San
Joaquin County
Biographies
ARTHUR ROBERTS
Thirty-one years ago Arthur Roberts
arrived in California and decided to make the Golden State his permanent home,
and for twenty years he has been identified with Ripon in a representative way. He was born in London, England, November 19,
1864, a son of James and Jenny (German) Roberts, the former a native of
Edinburgh, Scotland, and the latter of London, England. James Roberts was born in 1821, and his
father, Thomas Roberts, removed to England in 1823. There James Roberts became a well-to-do
hardwood timber merchant, until his decease.
Arthur Roberts was sent to a private
school in London and at the age of fourteen was sufficiently advanced to hold a
clerkship in his father’s establishment; then for two years he was employed as
a messenger by the Postal Telegraph Company of London. On February 6, 1884, he enlisted in the
British Army for general service in the Royal Artillery. After a year’s training at Woolwich and Portsmouth
he was transferred to Second Battery, Second Brigade, South Irish Division R.
A., afterwards known as No. Ten Mountain Battery, for service
in Egypt. He was soon promoted to
corporal and for the next three years was stationed in Egypt. He went through the Sudan War with the troops
with Major Kitchener in the recovery of the province of Dongola,
the conquering of the Mahdi tribes and the final
recovery of General Charles G. Gordon.
The final battled in December, 1885, at Giness,
was fought with heavy losses, but with victory for the British troops. Returning to England in November, 1887, Mr.
Roberts was given a bronze star war medal by the Khedive of Egypt and a silver
medal by the Crown of England. The last
three years of his military career were spent as sergeant under Maj. F. W. Ratcliffe at Aldershot and
Newport, Monmouthshire. Soon after receiving his honorable discharge,
on February 6, 1891, Mr. Roberts came to America, arriving in San Francisco
March 15, 1891, where his brother Frank was engaged in the upholstery
business. Early in 1892 he went to La
Grange, formerly known as French Bar, to prospect for gold; Lyons Gulch proved
to be a better place and here he met with considerable success for two years
when an epidemic of malaria forced him to leave, and for the next six years he
was manager of the general merchandise store of Percy Davis at La Grange.
On February 9, 1898, at San
Francisco, California, Mr. Roberts was united in marriage with Mrs. Mary Jane (Withington) Roberts, the widow of his brother, Frank
Roberts. She was born in Pennsylvania, a
daughter of A. L. Withington, a Civil War veteran who
passed away in 1898. Mrs. Roberts is the
mother of three sons by her first marriage:
Leland J., who resides in Stockton, went to work for George West & Sons,
viticulturists, when only fifteen years old and rose to be superintendent of
their large interests. Frank W. enlisted
in the Aviation Corps and served in France during the World War. Returning to the United States, he entered
the employ of A. B. Shoemake, commission merchant at
Modesto, as buyer; later he became buyer for the Hume Fruit Company and is now
in business for himself at Modesto. He
recently married Miss Florence Bates, a daughter of Mrs. Ora R. Bates of
Modesto. Earl W. enlisted in the U. S.
Navy and served on the U. S. Battleship Arizona, which served as an escort to
President Wilson on his first trip to France, and also did patrol duty at
Smyrna, Asia Minor. He is associated in
business with his brother Frank but makes his home at Ripon. Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Roberts have one
daughter, Violet V., a graduate of the Ripon High School, Class of ’20.
Mr. Roberts received his U. S.
citizenship papers at Modesto in 1898 and since 1899 he has been engaged in
agriculture, first near Copperopolis, then five miles east of Farmington. In 1902 he settled near Ripon, where he
bought twenty acres, and this he has developed into a model fruit ranch. For two and a half years Mr. Roberts served as
justice of the peace of Dent Township and he has been a trustee of the Ripon
School District. He became the first
president of the first Board of Trade in Ripon.
For the past twelve years he has been deputy county assessor and in 1910
and 1920 he took the U. S. census. He
was one of the organizers and a charter member of the Farm Bureau of San
Joaquin County, of which he served as director for three years; he also served
as trustee of the San Joaquin unit of the American Federation of Farmers for two
years. He also served for two years as
tax collector of the South San Joaquin Irrigation District. He has been an active worker for better
educational facilities and has labored untiringly for the new Ripon Union High
School and the fine grammar school there.
In politics a Republican, he is a strong advocate of irrigation and is
working for the development of the South San Joaquin Irrigation System,
embracing 71,000 acres. Mrs. Roberts was
brought up in the old Convenanter Church and Mr. Roberts
in the Church of England, but they now worship at the new Congregational Church
at Ripon.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
976-979. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County Biographies
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County Genealogy
Databases