberts, and of David and Anna (Noble) Thomas, and a descendant of John and Elizabeth (Owen) Roberts. John Roberts emigrated from Pennychlawd, Denbighshire, Wales, to America about 1682, and settled in Lower Merion, Mont- gomery county. Pa. He was educated in the school of Lawrence Bathurst, 1776-81, labored oii

the farm, 1781-85, and completed his education under Edward Farris, 1783-80. He was appren- ticed to a wheelwright, 1787-91, returned to his father's farm in 1791, and devoted his leisure to study. He was a member of the Pennsylvania assembly, 1798-99, and of the state senate, 1807- 10 ; was a representative in the 12th and 13th con- gresses, 1811-14, where he favored the prosecution of the war of 1812, and for this action he was dis- owned by the Society of Friends. He was mar- ried in 1813 to Eliza H. Bushby of Washington, D.C. He was appointed to the U,S. senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Michael Lieb in 1814, and was re-elected in 1815, serving till 1821. He took a prominent part in the con- troversy growing out of the bill to admit Maine into the Union, and when that bill was reported with an amendment admitting Missouri also, he moved the further amendment that slavery should be prohibited in Missouri. He vigorously op- posed the Missouri compromise, after the defeat of the former amendment, but it was eventually adopted. He was elected a representative in the state legislature in 1823 ; was a member of the canal commission, 1824-27 ; was an early and active supporter of protective tariff, and a member of the national protective conventions held at Harrisburg, Pa., in 1827 and New York city in 1830. He was a delegate to the Whig national convention at Harrisburg, Pa., Dec. 4, 1839, and was appointed collector of customs for the port of Philadelphia by President Tyler in April, 1841, resigning in 1842, not being in sympathy with the administration. He died in Philadelphia, Pa., July 21. 1854.

ROBERTS, Oran Milo, governor of Texas, was born in Laurens district, S.C, July 9, 1815. His parents removed to St. Clair county, Ala., during his early youth, and he was graduated at the University of Alabama in 1836 and admitted to the bar in 1838. He served in the Alabama legis- lature, 1839-40; removed to San Augustine countj% Texas, in 1841, and was district attorney in the republic, 1844-45 ; district judge in the newly ad- mitted state, 1846-51 ; associate judge of the supreme court of the state, 1857-61, and president of the state secession convention of 1861. He re- cruited and was made colonel of the 9th Texas regiment, which he commanded in the civil war in Ector's brigade, AValker's division, and was with Walker's reserve corps at the battle of Chat- tanooga and in the defence of Atlanta. He was elected chief justice of the supreme court of Texas in 1863, and resigned from the army, serv- ing on the bench, 1864-66. He was a delegate to the reconstruction convention of 1866, serving as chairman of the committee on judiciary, and in 1806. on the meeting of the state legislature under the reconstruction constitution, he was