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JUDGE WILLIAM
M. ROBERSON
Uncle Bill, as he was lovingly known, was born April 10, 1869 near
Screven in Wayne County, the son of Wiley and Mary Causey Robinson, and
given the name of William Mitchel.
In early 1880's, his family moved to Bradford, Florida, where they remained
seven years. He attended
school in Florida and later secured a license to teach school.
After moving back to Wayne County, Georgia, he taught school at
the Strickland settlement near Lulaton, at Hortense, the Roberson School
near Screven, and the Screven school.
On December 16, 1895, Bill Roberson was married in Jesup, Georgia, to
Mattie Hannah Broadhurst, daughter of James and Martha Epps Broadhurst,
a prominent Jesup family. About 1898 he moved his family to Lulaton,
where he established his home near Buck's Still.
Initially he operated a mercantile store at Lulaton. He and
Mattie had six children:
(1) Meda Lorene, born on February 3, 1897 in Wayne County (Jesup),
Georgia, and died February 2, 1907.
(2) Betty Wylma, born July 25, 1898, at Lulaton and died June 20, 1899.
(3) Sallie Wanell, born on April 27, 1900, at Lulaton, Georgia,
and on April 15, 1916, was married to Audry Belmont Brooker, son
of John W. and Phadonia Brown Brooker.
(4) Eula Epps, born on October 25, 1901, in Lulaton, Georgia, and never
married. (5) James Malphus,
born on September 25, 1903, in Lulaton, Georgia, and died a few months
later on June 28, 1904.
(6) Louis Edwin, born May 1, 1907 in Wayne County (Jesup), Georgia, was
married to Mildred Johns, born June 20, 1908, the daughter of
Alfred Johns and LoRetta Raulerson Johns.
Edwin died December 28, 1995, and was buried in the Raulerson
Cemetery in Pierce County.
Edwin and Mildred have two children, (a) Arvis Dewayne, born June 20,
1935, and died November 5, 1985 (never married) , and is buried in the
Raulerson Cemetery, in Pierce County. (b) Janis Celeste, born September
16, 1938, and married James C. Kenney, Sr.
Uncle Bill's first wife, Mattie Hannah Broadhurst Roberson died on
November 17, 1908, and is buried at Jesup, Georgia.
After Mattie's death, Bill married her sister, Sallie Annie
Broadhurst on March 6, 1910, and in 1911/12 built a new home in Nahunta,
currently located eastward, across from the court house.
They had two children, (1) Joseph Robert,
born August 3, 1912, at Lulaton, and married Catherine Murray.
(2) William Dolan, born March 26, 1916, in Nahunta.
He died as a child in January 1919, and was buried at Jesup,
Georgia.
Bill Roberson experienced many business ventures.
While operating the mercantile store at Lulaton, he went into the
timber business with Fred O. Knox, and
Bill eventually bought the "Buck's Still land" from Elliott Knox.
He worked with independent timber men to harvest timber and produce
"railroad cross-ties", and eventually expanded into turpentine.
This partnership became very lucrative.
At one time William M. Roberson owned an estimated
8,000 acres of Brantley County land,
and was known as a gentleman of leisure, because of
his timber and turpentine leases.
The story is told that a stranger made an inquiry as to where
Uncle Bill resided. A
neighbor replied:
"Why, Uncle Bill Lives at Buck's Still, On Prosperity Hill; He never
Worked,
And He Never Will."
It has been suggested that this joke was originated by Uncle
Bill, for he relished a
joke on himself.
Another story told by Uncle Bill was being in the Georgia Militia at
Savannah (1886-1890) and serving as
an Orderly to General John B. Gordon (of the Civil War era, U.S.
Senator), then the Governor of Georgia.
Uncle Bill relates, "The boys told me how great it would be to work as
an Orderly for Governor Gordon (also head of Georgia Militia).
After getting the job,
I found out that the job involved grooming
his horse and polishing
boots.
That kind of a job didn't suit me.
"I curried his horse," Uncle Bill says,"and when the general
rubbed his handkerchief over the horse's withers,
and found some dirt, he insisted that I curry the horse entirely
clean." "I was a poor
Orderly," he admits,
"and they took me off the job."
While telling this story, Uncle Bill was laughing all the time, knowing
that the joke was on himself..
In the early 1900s after relocating to Nahunta, Bill Roberson
became associated with L. S. Robb, and J. B. Lewis in the Wayne
Development Company; an organization designed to populate the Brantley
County area through real estate activities.
This was not a profitable venture for Bill Roberson, and he
eventually severed relationships with L. S. Robb with great losses.
William M. Roberson died on July 25, 1948, and Aunt Sallie
Broadhurst Roberson on November 23, 1962 in Chatham Co. Georgia.
Both are buried at Jesup,
along side of this first wife, Mrs. Mattie, and Aunt Sallie's sister..
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