Jerome B. Robertson - Early Life and Career

Early Life and Career

Robertson was born in Woodford County, Kentucky, the son of Scottish immigrant Cornelius Robertson and his wife Clarissa Hill (Keech) Robertson. When Robertson was only four years old, his father died, leaving his mother almost penniless. Unable to properly support her family, she apprenticed young Robertson four years later to a hatter, who moved with the boy in 1824 to St. Louis. After studying medicine at Transylvania University in Kentucky, Robertson graduated in 1835. With the Texas Revolution emerging as a national topic, Robertson joined a company of Kentucky volunteers as a lieutenant and made plans to travel to Texas. However, they were delayed in New Orleans and did not arrive in Texas until September 1836. There, he joined the Army of Texas and was commissioned as a captain.

In 1837, with hostilities essentially ended in Texas, Robertson resigned his commission and returned to Kentucky, where he married Mary Elizabeth Cummins. He returned with his wife and several relatives to Texas in December 1837, buying land and settling in Washington-on-the Brazos. He established a medical practice, and became known on the frontier as an Indian fighter through six years of sporadic campaigning. He also served in the military forces that helped repel two invasions by the Mexican army in 1842. After stints as the town's coroner, mayor, and postmaster, Robertson was elected in 1847 to the Texas House of Representatives and in 1849 to the State Senate.

He and his wife Mary had three children, one of whom died in infancy. His son Felix Huston Robertson eventually became a brigadier general in the Confederate army.