John Davis Roberson, a farmer of the Eleventh District of Lauderdale County,
was born in the county September 2, 1830, and is a son of Isham and Rhodie
(Stames) Roberson, both natives of South Carolina; the father was born in
1799, and came to Lauderdale (then Tipton County) in 1828, and died in 1861;
the mother was born in 1801, and died in 1859. Our subject was raised on a
farm and worked for his father until eighteen years of age, then commenced
farming for himself. In 1858 Mr. Roberson was elected constable, and served a
term; was elected magistrate in 1860, and served until 1870, when he was
elected State and county tax collector, and served a term, and was then
elected railroad tax collector, and served a term, and in 1876 was re-elected
magistrate, and held the office until 1882. Mr. Roberson was first married
January 14, 1848, to Elizabeth Braden, daughter of William and Sarah Braden,
and had five children: Sarah Ann, wife of J. C. Whitson; William Thomas, who
died in 1858; Elizabeth Mansfield, the wife of S. D. Jenkins; Robert, David
and William Francis. Mrs. Roberson died in April, 1883, and in November,
1883, he married Mrs. Amanda A. Keller (nee Paul) a widow with ten children,
eight girls and ten boys. (sic) Mr. Roberson is a member of the Methodist
Episcopal Church South, and of the Masonic lodge at Ripley, Tenn. He is a
Democrat and a Prohibitionist, and a most worthy citizen of Lauderdale County,
the number of offices he has held by choice of the people, testifying to their
esteem and confidence in him as a man.

Goodspeed’s Biographies of Lauderdale Co., TN