A. C. ROBERTS, M. D.

ROBERTS, COMMINS, COLE, CARPENTER, DOUGLAS, BUCHANAN

Posted By: County Coordinator
Date: 4/4/2020 at 20:14:58

A. C. ROBERTS, M. D. – The subject of this brief sketch, Dr. A. C. Roberts, of Fort Madison, was born on the 15th day of January, 1830, in Queensbury Township, Warren County, New York. He was the fifth of fourteen children. His father, Jonathan Roberts, was a gentleman of education, a farmer by occupation, and a native of Columbia County, New York. His mother’s maiden name was Melita Commins. She is remembered as a lady of piety, intelligence, and love for the well-being of her family. They were both earnest members of the Baptist church, and in moderate circumstances in life. When the doctor was eleven years of age, his parents moved from New York, and settled on a farm of timber ten miles west of Adrian in Lenawee County. Michigan. His education, up to this time, had been obtained at the winter school. He was now, on account of the moderate means of his parents, obliged to renounce school, and to do his share towards converting the family homestead into a tillable condition. He did not resume his education till he had reached the age of sixteen, when he continued his studies for a space of seven weeks. The next year he went twenty-seven weeks to the High School in Adrian. Between these intervals he worked on the farm, and by diligent application started himself in the classics and mathematics, and prepared himself thoroughly to enter college. To secure a liberal education was the acme of his youthful aspirations; but instead of entering college and taking a literary course, he was constrained to abandon the intention on account of poverty. He immediately began the reading of medicine, which he assiduously pursued for three years, attending a course of lectures at Michigan University in 1850 and 1851. He then went to California with the view of obtaining the means to complete his medical education. His natural perseverance and energy did not at this time desert him, and in 1853 he returned from the mines of the Golden State with the product of his successful energy - the handsome sum of eighteen hundred dollars. This was sufficient to pay his debts and complete his education at the University in 1853. He now settled in Otsego, Allegan Co., Mich., and practiced medicine successfully for seven years. In the spring of 1859 he came to Fort Madison in this county, were he has continued to reside, engaged, in the main, in the practice of medicine. In the fall of 1862 he was appointed Contract Surgeon in the government hospital at Keokuk. During this time he acted as Professor, and delivered two courses of lectures on the Theory and Practice of Medicine in the medical department of the Iowa University at Keokuk. In March, 1863, he was commissioned Surgeon of the 21st Missouri Regiment, and with this regiment in the field served three years and one month. He was mustered out of the service in April, 1866. He then returned home and resumed the practice of his profession. While the Doctor’s attention has in the main been engrossed with the active cares of his profession, he has yet, yielding to the solicitations of friends and public needs, served the people to their satisfaction in various offices of a public responsibility. Shortly after coming here he was editor of the Fort Madison Plain-Dealer, then a strong democratic paper, “till the winter of 1860. He would probably have continued his journalistic labors if the war had not necessitated the presence of his medical abilities amongst the soldiers of the army. In the fall of 1867 he was elected County Treasurer, and re-elected in1869, and again in 1871. In March, 1873, he was elected Mayor of Fort Madison, meeting with no opposition. On the 29th day of March, 1854, he was united in marriage to Emily A. Cole, a native of New York. Her parents were Nelson Cole and Huldah Carpenter. Her father was a farmer and general speculator, and at one time sheriff of Senaca Co., New York. The doctor is the father of three children, all of whom are living. Politically, he is a strong Democrat, has never swerved from democratic principles. His first vote was cast for James Buchanan, and in the campaign preceding the initiation of the civil strife he distinguished himself by his enthusiastic support of that greatest democratic chieftain of the last decade—Stephen A. Douglas. His prejudices and biases have always been with the people. He is a man of the people, and with enthusiasm responds to-day to their voice against monopolies and corruption. Religiously, he is an earnest member of the Baptist church, joined this church when he was quite young. Socially, the doctor is pleasant and affable. His manner is quiet and polished, and belongs to that school so much a distinguishing trait of the educated men of the Southern States. He has been for a number of years intimately identified with the Masonic order. He was Master of a lodge for seven years in Michigan, has been Master of a lodge since residing in Fort Madison. He is high priest of the chapter, and member of Damascus Commandery No. 5, at Keokuk. The doctor is undoubtedly a man of extraordinary vital force and energy. His industrious habits have enabled him to discharge faithfully and well the various duties of physician, editor and treasurer. He find him to-day in good health and spirits, with a constitution unimpaired and indicating with proper care years yet of useful and honorable life.

Source:
Illustrated Historical ATLAS of Lee County, IOWA
A. T. Andreas
Chicago, ILL.
1874

Transcription by Mary H. Cochrane, Volunteer