Joel Walter Roberts ¹

  General Notes:

PEd Res File #41
1850 Census Limestone Texas Is age 13 born Texas Name given as Joel Moffett which is his stepfathers name.
1860 Census Falls County, Texas lists JW Roberts age 23 male farmer born Texas.
1870 Census FAlls County, Texas is age 35 born Texas farmer
1880 Census Falls County, Texas Is age 42 born Texas
David Roberts
Joel W. Roberts Civil WAr Pension Records Enlisted 14 April 1862 was assigned to Waller Regiment Texas Cavalry CSA In his own words " I was just turned loose at close of the war by my captain John Dick Morris." Both his step father and brother died in the civil war and are buried in Virginia
Falls County Texas Confederate Indigent Families LIst 1863-1865 lists Joel Roberts.
IGI
Probate Records for Andrew Roberts
Joel died at the home of his daugther Joelena Roberts Cox of old age and is buried in Stranger Cem. in Falls County amongst many of his old friends and family members.

JOEL WALTER ROBERTS from the Falls County Texas website:
"Joel Walter Roberts, b May 2, 1837 in Brazoria County, The Republic of Texas, d January 23,1920 in Quanah, Hardeman County, Texas at the home of a son-in-law, David H. Cox, and buried in Stranger Cemetery - was a son of Andrew and Cynthia (Hodge) Roberts - members of Austin's first colony known as the "old 300," in 1825. Joel was one of eight children born to his father's second wife, Cynthia (Hodge) Roberts. He was about twelve years old when his stepfather, James P. Moffett, his mother, and two brothers came to the Blue Ridge in Limestone County, Texas (present- day Stranger, Falls County, Texas).
Joel was educated in the local school, and ca 1859, he married first to Elizabeth Catherine Maulding, b January 7, 1845, d January 7, 1865 on her twentieth birthday - a daughter of Presley and Catherine (Brazilla) Maulding, and a sister of Matilda Barzilla (Maulding) Brothers and Nancy A. (Maulding) Sowders, who also settled at Stranger.
Joel and Elizabeth had two daughters before her death:
Mary Ella Roberts, b August 27, 1860, d April 7, 1933 at Kosse, Texas - married October 19, 1876 in Falls County to Thomas Henry Garrett, b February 6, 1855 at Stranger, d October 9, 1940, and buried in Kosse - a son of Thomas McKissick and Linea Frances Brandon) Garrett. They had ten children: Webb Garrett who married Beryl Alice Fuller; Thomas Henry Garrett, Jr.; Boyd Roberts Garrett who married Euleta Belle Maffett; William Walter Garrett who married Lillian Mae Curd; Ottis Benjamin Garrett who married Florence Roberta Hensley; Maude S. Garrett who married James William Poindexter; Roger Q. Mills Garrett who married Margaret Inez Johnson; Mary Aline Garrett; Fred Lewis Garrett; and Thelma Garrett who married Eugene Blake Bryant.
Infant Daughter Roberts, born and died 1862 and buried in Stranger. Her small tombstone has no name - just "Our Darling Daughter."
Joel enlisted in the Confederate States Army during the Civil War - serving in Company B, Texas Cavalry, Waller's Division, Trans-Mississippi Army. He vas wounded, and had a leg amputated. When Elizabeth C. (Maulding) Roberts died, she was buried in the family cemetery on land he owned, which later became he James Franklin Erskine homestead land. Ranging cattle destroyed all but one of the tombstones through he years; and fortunately, that one was Elizabeth's - which has now been reset in Stranger Cemetery by Joel's CSA tombstone, recently erected.
On December 27, 1865, Joel Walter Roberts was married second to Lucy Lelia Tarver, b ca 1847 in Ala- lama, dearly 1888 and buried at Stranger. Joel and Lucy had eleven children before her death:
Ann Pickett Roberts, b June 5, 1867, d September 22, 1874 and buried in Stranger Cemetery.
