Philip M. Robert

      Philip M. Robert, a prominent citizen of James County , is a native of Tennessee , and was born in Monroe County , September 6, 1830. He is the son of Philip and Nancy (Dougan) Robert. Both were of Scotch-Irish descent, and both were natives of Sevier County , Tenn. The father was born in 1797, and died in Monroe County , October 11, 1866. The mother was born April 23, 1795, and died in Monroe County , February 11, 1876. Our subject's grandfather, Robert, was among the first settlers of Sevier County . The parents of our subject were married in their native county about the year 1817. About 1829 they immigrated to Monroe County , where they spent the remainder of their days. The father was a popular and useful minister of the Missionary Baptist Church for over thirty years before his death. He was also a farmer. Our subject is the seventh of eleven children. He secured a good academical education in his youth, in his native county. He began life as a miner, and in 1853 he opened up the Soddy Coal Mines, in Hamilton County . In 1856 he purchased a farm on the Tennessee River , in Hamilton County , and in 1858 settled on this farm, and since that date to the present, farming has been his chief occupation. In the fall of 1886 he sold his farm in Hamilton County , and bought another in James County , where he now lives, one mile south of Ooltewah. Our subject has been a lively, active man. On June 8, 1854, he married Miss M. A. McRee, born in Hamilton County , February 23, 1840. Our subject is a Democrat, and a worthy member of the Presbyterian Church. His wife is a member of the same Church.

“Goodspeed’s History of East Tennessee,” James County , 1887.
1880 US Census, District 1, Hamilton Co., TN; Page 8.