Charlevoix county herald. (East Jordan, Mich.) 189?-1953, 1919-01-03
SONS WHO HAD NOT SEEN HIM
FOR SO YEARS GOT cLEw WHEN
HE BEGAN TO TRACE SELF
FLED FROM MISSOURI IN 1866
Union Soldier, Warned Away, Wed
Again; Wife, Hearing He Was
Dead, Also Wed.

believe he is the man." They went
over to the big chair. One opened a
small leather case and held before the
eyes of the old man dagguerrotype
of man just under middle age
That's me-" said the old man. as he
leaned forward in surprise. Where
d d you get it? Who are your"
Don't you know us?" one of the
younger men asked. The old man
stood up and looked them over. He
shook his head. 1T seems to me that
/ have seen you before" he said to
one of them. "but don't place you"
He was asked again, Don't you know
us-father?" He looked again, startled,
but again shook his head.
The younger men were Joseph Rob
ertson of Floyada and John Robertson
OF Coleman. Tex. Joseph is 60, John
Is So. The old man was Jeremiah G..
Robertson of Alvarado, Tex He is So.
The sons had not seen him for 81
years. Until short time before no
had supposed that he was deaE pnt
he had only forgotten. Xe had lost
himself and his family. The mnrsva,
thing in his strange aaa howovar
was that he had f9gotten two fam,
lilies. Now he 6ods that he hos
family in Texas and one in Missouri
His story. as[t :. t ,o,d ' on 90 haoT 80
In ausnI ght after the Civil War.
IL Est, 1866, jeremiah Robertson
W. g .Irmer in Greene County. Mo-.
- II from Springfield. He had re-
I'D from the Union Army to his
%Ie and four boys, but found Union
veterans were not in high favor in his
community. Four of his neighbors,
who had been with him in the Union
army, were mysteriously killed, one
at time, and Robertson was warned
to leave the country. He paid no at
tention to the warning. Then his
neighbor on the next farm was shot
from ambush at night, and a few days
later another letter, under his door,
read: You have IL hours to get away
alive"
Robertson went into his yard. A
rifle bullet grazed his head. He ran
into the house, and that night rode
away on his horse, after telling his
wife that he would send for her and
the boys as soon as he was settled.
Two years later his family heard
that he had been killed at Pond
Springs, Mo. Neighbors who went
tcere to see the body told Mrs. Robert
son it was that Of her husband.
So, to his Missouri family, he was
dead. Many years passed. Then,
g. me time ago, the two sons Robert
son, who had moved to Texas, re-
ceived information which led them to
believe that their father was alive.
J lac story he told to these sons upon
their discovery of him shows how his
existence came to be revealed. He
told them:
81 have always had faint recollec-
ton that l used to live in Missouri.
have no recollection beyond a day
wien / found myself riding along a
road in Texas. / had an idea then
Where l came from or where / was
going.
During the next year l seriously
contemplated going back in the direc-
lion from whence had come and try
ing to find out something about my
self, but did not know where to make
Inquiries, l simply forgot my past"
When Joseph Robertson heard of
che old man, jeremiah Robertson, FIVE
months ago. he and his brother, John,
bfth wealthy. hired a detective to help
establish the identity of the man. In
vestigation revealed that jeremiah
Robertson, on leaving his home, went
direct from Greene County, Mo-, 20
Collin County, Tex, and that he lived
there 16 years. 1t revealed that he
married few years after his arrival
in Texas under his own name, and
that he became interested in the cat
tie business.
The dagguereotype OF him, which
led to his identification, was taken in
Springfield, Mo-, when he was 33 years
old.
Robertson's Missouri wife married
again and lives at South Greenfield,
where she has grown children and
several grandchildren. The four sons
by her marriage to Robertson are
living, and there are 20 grandchildren
IN this branch of the family.
In Robertson's Texas family there
are 16 children, the oldest a man OF
IS, and Sc grandchildren.
The two sons who searched for and
fund their father sent for their two
brothers in the Missouri branch OF
the family to come and see their par.
ent, who had then returned from Tulsa
to Alvarado. The other brothers are
Owen Robertson of South Greenfield,
Mo-, and Ray Robertson of Broken
Arrow, Ok.
a