Cynthia Charlotte Roberts, b 1869 - married October 16, 1887 in Falls County, Texas to A. M. Cash, b March 23, 1857 in Illinois, d April 10, 1897 at Stranger and buried in Stranger Cemetery. They had Mary Lelia (Cash) Long, b January 1892, and Johnie M. (Cash) Steele, b September 1894.
James Andrew Roberts, b 1870, d 1910 - was not married.
Sarah Victorine Roberts (called "Sallie"), b December 16, 1872, d June 30, 1959 and buried in Quanah, Texas - married April 12, 1891 in Falls Jounty to Leonidas Polk Eddins, b October 15, 1869, d March 13, 1942 in Quanah, Texas - a son of John R. Eddins, CSA Veteran of Company H, 17th Alabama Infantry, b November 15, 1837, d December 21, 1921 and buried in Stranger Cemetery, and Emeline L. (Beard) Eddins, b April 17, 1842, d December 31, 1916 and buried in Stranger Cemetery. They lived for a time in Marlin, Texas, where their only child, Bonnie Lucy Ed- dins, was born December 29,1910; and subsequently settled in Quanah, Texas, where their daughter, Mrs. Bonnie Pettit, continues to reside.
William Archibald Roberts, b 1873 - believed to have died young.
Joelena Toberts (called “Lena”), b may 1875 – was the second wife of David H. Cox, b November 1868 in Texas – a son of William David and Mary Florence )Gassaway) Cox, natives of Kentucky, and a brother of Florence Midora (Cox) Erskine. David and Lena had five children: Jessie I Cox – a daughter b July 1894; Lelia Cox, b May 1897; Joel D. Cox, b 1905; Jackson Cox, b 1907; and Garland Cox b November 1913.
Lottie Lelia Roberts, b March 27, 1877, d August 2, 1878, and buried in Stranger Cemetery.
Joel Walter Roberts, Jr., b July 9, 1878, d October 25, 1893, and buried in Stranger Cemetery.
Lytle Lucy Roberts, b January 1882 - married first in Falls County, Texas on July 17, 1904 to Bard L. Abernathy, b January 22,1875 in Georgia, d August 28, 1936 and buried in Stranger Cemetery. They had only one child - a son: Jesse Roberts Abernathy, b July 17, 1905, d January 12, 1916 and buried in Stranger Cemetery. Lytle Lucy married second to Leo S. Davis.
Ruby Hardwick Roberts, b November 1885 - married a Mr. Wade. Their only child - a daughter, Wanna Wade, resides in San Angelo, Texas.
Ennis Pope Roberts, b January 1888 - married Henry M. Parker, and had five children, including three sons and two daughters: Marie (Parker) Nichols; Frances Parker; Jack Parker; A. D. Parker; and Henry M. Parker, Jr. The family lived in Amarillo, Texas.
On October 2,1888 in Falls County, Texas, Joel Walter Roberts was married third to Mrs. Laura (Livingston) Brusenhan - widow of Patrick Brusenhan.
They had no children, and Laura died April 13, 1897. In 1900, Joel and his 87-year-old mother were living together. Cynthia (Hodge) Roberts Moffett Houston died in 1905 at Stranger, and by 1910, Joel was residing in Kosse, Texas with his daughter, Mrs. Abernathy. The Abernathy family moved to Oklahoma, and Joel resettled in Quanah, Texas in the home of his daughter, Mrs. Cox. Joel died there, but was buried in Stranger among some of his family members, and many old friends, in the community were he lived most of his life.
Mr. Roberts was remembered as the smiling, friendly neighbor who could be seen daily, delivering mail in his buggy - a pipe in his mouth, and his wooden leg anchored in the worn depression it had made in his buggy. Although he delivered the mail, he was never appointed Postmaster. He simply enjoyed visiting and helping his neighbors.
Copyright Permission granted to Theresa Carhart for printing the biographies of these Falls County Families to this Web page.""Families of Falls County", Compiled and Edited by the Falls County Historical Commission, page 391 column 2, page 392 column 1 and 2, and page 393 column 1. Member of Falls County Historical Commission. ¹