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Joe Robertson & Family

Medora Brick Plant
Medora, Indiana
Indiana 425 southwest of Medora in Jackson County

History Photos preservation BRickMaking People HOME

J.M. Robertson obit. died April 4, 1944. from Indianapolis Times April 5, 1944.
Shared by Joseph M. Robertson II, attorney, Seymour, IN

Article below found at http://members.tripod.com/~debmurray/indiana/indbioref-104.htm

INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931

JOSEPH M. ROBERTSON. One of the leading citizens and vigorous and far-sighted business men of Southern Indiana is Joseph M. Robertson, of Brownstown, president of the Jackson Brick & Hollow Tile Company of Brownstown, and of the Medora Brick Company, of Medora, with farming and other interests. For many years the family name of Robertson has been a respected and familiar one in Jackson County, where its founder, the great-grandfather of Joseph M. Robertson, settled in 1816. Acquiring a large amount of Government land, he became an extensive farmer in Hamilton Township and a man of importance. A Virginian by birth, his early years were passed in Kentucky.

Joseph M. Robertson was born October 9, 1876, in Jackson County, Indiana, and is a son of Hon. Jonathan and Carrie (Miller) Robertson, a grandson of John Blaze Robertson, and a great-grandson of Andrew Robertson, the pioneer of the family in Indiana. John Blaze Robertson, a lifelong resident of Jackson County, was a farmer of ability, resource and great industry, and also a civil engineer who made an established place for himself in that difficult calling. He was active in public affairs, and served two terms each as county surveyor and county clerk. Jonathan Robertson, the father of Joseph M. Robertson, was born in Jackson County, where he was reared and educated, and chose the life of an agriculturist, being engaged in tilling the soil throughout his career. He became prominent and influential in public affairs, representing Jackson County in the House of Representatives of the State Legislature from 1901 until 1903, and also being president of the County Council for ten years. He had extensive interests in several lines, and at one time was the owner and operator of a mill. Mr. Robertson married for his first wife Miss Carrie Miller, who died, leaving two children: Amy Robinson, who married George W. Gunder; and Joseph M., of this review. After the death of his first wife Mr. Robertson married Mary E. Swain, and they became the parents of two children: Genevieve, who married Dr. Joseph McNinch; and Carrie B., who married Harry Mather.

Joseph M. Robertson, who traces his ancestry back to a Robertson who was at one time secretary to a governor of Virginia in Colonial times, attended the public schools of Jackson County and the high school at Brownstown. He commenced his career at the age of eighteen years, as an employe in his father's flour mill and grain elevator, and in 1903 bought an interest therein, which he still retains. In 1920 Jonathan Robertson retired from active business and sold his interest in the mill to R. M. Robertson, a cousin of Joseph M. Robertson, and at this time they are the proprietors. In 1906 Mr. Robertson of this review became one of the founders of the Jackson Brick & Hollow Tile Company, of Brownstown, and served as its treasurer until 1920, in which year he was elected president, and has remained in this capacity. In 1923 the company bought the Medora Shale Brick Company, and is still its president. The Jackson Brick & Hollow Tile Company manufactures brick and building and drain tile, employing thirty-five people and shipping its product throughout the central states territory meeting with a ready market in six states, its output being over 100 tons daily. The Medora company, operating at Medora, manufactures common, face and paving brick, its output being 50,000 bricks daily, manufactured in down draft kilns, and its market being the central states territory. Mr. Robertson is one of the best known and most thoroughly informed men in his line in the state, and is a member of the National Face Brick Manufacturers Association and the Structural Tile Manufacturing Association. He is also active in farming and at present has 600 acres of fertile Jackson County soil under a high state of cultivation. Fraternally he belongs to the Masons, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Knights of Pythias. He is also active in civic affairs, and during the World war served as food administrator for Jackson County, being also active in the Loan, War Stamps and Red Cross drives.

Mr. Robertson married Miss Bessie Burrell, of Jackson County, a daughter of John B. Burrell, who for many years was a prominent merchant of Brownstown and a substantial agriculturist of Jackson County, as well as president of the County Council. Mr. and Mrs. Robertson have one daughter: Carolyn, a student.

INDIANA ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT Vol. 5
By Charles Roll, A.M.
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1931