Let Me Introduce You; John Richard ‘Jack’ Roberts

           


John Richard Roberts was born 1 November 1859 in Staffordshire, England to Hugh(1) and Margaret(2) Roberts.  By the time John was 11 years old, he was working in the local coalmine as a pit boy, and by age 21 John was a coalminer.

 At age 23, John married a 20 year old Selina Parker(162) in Fenton, Staffordshire, England.  John and Selina had two children before immigrating to the United States in 1887, a year after Hugh, Margaret and the rest of the Roberts family.  John worked in the Pennsylvania coalmines before following Margaret and the rest of the Roberts family to Almy, Wyoming and then to Rock Springs.

While living in Rock Springs, they had four more children and John worked for P.J. Quealy.  In 1897, John was asked if he wanted to help open a new mine near the Hams Fork River, so John left Selina and the children in Rock Springs and John helped open a new mining operation and establish the new town of Kemmerer and coal mining town of Frontier.  During the beginning, mining operation there was a housing shortage, so John built a small cabin to live in.  Two months later, John purchased a tent and set it up for his family to live in.  Selina and the children traveled by train, while John met them at the train station with a team and buggy to finish transporting the reunited family to their new tent.  The John Roberts family lived in the tent until the town of Frontier began building a new school where the tent was located.  The family then moved into company housing. 

John worked at the Frontier sawmill that supplied timbers for the mine, he also worked at the icehouse.  With the exception of a short time when John worked in Cumberland, John and Selina remained in Frontier while John worked for the Kemmerer Coal Company.

          


Selina died in 1923 and two weeks later, while John was working outside the Frontier Mine No. 1 as dock boss, there was a terrible explosion in the mine that killed 99 men including John’s son Isaac(165).  John worked at the mine for another five years when the mine finally closed and John retired.  He was 69 years old.  John worked for the Kemmerer Coal Company for about 31 years.  John died in 1940 at 80 years old and is buried in the Kemmerer Cemetery. 

John and Selina’s children were:  Martha Particia(163), Isaac(165), Thomas(167), William(166), Hugh Ambrose(169), Nellie(170), Jeanette Marie(171) Llewellyn(172) and Ted(173). 

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