Summary Information
Vincent Roberts Papers
1841-1903
- Roberts, Vincent, 1818-1888
Mss 397
0.8 c.f. (2 archives boxes)
Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)
Business and family papers of Vincent Roberts, a nineteenth-century farmer in Dodge County, Wisconsin, justice of the peace, and real estate and loan agent. The collection consists of correspondence, financial records, a notebook of poetry and justice of the peace records, and biographical and miscellaneous materials. Most of the correspondence relates to Roberts' business as a loan agent, and provides insights into the common methods of purchase and transferral of property and wealth in nineteenth-century Wisconsin agricultural areas. Also touched upon are the governmental duties conferred upon those willing to accept them at the time of the organization of the state of Wisconsin.
English
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00397 ↑ Bookmark this ↑
Biography/History
Vincent Roberts was a prominent citizen of Dodge County, Wisconsin, where he lived from 1845 until his death. He actively participated in public affairs while self-employed as a farmer and real estate and loan agent. Roberts was born March 10, 1818 in Llanegryn, North Wales, and arrived with his parents in Oneida County, New York, in 1823. There he was educated, learning the carpenter's trade from his father. On December 28, 1842, Roberts married Ann Jones, a native of Oneida County. In May of 1845 they moved with their first child, William, to a farm in Emmet, Dodge County, Wisconsin Territory, where the Roberts' second and third children, John and Vincent, were born. In May of 1848 they moved to Iron Ridge, where Roberts homesteaded eighty acres of heavily-timbered land. There his seven youngest children, David M., George W., Adam C., Watson, Lydia A., Mary, and Lovina (“Vina”), were born.
Upon the organization of the State of Wisconsin (1848) Roberts was commissioned a notary public by Governor Nelson Dewey, and also assumed the responsibilities of justice of the peace, a position he held for the next fifteen years. In 1847 Roberts was appointed highway commissioner, and in later years he held the offices of assessor, supervisor, and town clerk. In the late 1850s and early 1860s Roberts began to experiment with new means of livelihood. Through careful loaning of his money he was able to collect considerable interest, and this, added to his revenues as a merchant-farmer, enabled him to purchase more land for his private holdings. He also bought and sold mortgages on farmland, and in close connection with his occupation as a loan agent developed a real estate business as well.
With the rise of Roberts' economic position he sought elective office, running four times as a Republican for the State Assembly from his district, which was strongly Democratic. He was never elected. In his last attempt at election (1872) he received only 22 percent of the vote.
Roberts' later years found him increasingly on the road, traveling about the state obtaining and releasing mortgages, collecting interest on old loans, and issuing new ones. By 1880 his farm was a well-developed 260 acres with well-constructed buildings. On June 10, 1887, Ann Jones Roberts died; Roberts himself, though feeling the pressures of old age, continued his business adventures unabated. His last business trip took him to Oshkosh, where he died on October 5, 1888, following a heart attack.
Scope and Content Note
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.
Administrative/Restriction Information
Twenty-four items purchased prior to 1930 (Inv. 6242, old File 747); major collection presented by the Chicago Historical Society via Archie Motley, February 25, 1977. Accession Number: M77-89
The bulk of the Vincent Roberts papers were given to the State Historical Society of Wisconsin by the Chicago Historical Society. A covering letter from the Chicago Historical Society stated that in March 1975 that Society had purchased a large collection of Bowen family papers at the public auction sale of the estate of Mary Ann Dicke. Mrs. Dicke had been a Chicago collector and dealer in historical materials for many years. At the time of purchase, the Vincent Roberts papers, along with many other unrelated materials, were mixed in with the Bowen materials. In separating what appeared to be the Roberts papers from the Bowen papers, the Chicago Historical Society included with them other unrelated papers, which have been found to form a self-contained collection of their own, the Briggs-Mitchell Papers (Mss 398). The notebook kept by Roberts as justice of the peace, 1846-1847; three account books, 1843-1844 and 1853, and some correspondence, 1846-1876, twenty-four items in all, had been purchased previously by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin and were transferred from File 1843, January 29.
Processed by Ralph A. Pugh and Joanne Hohler, May 12, 1977.
Contents List
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Correspondence
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Business
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Box
1
Folder
1-5
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1856-1882
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Box
2
Folder
1-2
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1883-1888, undated
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Personal and Family
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Box
2
Folder
3
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Outgoing, 1846-1887
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Box
2
Folder
4
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Incoming, 1859-1903
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Financial Records
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Box
2
Folder
5
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Account Books, 1841-1885, 1843, 1843-1844, and 1853
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Box
2
Folder
6
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Invoices and Receipts, 1857-1887, undated
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Box
2
Folder
7
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Notebook
: Contains poetry, 1842, and justice of the peace records, 1846-1847.
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Box
2
Folder
8-9
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Biographical And Miscellaneous Materials
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