William Roberts
The ancestors of the Roberts of Shelby County originally came from Wales to the United States and settled in Pennsylvania; from there they went to Virginia. In 1815 Mr. Roberts moved with his family to Champaign County, Ohio. Mr. Roberts while in Virginia was the owner of slaves. Becoming convinced that owning slaves was wrong, he removed to Ohio with his slaves, thereby giving them their freedom. In 1816 or 1817 he came to Shelby County and located his land—a half section in section 3 of what is now Salem Township. In the spring of 1819 Mr. Roberts, with two of his sons—James M. and Anderson, and a colored man who had formerly been his slave—came to his lands to build a cabin and clear some land. They cleared about four acres and planted it in corn and potatoes. Some of them remained during the summer and fall to tend and harvest the crop, but all returned in the fall to Champaign and remained there till the spring of 1820, when the whole family, consisting of father, mother, five sons and two daughters, moved to Shelby Co. Of that number James M. is the only one left in the county. There are only two persons now living in the township besides Mr. Roberts who were here at the time he first came, viz., Jonathan Counts and Mrs. Jas. McVay. There was not a road, church, or school in the township. Mr. Roberts has lived to see Salem Township changed from a howling wilderness to a highly cultivated portion of the country. Where the red man hunted the deer since Mr. R. came to the county, now stand the school-house, church, mechanics’ shop, store, and farm dwelling. Jas. M. Roberts was born in Bath County, Va., in 1803, and married Theresa Armstrong. By this union they have two children, Melissa and Henry C. In politics Mr. Roberts has always been a Whig and Republican, never having failed to cast his vote at every election for the party he believed to be nearest his principles. Mr. Roberts was postmaster at Port Jefferson from 1864 to 1878. He says the first wheat he sold be hauled by team to Cincinnati and sold for forty cents per bushel; afterward sold for forty-three cents and took his pay in trade; sold pork at ninety-three cents per hundred; butter from four to six cents per pound; paid fifty cents per pound for coffee.
From History of Shelby County, Ohio; R. Sutton & Co, Philadelphia PA, 1883