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Henry Roberts, justice of the peace, notary public, and proprietor of
the Valle Mines boarding house, was born near the Crystal City Glass
Works, Jefferson County, Mo., January 1, 1819.  His father, William F.
Roberts (deceased), was a native of Newmarket, Frederick Co., Md., and
was born in 1787; he removed to Jefferson County, Mo., in 1813, and 
was a millwright by trade, which trade he followed for many years in 
Southeastern Missouri.  In 1817 he was married at Waterloo, Monroe 
County, to Elizabeth Forquer, sister of George Forquer, formerly the
attorney general of this State, and half-sister of the late Governor
Thomas Ford.  Mrs. Roberts died in 1842.  In 1829 Mr. Roberts removed
to Washington County.  Of the eight children born to this marriage,
six grew to maturity, five sons and one daughter, only one of whom
survives him, Henry Roberts, of Jefferson County.  William F. Roberts
served under Gen. Harrison in the War of 1812, and was the oldest Mason 

in the county where he died, having taken the first degree in Masonry 

in the latter part of November, 1810; he assisted in establishing the 

Grand Lodge of Missouri, in 1820, and was a man of great reading and 

information.  In 1839 Henry Roberts, eldest son of William F. Roberts, 

went to Oregon, Ogle Co., Ill., where he read and practiced law one year 

with his uncle, Hon. Thomas Ford; he was appointed circuit clerk of Ogle 

County in 1843, which position he held five years, serving also as master 

in chancery during the entire term of his clerkship. He then went to 

Galena, Ill., where he engaged in the mercantile business with a brother-

in-law until the spring of 1850, when he located in Jefferson County, Mo., 

where he has since resided.  He has been engaged in teaching and mining.  

January 3, 1841, he married Martha Pickett, daughter of William Pickett 

(deceased), a niece of James Pickett, the great tobacco king of Kentucky, 

and a sister of Hon. Thomas J. Pickett, now of Lincoln, Neb., formerly 

editor and publisher of the Peoria "Register."  Mrs. Roberts was born in 

Lousiville, Ky., in 1826, and died in March, 1852, the mother of three 

children, only one of whom is now living: Mildred, wife of Francis A. 

Brickey, a physician of De Soto; one son, Thomas F., died in Louisville, 

Ky., in his twenty-fourth year. In April, 1856, Mr. Roberts married Jane 

Fletcher, also of Kentucky. To this union four children were born, but 

three of whom are living: Harriet C., wife of Stephen S. Outman, of 

Lynn County, Kas., and has five children; Anna, married James E. Outman, 

of Greenwood County, Kas. and is the mother of three children; and Martha 

Ellen.  Mr. Roberts was appointed justice of the peace in 1886, which 

position he still holds. He became a member of the I. O. O. F., in Galena, 

Ill., in 1848.