Francis M. Roberts
Francis M. Roberts, an influential farmer of Allen County, owns a well- kept farm of 61 acres in sections 16 and 22, Bath township, where he has resided for the past 18 years. He is a son of Warren and Mary (Rumbaugh) Roberts, and was born October 8, 1851, in Jackson township, Allen County, Ohio. Both parents were natives of this county, the father dying here in 1853. The mother reached her 70th year and was living in Kansas at the time of her death. Their family consisted of six children, namely: William S., who died in Indiana after serving almost five years in the Civil War; George W., who died in the army at Nashville, Tennessee; Milo, a successful farmer of Bath township; Anna Jane, deceased; Francis M.; and Warren, deceased.
Francis M. Roberts has been engaged in farming all his life and has also worked at the carpenter's trade considerably. He moved to Kansas about 1877 and farmed there about two and a half years before entirely making up his mind that Ohio was hard to beat as a farming State. He then returned to Allen County and again took up agricultural work in Bath Township, where he has since resided. In 1887 he purchased his present farm, where he raises considerable grain each year, the greater part of which is consumed by the stock which he fattens for market.
Mr. Roberts was married in 1872 to Emma Roush, who was born May 7, 1850, in Juniata County, Pennsylvania, and is a daughter of Henry and Susannah Roush, who came to this county when Mrs. Roberts was a child of about two years. Eleven children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Roberts, namely: Charles, born December 6, 1872, and residing n Lima, who served in the Spanish-American War; Almenta, born August 8, 1874, who married Emmett Fisher, of Lima; Maggie Jane, born January 26, 1876, deceased February 1, 1903; Francis Ephraim, born January 16, 1878, who is now a resident of Oregon; Anna Jane, born December 8,1880; Bertha May, born November 21, 1882; Cora, born August 1, 1885; William Theodore, born March 19, 1888; Ruth L., born July 14, 1893; Oliver Ray, born October 22, 1890; and Gertrude, born July 19, 1895. The family home is one of the neatest and most commodious in the township, and bears evidence of the care and labor bestowed upon it by its owner. Mr. Roberts has been a lifelong Republican. For more than 30 years he was a zealous worker in the Methodist Episcopal and United Brethren churches, but during the past three years he has not been active in church work, although retaining all his old-time interest.