WI BIO - Dodge Co - ROBERTS, Thomas R.

History of Dodge County, Wisconsin. Chicago: Western Historical, 1880, pp 
706-707

Thomas R. ROBERTS, farmer, Section 10, P. O. Fox Lake [Fox Lake Township, 
Dodge County, Wisconsin], was born in February 1826 in North Wales.* His 
father died in Wales when he [Thomas R.] was six years old; he lived to the 
good old age of 81; [p 707] Thomas R. came to Racine [Racine County, 
Territory of Wisconsin] in August 1844, went to Dodge County [Territory of 
Wisconsin] prospecting, and settled in Fox Lake the same year, one of the 
first Welshmen to settle in that county. He pre-empted 120 acres, in the 
family are now 400 acres, mostly under good cultivation. When he first came 
he lived in a small shanty, and was often visited by roaming bands of 
Indians. The wolves used to keep them awake nights, and deer were often 
seen. He went about on sleds drawn by oxen.

In February 1877 he [Thomas R. ROBERTS] married the Widow JONES, whose first 
husband, Owen J. JONES, died in June 1874. Owen J. JONES was a well-to-do 
farmer in Fox Lake [Dodge County, Wisconsin]. Her [the Widow JONES'] 
father-in-law, John JONES, is living in Fox Lake, at the age of eighty-three, 
and came to this country with a wife and sixteen children. Mr. Thomas R. 
ROBERTS went to California in 1852, across the Plains with ox team, and was 
there nine years, mining most of the time. Mr. [Thomas R.] ROBERTS has, 
through his industry, acquired plenty of this world's goods. Himself [Thomas 
R. ROBERTS] and wife are members of the Welsh Calvinistic Church.

[* In some parts of Wales the custom of a son taking his father's first 
instead of his last name as his surname was practiced. In the Welsh naming 
tradition, William a son of someone named Owen JONES, for example, would be 
named William OWENS, not William JONES, as American naming custom would 
dictate. Continuing this example, a son of that William JONES would have 
WILLIAMS as his surname.]

Submitted by Cathy Kubly