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ANDREW ROBERTSON, an enterprising stock farmer of Jackson township, was born in Kane county, Illinois, at Dundee, November 8, 1839. He is a son of John Robertson, who was born in Perth, Scotland, in September, 1802, and died in Benton county, Iowa, at his farm in Jackson township, June 1, 1884. John Robertson was reared and educated in Scotland, and came to America as a young man, locating first in New York, where he was married to Janett Rankin, also a native of Scotland, who was born in Glasgow, March, 1810, and she came to America with her parents. Both the Robertson and Rankin families removed to Kane county, Illinois soon after 1830, and there the parents of John Robertson and his wife died. John Robertson resided in Illinois until the spring of 1854, when he removed to Benton county, Iowa, and located in Jackson township, where he entered three eighty-acre pieces of land in Section 20, where he lived until his death. He also bought four forty-acre pieces, which he later sold. He was a successful farmer and stock raiser, a Republican in politics, and served in local offices. He was a member of the United Presbyterian church, as was also his wife. She was born in 1810, and died in Benton county, June 27, 1892. They had seven children, all of whom lived to maturity, namely: David, who was a soldier in the Thirteenth Iowa Regiment, and died in Andersonville prison, after spending several months there; William and Andrew, twins, the former accidentally killed by a horse when twenty-one years old; Jane, who married Elias Goom, now deceased, and resides at LaPorte, Iowa; John W., of Garrison; Robert, who was accidentally killed in Nebraska, a few years after the war; and Ellen who married George Johnson, whose sketch appears elsewhere in this work. Robert served in the Ninth Iowa Cavalry during the war.
Andrew Robertson was fifteen years of age when the family arrived in Benton county, in 1854, and he and his father drove overland with ox teams. He attended the public schools of Illinois and Iowa, and remained at home, with the exception of one year spent in Illinois, just prior to his enlistment, in 1862, in Company K, Fortieth Iowa Infantry, with which he served three years. He was in the Western Army, at the Siege of Vicksburg, Little Rock, Arkansas, and engagements at many other places, and was never seriously wounded. Mr. Robertson was mustered out at Fort Gibson, Arkansas, and discharged in Iowa, after he returned home. He resumed farming, and was married, December 26, 1866, to Martha Pollock, born in Nova Scotia, October 20, 1848, daughter of Samuel and Mary Ann (Russell) Pollock. Her mother born in August, 1824, died in Benton county, Iowa, in April, 1893, and her father was born in Nova Scotia in May, 1823, and died in April, 1892. They moved to Canada in 1851, and after spending a few years there located in Mercer county, Illinois, their home for five years. In January, 1865, they settled in Jackson township, Benton county, Iowa, and bought a farm at five dollars per acre, which the father improved and they lived there until their decease. Samuel Pollock and his wife had eight children, of whom six are living, namely: James H., who served in an Illinois Regiment from Illinois, and died in the army; Mrs. Robertson; Mary Ann, who married William Fitch, and lives in Worth county, Iowa; J. George, who died July 5, 1907, in Monroe township, this county; Florenzo, wife of W. J. Urice, residing at Garrison; Samuel, a farmer of Jackson township; Elizabeth Jane, wife of Frank Raymond, of Pipestone, Minnesota; and Isabel, wife of Tunis LaGrange, of Vinton.
Mr. Robertson and his wife have five children, all born at the present home, namely: S. Henry; John A., born September 3, 1870, died October 25, 1888; George W., born November 15, 1874, married Bertha Ridenour and lives in Jackson township; A. Carl, born March 16, 1882, at home; and Clifford J., born September 28, 1884, married Neta C. Ridenour, and lives at home. S. Henry, born December 1, 1867, married Anna Stewart, and they have four children, Mabel, Josephine, Harry and Janet; he is a farmer and lives in Jackson township.
Andrew Robertson owns three farms in Jackson township, comprising some four hundred and eighty acres, twelve acres of which is timberland. He is a breeder of Shorthorn cattle, and has been interested in this line for twenty years past. He is an intelligent and energetic farmer, and has been very succssful. Politically Mr. Robertson has always been a Republican, and has served many years as school director; he is a member of P. M. Coder Post, No. 98, of Vinton; and of the Grand Army of the Republic, and he and his wife are members of the United Presbyterian church.
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