Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

Roberts, David

Born: 1800-XX-XX New York

David Roberts was a farmer, merchant, and long-time postmaster of Tremont, Illinois. Of English and Welsh ancestry, Roberts moved at a young age to New York City, where he worked as a librarian in the Mercantile Library. Sometime before 1840, he accompanied a group emigrating to the Mississippi Valley. Roberts settled on a farm near Tremont. He later moved into the town of Tremont, where he engaged in general merchandising. In 1850, Roberts was working as a merchant and owned real property valued at $500. In May 1849, Robert received appointment as postmaster of Tremont, a position he held until 1860, when he moved from Tremont to Springfield, Illinois. He worked as a merchant in Springfield, and, in 1860, owned $1,000 in real property and an estate of $100.

Daily Illinois State Register (Springfield), 11 May 1886, 4:3; Joseph Wallace, Past and Present of the City of Springfield and Sangamon County Illinois (Chicago: S. J. Clarke, 1904), 623; U.S. Census Office, Sixth Census of the United States (1840), Tazewell County, IL, 11; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Tazewell County, IL, 50; Register of all Officers and Agents, Civil, Military, and Naval, in the Service of the United States, on the Thirtieth September, 1849 (Washington, DC: Gideon, 1849), *489; Register of all Officers and Agents, Civil, Military, and Naval, in the Service of the United States, on the Thirtieth September, 1851 (Washington, DC: Gideon, 1851), 550*; Register of Officers and Agents, Civil, Military, and Naval, in the Service of the United States, on the Thirtieth September, 1853 (Washington, DC: Robert Armstrong, 1853), *520; Register of Officers and Agents, Civil, Military, and Naval, in the Service of the United States, on the Thirtieth September, 1855 (Washington, DC: A. O. P. Nicholson, 1855), 346*; Register of Officers and Agents, Civil, Military, and Naval, in the Service of the United States, on the Thirtieth September, 1857 (Washington, DC: A. O. P. Nicholson, 1857), 346*; Register of Officers and Agents, Civil, Military, and Naval, in the Service of the United States, on the Thirtieth September, 1859 (Washington, DC: William A. Harris, 1859), 74*; Register of Officers and Agents, Civil, Military, and Naval, in the Service of the United States, on the Thirtieth September, 1861 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1862), 376*; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Springfield, Sangamon County, IL, 128; Gravestone, Oak Ridge Cemetery, Springfield, IL.