Woodbine Township can boast of many valuable, well-managed farms, that yield bountiful harvests to careful cultivation, and have proven valuable investments to their owners. One of these desirable estates is in the possession of our subject. It is finely located on section 5, and contains 170 acres, of highly fertile soil, under excellent tillage, and is well provided with buildings of a fair class, the necessary farming machinery, etc.

Mr. Roberts is a native of Cornwall, England, his birth occurring Friday, April, 20, 1832 (Good Friday). His parents, William and Mary (Spargo) Roberts, were also natives of Cornwall, the father having been born there March 15, 1810, and the mother on April 1, 1810. The father was a miner in the old country, and in 1857 he came with his family to the United States, and after spending a few weeks in Stockton Township, this county, removed to the shores of Lake Superior, to work in the copper mines. After being thus employed in Ontonagon County, Mich., for a year, he returned to this county and again settled in this township, and, purchasing a farm on section 9, was engaged in farming here until his death in July 1885. His wife preceded him to the grave, dying Sept. 22, 1875. They were the parents of twelve children, seven of whom are living: William, Henry, John, Paul, Mary J., Elizabeth, Grace. Henry, who lives in Elizabeth Township, married Mary Trisedder, and they had three children, all of whom are dead. John, a resident of Stockton, married Margaret Wixon (for further particulars see his biography on another page of this volume). Elizabeth married John Merryfield, of this township, and they have one child, Paul W. Grace married John B. Anthony, of this township and they have two children – Mary and Albert.

William Roberts, the subject of this sketch, was reared to man’s estate in his native country, and came to the United States in the vigor of early manhood, and has been identified with the agricultural interests of Jo Daviess County for nearly a quarter of a century. That he has net with success in his chosen calling is sufficiently attested by the appearance of his fine farm and by the fact that he derives a comfortable income therefrom. He is a man whose genial, whole-souled nature and other pleasant social qualities have made him a general favorite in his neighborhood, and he is respected for his manliness and the rectitude of his conduct and character. He is a highly esteemed member of the Methodist Church, which holds its meetings in the Apple River school house, and he is ever active in its interests. Our subject was the first member of the Roberts family to come to America, the father, six brothers and three sisters coming soon afterward. William has been three times across the Atlantic ocean, and has traveled extensively both in the Old World and in the New. His home is much admired for the beauty of its location and the natural scenery that surrounds it. Nestled among the hills, the water of Apple River murmurs by, as if saying to the world: “Men may come and men may go, but I go on forever.” A fine lithographic view of this beautiful place is shown in this volume elsewhere.

Contributed by Carol Parrish - Portrait and Biographical Album of Jo Daviess and Carroll Counties, Illinois (1889)