The Vincent Roberts Papers reveal some information about property holdings and mortgages in Dodge County and the surrounding area during the 1870s and 1880s. Even though most of the papers are business letters, the unique value of the collection is better expressed through the personal correspondence and notebooks, revealing the background and personal life of a nineteenth-century pioneer turned businessman. The collection is organized in four sections: correspondence, financial records, notebooks, and biographical and miscellaneous material. Under each heading the arrangement is chronological.
The Correspondence file is divided into Business, and Personal and Family letters. The Business correspondence traces the development of Roberts' career as a loan-agent from small-scale loaning to his friends in the mid-1850s to a multi-county network in the 1880s. Correspondents, whose letters appear frequently in this series, include Adam Cottrell of Greenwich, a loan agent himself, who furnished funds to Roberts to loan in the 1860s, and who was Roberts' advisor and senior partner in everything but name until the late 1870s. Letters from him dated August 20, 1867 and January 6, 1868 present a good picture of their partnership. As Roberts' business grew he relied increasingly on lawyers to handle certain matters. Correspondence with his lawyers, M.B. Patchin and A. Daugherty of New London in the 1870s, and F.M. Guernsey of Clintonville in the 1880s, is filed here. Most other letters were written by persons owing interest on mortgages to Roberts. The Personal and Family correspondence includes letters and papers written by Roberts that were either never mailed or were returned, dealing with business matters; as well as letters to his family while he was away on business; also included are family letters of a personal nature, addressed either to Roberts or a member of his immediate family, from relatives and friends; and letters and invoices to Roberts' sons and his brother-in-law, Edward T. Jones. These account for materials dated after Roberts' death and continuing to 1903.
In the Financial Records section, account books from the early years before Roberts became a loan agent include notes on the purchases of food, alcoholic beverages, and items for the family. Invoices and receipts include those for farm supply purchases, bank account statements, notes enclosed with money sent to Roberts, and acknowledgements of the safe arrival of money from Roberts. A notebook contains poetry, 1842, giving insight into Roberts as a young man, and justice of the peace records, 1846-1847, exemplifying the responsibilities and duties of this judicial officer in the territorial period.
The Biographical and Miscellaneous Materials include a biographical sketch, an obituary, and items relating to Roberts' career, e.g. a blank check, a few calling cards, and an unused Indenture of Mortgage form.
