An Overview with Highlights of this Historical Project by Melvin Robertson, Jr.
Since my sister Letha Robertson Barret and I assured our father Melvin Robertson, Sr. on his death bed that we would get involved to keep the property that he was born and raised on in our family, some outstanding things have occurred. Some of the key things will be communicated and discussed here and many others can be found in the Property Activity write-up in addition to other data in the website Menus. Our strategy was to reach out and communicate with other heirs about “It being a big deal that Jessie Robertson a former slave buying and owning property.” Many of the relatives we contacted agreed and joined us to take actions on keeping the property in the family. One question that came up is, “Where did great grandfather Jessie get the money to buy this land?” We have come to believe that it is possible that he could have been a minstrel/musician or some type of entertainer. Some key factors that led us to this conclusion is a number of factors; 1. Johnny Mathis the famous singer is from the same area, 2.) Albert King (not B.B. King) the other famous blues guitarist/singer is from the same area and 3. growing up I was told that Lena Horn and Nat King Cole’s family spent some time there. To tie things together for our conclusion, one of the things we know from history and post slavery is, people with the same interest and type of work grouped and hung together. And another key factor is, what other type of work back in those days could a former slave make the type of money to buy property. We will keep researching in hopes of finding more specific information on his life. Note: Unfortunately the local newspaper, The Gilmer Mirror, had a fire some years back and much of the local history was lost.
The problem of back taxes was identified in the amount of $23,590.13 and the heirs of the property was sued by Upshur County on June 15, 1999 and received a court judgement for the aforementioned amount. If the judgement was not paid off, the property would then be sold on the auction block to the highest bidder. A plan was made to setup and start a resource company for the property. We would then have relatives pledge/pay-in money to be used to pay-off the judgement. For each relatives pledge/pay-in, they would receive shares of ownership in the resource company. The company name: Jessie Robertson Resource Coalition, LLC. Once all pledges ($20,500.00) was received from those that was participating, we were still short of the amount due to pay off the judgement. Melvin and Letha decided to make loans to the company to be able to pay off the judgement. As time went by, additional attorney and court cost added to the original judgement that now totaled a pay-off in the amount of: $30,043.30 and was paid off April 26, 2000.
Thanks to the following relatives for their pledges to help keep the property in our family:
ANONYMOUS CONTRIBUTOR, LETHA BARRETT, ALMA BRYANT, L.J. CASTLE, OREAN ELDER, CYNTHIA ENGLISH, DAVID ENGLISH, JACQULIN JOHNSON, RUBY LAMB, EVELYN LAWRANCE, LOLA MCCLUNG, GARLAND NEWSOME, JOHN (ED) NEWSOME, BETTY ROBERTSON, GLEN ROBERTSON, LARRY ROBERTSON, JESSIE ROBERTSON, MELVIN ROBERTSON JR, DENNIS WALKER, MCKINLEY WALKER, MATTIE YARBROUGH-ENGLISH
NOTE: Pledge amounts and share percentages can be found in the LLC Operating Agreement
You can read the document below for more property activity information:
Property Activity Highlights – click here
Past Meeting, Family Reunion and Next Steps:
Although we have done a lot of good things in regards to keeping the property in the family, there is still much work to be done. After the court judgement was paid off, a meeting was needed to discuss the action items required to clear the title to the property and/or do something positive with the property. We identified a date and location, then we sent out a letter to all of the addresses we had inviting everyone and asked for acknowledgements for those who planned to attend. The meeting was held on November 11, 2011 in Grand Prairie, Tx with the intent of providing information about great grandfather Jessie’s family tree, property issues like clearing the title and discuss positive activities that could be done with the property.
The meeting agenda:
Welcome
Jessie Robertson Clan!
11-5-2011
Our coming together 181 years after Jessie was born can be just the beginning!
The beginning of:
Communication between ALL Jessie Robertson heirs!
Understanding what we can and cannot do with the property without a “clear” title!
Identifying a solution to the property title issues!
Dealing with the property has been very challenging up to this point!
And there is a lot more work to do!
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Some clips reviewing the family history – click link: Review Clip 1 Review Clip 2 Review Clip 3
Some video clips from the beautiful gathering: Ruby Robertson Lamb Rayfield Robertson
Thanks to Barry Douglas Tally for the Flickr pictures of the family gathering. Click here – for the pictures
We want to thank our gracious host Joselyn Robertson Kenner and family for opening their home to us. Click here – for a video from Joselyn
It was great meeting new relative that we did not know and communicating with those that we did know. We look forward to another gathering that we can call a real Family Reunion. We will be reaching out to get volunteers to help plan the next big Reunion.