My Genealogy Hound

RUSSELL L. ROBERTS, a respected citizen of Northampton, was born in Gill, Franklin County, Mass., November 10, 1824, son of Alsetus and Betsey (Robinson) Roberts. His paternal grandfather, whose wife was a Miss Brooks, was a farmer in Gill; and in that town Alsetus Roberts was born and passed his life, dying in 1853, at the age of fifty-eight. Mrs. Roberts was born in Greenwich, Mass. She came of a long-lived family, her grandmother, Sarah (Smith) Robinson, living to the age of one hundred and two years, and her brothers and sisters outliving the allotted age of man. Mrs. Roberts died aged ninety-two years. The surviving children of Mr. and Mrs. Roberts are as follows: Russell L., the subject of this sketch; Horatio N., a dentist in Alton, Ill., who has one son; Holland F., a farmer in Gill, unmarried; Lyman A., a printer in the employ of the government for the past ten years at Washington, who has a wife, one son, and two daughters, and who served three years in the Civil War. Those deceased are: Sarah C., Holland, Smith, and Mary Jane.

Russell L. Roberts was reared to farm life, attending the district school regularly until ten years of age. After that, until he was eighteen, he went to school only in the winter, working upon the farm during the summer months. When a little over nineteen years old, he bought his time of his father for forty dollars, and worked four years in the woollen factory. He was then employed for a while at cutlery work in Shelburne Falls; and in 1854 he moved to Portage, Wis., where he worked at carpentering. He finally came East to take charge of the farm of his father-in-law, which he now owns. He removed to Northampton in 1891, taking up his abode at 68 High Street, in the comfortable dwelling which he erected in 1884. Besides his home property and the farm which formerly belonged to his father-in-law, he owns two lots in Northampton, where he grows corn and potatoes. Mr. Roberts has retired from active work, and is living quietly at his home on High Street.

On September 27, 1847, Mr. Roberts was united in marriage to Reuma R. Haynes, of Guilford, Vt., daughter of Asa and Sally (Briggs) Haynes, the former of Guilford, the latter of Leyden, Mass. Asa Haynes was a notable man in his day, strong mentally, physically, and spiritually. He was a carpenter by trade, and was active in evangelical work, a zealous member of the Methodist Episcopal church, preaching forcibly and earnestly. At one time he had charge of the Methodist Episcopal church at Hatfield. He broke one leg three times, the third fracture crippling him for life; but the brightness of his spirit was undimmed, and he preached eloquently from his bed of pain. He conducted a farm for family needs; and this, as already stated, Mr. Roberts, his son-in-law, took charge of and owns to-day. Asa Haynes died in 1868, in his eighty-fourth year. His wife died in 1861, at the age of seventy-eight. At the time of her death nine of their twelve children were living. Mr. and Mrs. Haynes left no property, but were tenderly cared for in their last days by Mr. and Mrs. Roberts. Mr. Roberts’s mother also spent her last years with them.

Mr. and Mrs. Roberts have had five children, all of whom have passed away. Two died in infancy, and Leuetta A. was fatally scalded when but a little over four years old. Russell J. Roberts died in December, 1885, aged thirty-eight years, leaving a widow and two children, one of whom, William H., is with his grandfather. Emerriah Roberts, who was a jeweller at Northampton, died in November, 1886, at the age of thirty-one, leaving a wife and one daughter, Lulu May Roberts. Mr. and Mrs. Roberts belong to the Methodist church, of which he has been a member nearly fifty years, and which she joined when five years of age, receiving baptism by immersion at that time.