From "History of Wheeling City and Ohio County, West Virginia and 
Representative Citizens," by Hon. Gibson Lamb Cranmer, 1902. 

Contributed by Linda Fluharty.

Pages 597-598

RICHARD ROBERTSON, one of the best-known citizens of Wheeling, whose 
portrait accompanies this sketch, is a clerk of the County Court and 
ex-officio probate judge and county recorder, in which capacity he has 
served since January 1, 1897.  His election in the fall of 1896 marks 
an epoch in the politics of Ohio county, as he was the first Republican 
elected to that office since the Civil War.  He requires the assistance 
of one deputy and four assistants to perform the large amount of work, 
and the recording is done by book typewriting, a system first 
instituted by him.  He was born at Hagerstown, Maryland, in 1845, and 
is a son of William and Sarah (Clark) Robertson.
     William Robertson was also born at Hagerstown, Maryland, and moved 
to Wheeling in 1849, where he engaged in the wholesale and retail 
grocery business at the corner of Eleventh and Market streets.  He died 
in August, 1864, aged fifty-one years, and at that time was serving as 
alderman of the second ward.  Politically, he was an old-line Whig.  He 
was joined in marriage with Sarah Clark, who was born in Ireland and 
died in 1890, at the age of  sixty-eight years.  He was a member of the 
Presbyterian church.  Richard Robertson is one of 12 children, and a 
twin of his brother Edward.  Three sons and two daughters now reside at 
Wheeling.
     Richard Robertson's early life was spent at Wheeling, where he 
attended the public schools and at the age of fourteen years entered a 
printing office.  He held every position from printer's devil to manager, 
editor and proprietor, and made a success of journalistic work.  He began 
the business under William Ewing, with whom he remained for two years.  He 
then went into the "Intelligencer" office to learn typesetting, but the 
outbreak of the Civil War changed his plans.  At the age of seventeen years 
he enlisted in Company C, 4th Reg., W. Va. Vol. Cav., for six months, under 
Major Howe.  He re-enlisted in Company H, 1st W. Va. Light Artillery, in 
which he served until the close of the war.  He saw much hard fighting, was 
taken captive at New Creek, West Virginia, and spent the last winter of the 
war in prison at Richmond.  Upon being discharged he returned to Wheeling 
and resumed his work as a printer, completing the trade of typesetting in 
the "Register's" office.  Then for some years he worked as a journeyman in 
all the principal cities of the United States, and in the principal cities 
of the United States, and in 1879, with others, founded the "Wheeling 
Sunday News-Letter," of which he eventually became sold proprietor.  It was 
a very successful paper, and was located where the "News" now is, the plant 
being sold to the proprietors of the latter in 1891.  Mr. Robertson then 
started a job printing office with his brother Edward as a partner, and 
conducted that business until elected to his present office.  In 1890 he 
took his first active interest in politics, and has always been a friend 
and advocate of the labor organizations.  He was twice chosen as president 
of the trades assembly, and has three times to the general assembly of the 
Knights of Labor.  Although with scarcely any chance of success, he carried 
on a spirited campaign against George Hook, who for eighteen years 
satisfactorily served the people as county clerk.  In 1896 Mr. Robertson 
accepted the nomination again and was elected by 1,200 majority, a fact 
which bears evidence of his popularity in the county.
     In 1875 Mr. Robertson was united in marriage with Mary C. Emert, a 
native of Wheeling, and they reside at No. 49 Seventeenth street.  
Fraternally, he is an active member of Typographical Union No. 79, of 
Wheeling, in which he has filled several chairs; Wheeling Lodge, No. 28, 
B.P.O.E.; Reliance Lodge, No. 18, A.O.U.W., of which he is past master; and 
Wheeling Lodge, No. 114, K. of P.  He is also a member of J. W. Holliday 
Post, No. 12, G.A.R., of which he is past post department commander.