Obituary of Mart Roberson
(C. Avis Catalog entry #740)
(Document ID #383)
RITES TODAY FOR PIONEER
Mart Roberson, Range Rider for 50 Years, Dies
Funeral services for Mart Roberson, 75, active cattleman in the Wichita area for more than 50 years, will be held from the family home at 1821 Huff avenue at 3 o'clock Wednesday afternoon. The Rev. Finis Crutchfield, Floral Heights Methodist church pastor, will officiate. Music for the service will be arranged by Mrs. George W. Thorburn.
Mr. Roberson died in a Wichita Falls hospital at 11 o'clock Tuesday morning. He had been ill only a few days and was admitted to the hospital Monday afternoon. Pallbearers for the service will be Eli Morgan, Leon Deaton, Oral Jones, Lester Jones, W. W. Brown, and Carl Williamson. The Merkle Undertaking company will direct burial in Riverside.
Mr. Roberson continued active in the cattle industry until his last illness. He was a picturesque character and typical of early day Texans who braved frontiers in this section. He experienced many early day adventures and watched the development of civilization where he had rode cattle ranges as a youth.
Born Near Graham
The veteran cowman was widely known in this section and his character was strongly expressive of a successful range personality. His readiness to discuss early day experiences brought to life the swish of sagebrush against horse-hide and cowboy yells of roundup days for many friends and associates.
Mr. Roberson was born at Eliasville, near Graham, in 1859. A son of pioneers, Mr. Roberson returned to the Wichita area in 1878 after his family moved to the Choctaw Indian area near Fort Smith, Ark. A youth of 19, he secured his first work in the new country with the H. & N. ranch south of Olney. In 1882, when the first railway was built into Wichita Falls, Mr. Roberson accompanied Charley Akers to the Byers pasture to fence it and
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he directed the drive of the first cattle to the pasture from Archer county.
Other range activities carried Mr. Roberson to the Indian territory near Chickasha, Okla., on a trail drive into Kansas with 1,000 longhorns, and on many roundup drives over hundreds of miles of Texas panhandle country, during some of which he remained on the open ranges for months. Mr. Roberson recalled frequently long periods of association with well known cattlemen including the Pat Leona[ ] the Waggoner, Burnett and Sug[ ]ge crews.
Married Henrietta Girl
Mr. Roberson was married in 1885 to Miss Nora Herring of Henrietta. He worked for a year after [] marriage with the Franklin [] and Cattle company in old [] county, Okla. The firm was [] owned and succeeded the Har[] and Ikard brothers in controlling the Diamond F brand. Later Mr. Roberson was associated with the Roster, Ikard and Phelps interests in supplying meat for soldiers stationed at Fort Sill.
After leaving the Indian territory, Mr. Roberson moved to the L. F. Wilson ranch in Archer county, where he remained 10 years. Supplies for long cattle drives for the Wilson ranch were secured from Will Noland's general store in Holliday, Mr. Roberson ofter recalled. He was residing in Holliday when the City National bank was robbed and came to Wichita Falls with Mr. Nolan two days later on Feb. 27, 1896, to see the two captured bandits hanged.
The Wichita county courthouse was a plank structure located near the present site of the Wichita Falls Clinic hospital when Mr. Roberson made his first trip to the frontier village. The occasion was to supply bail for a cowboy who had been charged with returning a missing ranch horse to the corrall from a farmer's field.
Mr. Roberson is survived by his widow; two sons, Harry Roberson of Durango, Colo., and Clyde Roberson of Fort Worth; three daughters, Mrs. R. H. Gracey of Oklahoma City, Mrs. Jake Avis of Wichita Falls, and Miss Jennie Roberson, art supervisor in the Wichita Falls public schools; two brothers, Blunt Roberson of Fletcher, Okla., and Richard Roberson of Ellis, Okla.; and a sister, Mrs. Marie Windum of Oklahoma.
The Roberson children visited their parents for the first family reunion in 15 years for the holiday season in December, 1932.