My Genealogy Hound

J. J. Roberson is a distiller of Nashville, Ark., and was born in what is now Howard County in 1857, being the youngest of ten children born to Benjamin J. and Nancy (Messer) Roberson, the former born in North Carolina and the latter in Arkansas. The father removed to the latter State about 1825, and settled in what is now Howard County, this being when he was about twenty-two years of age, and here he began farming and afterward married. He is still a resident of Howard County, and has for many years been an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, his wife, who died in 1879, being also a member. J. J. Roberson was reared on his father's farm, attending the common schools, and at the age of twenty-three years, after the death of his mother, he began clerking in stores at Fulton, continuing with various firms for about three years, then came to Nashville and engaged with J. F. Smith. After being with him three years and with other firms until 1889, he purchased property near the town and erected his distillery, and now has in operation three stills, their capacity being twenty-five gallons daily. For a short time during the spring of 1889 he made 1,073 gallons of whisky and 470 gallons of brandy, and is making preparations to greatly increase his business the coming fall. He erected five buildings on his place, and his distillery is registered 158. He is associated in business with M. A. Morris, who is a man of experience in this line of business. Their plant is an excellent one, and being well located near the town, and the only distillery in the county, it is doing a pushing trade. Mr. Roberson is a member of the Masonic fraternity, Centre Point Lodge No. 87.