Fred G. Roberts
The bar of Lawrence County has one of its ablest members in Fred G. Roberts, who has been in practice at Ironton since 1910 and has the further distinction of being the only democrat ever elected to the office of probate judge in Lawrence County. He began, like so many successful professional men, his career as a teacher, and by hard work and by following his ambition steadily finally perfected himself in the law, and now holds a place in the front ranks of his profession at Ironton.
Fred G. Roberts was born at Waterloo, Lawrence County, August 18, 1880. His father, Joseph A. Roberts, was born in Summers County, West Virginia, in 1843, and during the great Civil War made a record as a soldier. Farming has been his vocation, and he still lives at Waterloo. The mother's maiden name was Amanda Hutchison, also a native of Summers County, West Virginia, and she was born in 1847 and died in 1907. Their eight children were: Emma, William H., May. Burton, Hudson, Fred G., Ernest and Roanoke.
Fred G. Roberts as a boy lived on the farm and attended the village schools of Waterloo, and subsequently pursued his law course in the Cincinnati Law School. Eight years of his life were spent in the schoolroom as a teacher, and at the time of his mother's death he was ready to go away to law school, but the loss of his mother and a sister about the same time interfered with his plans, and he had to resume teaching for a couple of years in order to secure the means for a college course. In spite of handicaps and obstacles, Mr. Roberts since his admission to the bar in 1910 has made an unusually successful record, and his work has been characterized by a thorough ability and an extreme fidelity to the interests of all clients.
Mr. Roberts was married October 12, 1911, to Bertha C. Paul, daughter of Moses D. Paul, now living retired at Ironton. They are the parents of one child, Marjorie. Mr. Roberts and family attend the Methodist Episcopal Church, and in politics he is a democrat.
From "A Standing History of the Hanging Rock Iron Region of Ohio" by Eugene B. Willard, Daniel W. Williams, George O. Newman and Charles B. Taylor. Published by Lewis Publishing Company, 1916