1893-1900 The
Roberts families lived in and around the Spanish Fort, St. Jo and Illinois Bend
area for several years. Isaac “Squire” Roberts belonged to the now defunct
Masonic Lodge of Spanish Fort. I have quite a few copies of marriage licenses
that show him performing marriage ceremonies in Montague County as a Justice of
the Peace. His brothers were farmers in this area. Sometime in the late 1890’s
the brothers started moving across Red River into The Oklahoma Indian
Territory, Chickasaw Nation. They either started the small town of Orr or were
some of the first settlers there. “Squire Roberts started a
store and later established a bank. Jefferson K. Roberts, (my grandfather ran a
drug store in Orr for a time. I have receipts, which shows his letterhead. His
uncle and also stepfather worked in the drugstore for a time.
The Roberts
children started moving to other areas, mainly to Comanche County, they were
mostly cotton farmers Later on in the 1920’s when oil was
discovered
most of the younger generation started working in the oilfields, and the
families started spreading out even more.
The Roberts
Families now hold a Reunion in Rush Springs, Oklahoma, the second Sunday in
September where they meet for lunch. There is a smaller reunion held in
Ringling Oklahoma, but is not regularly scheduled. One reunion was held in the
old town of Orr, in the schoolhouse. Later all visited the Orr Cemetery;
donations were made to place a tombstone on the grave of George W. Roberts. The
exact location of the grave of his wife Susan Paralee is not known.
The town of Orr
stayed in existence from around 1898 to the 1940’s. It was a nice small farming
town; the local bank was run by Isaac “squire” Roberts, a
grocery store by his son Dow Roberts. During the depression all most everyone
moved away, to Ringling, which was on the railroad, and to Wilson, a few miles
away in Carter County.
There is very
little recorded about Thomas J. and Nancy Ann Wailing-Roberts Daughter Ann
Roberts, she married T. R. Smoot in Arkansas. It is reported to me by Ann
Roberts-Steel and others that they had two children; Temple and Ann. Ann Smoot
later married a Mr. Springfield and moved to Oilton Okla.
I checked the
Social Security Death Benefit records an found the following,
Social Sec.
Number Name Death Birth RC
R-Zip Sndx
46-03-3354 Smoot, Temple 10/00/68
7/19/1888 37 74052 S530
I will continue checking in the above area
in Oklahoma to find more relatives
This version
entered in my computer, May 14,1994
Earl
“Jack” Roberts