Have you ever noticed the 2-story Carpenter Gothic style farmhouse at 3995 South Stage Road just past Dancin Vineyards? In the late 1800s, this was home to Emil DeRoboam and his family. DeRoboam was the nephew of U.S. Hotel proprietress Madame Jeanne DeRoboam Holt and prominent in his own right.
After immigrating to the United States in 1871 with his widowed father, Jean St. Luc DeRoboam, Emil became a wagon and carriage maker. The Democratic Times newspaper at various times declared him to be “an excellent mechanic” and “an excellent wheelwright.” After his father married rich Prussian widow Henrietta Schmidling in 1873, Emil courted and married her daughter Rosa 2 years later. The couple had 4 children.
In the mid-1880s Emil purchased the 642 acre “Bellinger land claim” for “general farming and stock raising…directing his efforts toward making his farm a pleasant home and paying property.” He succeeded in the latter, obtaining the contract for the “county hospital” in 1884 and the contract for “the county poor” in 1886. For 20 years, DeRoboam was superintendent of the Jackson County poor farm, caring for the county’s wards on his farm.
DeRoboam was described as “a progressive man” and “prominent in political undertakings.” He was one of the chief promoters of rural free delivery, the delivery of mail directly to farm families. He was active in the Republican Party from shortly after his arrival in the U.S. until his death. He was also associated with several fraternal organizations—he “passed all the chairs” in the International Order of Odd Fellows; he was a charter member of the Jacksonville Lodge of the Improved Order of Red Men; and he was a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen.