MARTHA ISABELLE BULL ROBERSON was born June 2, 1866 in Morgan County IL, near Jacksonville. She died June 6, 1953. She grew up and spent her entire adult life in Maries County MO.

Martha's parents were JOHN HENRY BULL and MARTHA JANE McNABB. John Henry Bull was born July 14, 1844 and died February 9, 1919. He served the Union during the Civil War, receiving a wound in the thigh which bothered him throughout his life. Martha Jane McNabb was born September 16, 1845 in Gordon County GA. John Henry Bull and Martha Jane McNabb were married August 3, 1865 in Jacksonville IL. Their first two children were born near Jacksonville, then they moved to Maries County MO. Martha Jane McNabb Bull died from pregnancy complications on November 21, 1880. MARTHA ISABELLE BULL was fourteen when her mother died. John Henry Bull and Martha Jane McNabb had the following children: MARTHA ISABELLE BULL (1866), Horatio "Buddy" Bull (1867), Mary Ellen Bull (1871/72), John Morris Bull (1876), and William David Bull (1877).

MARTHA ISABELLE BULL married Thomas Roysdon Roberson on June 14, 1883 in Maries County MO. Thomas Roysdon (T.R.) Roberson was the son of Roysdon Roberson and Silberina Fulkerson. Martha and T.R. began their marriage living with Thomas Roysdon's mother, but soon built their own cabin nearby in Dry Creek Township of Maries County. They remained on this farm, making many improvements, throughout their married life. MARTHA ISABELLE (known as "Belle") and T.R. Roberson had the following children: John Franklin (1886), Pearl (1890), Glen Roberson (1891), and Martha May Roberson (1899).

MARTHA ISABELLE BULL ROBERSON was well-known and highly regarded throughouther community. She was intelligent and resourceful. She and her husband had an efficient and diverse working farm. MARTHA ISABELLE had a marriage that was quite egalitarian by the standards of that day. She liked to wear pretty, colorful clothes, usually a long dress or skirt with a big apron over it. She wore wide brimmed bonnets. MARTHA ISABELLE served as a midwife when a doctor was unavailable in the community. She helped young women by
providing room and board in exchange for work on the farm and around the house. She was open-hearted and kind. MARTHA ISABELLE kept a big garden, canned all kinds of fruit jellies and other products, was a wonderful quilter, had milk cows, kept setting hens and sold eggs. She used to walk with her children to Kenner Church, 2.5 miles from the house. She subscribed to the Kansas City Star and read it from beginning to end. She liked to use baskets for her work and hung them on hooks in the house. MARTHA ISABELLE always visited the sick and helped anyone who was in trouble. She lost her first child, Mary Jane, to pneumonia when Mary Jane was just a very young child, and carried that sorrow with her for the rest of her life. She also had the pain of seeing two of her four children who grew to adulthood precede her in death. Glen died in 1940 and Pearl died in 1946. MARTHA ISABELLE BULL ROBERSON loved her grandchildren and the great-grandchildren she lived long enough to know.

The material below was written about MARTHA ISABELLE BULL ROBERSON in approximately 1966 by her daughter, Martha May Roberson Nelson:

"Mother had blue eyes and dark hair and was about 5 ft. 1 or 2 inches, with fair skin. She was a very good looking woman. She lived to 87 years old and worked so hard all her life. She was very intelligent and a good reader. She was a good neighbor, quick to make friends, a good cook and loved to have company. She was born years too soon. She always wanted better things than what she had. She would enjoy living now with tv, good roads, mail route, telephones, electric, refrigerators and such things. None of us really appreciated her. I would compare her to Mrs. Franklin Roosevelt. She wanted to help everyone. I wish all you grandchildren could have known her, so you could tell your children about what a great person she was."