Roberts Switch
By Tommy Roberts
Posted 7 Aug 2025
Pioneer/Settler Joseph Roberts arrived on Mine Lick Creek, Tennessee from North Carolina about 1815. In the next 23 years he and his wife, Rachel (Carter), had about a dozen kids. Joseph died on Mine Lick Creek in 1854. The first migration of any of his family away from Mine Lick Creek was his son Henry Roberts. Henry did not migrate himself per se, but as the Civil War was kicking off many in this area had Union sentiments. However, they were in the minority. For safety/security, Henry took his family into Kentucky where there was a Union encampment of soldiers. Henry left his wife and family at Rough Creek in Allen County Kentucky and returned to Tennessee with his oldest son, Joseph M. They joined the Union Army and were members of Company I, 5th Tennessee Cavalry with other relatives. Henry and Joseph did not survive the war. Henry died of measles and Joseph died from diarrhea. Henry's widow and the other kids remained in Rough Creek. Many of Henry's descendants are buried in the Rough Creek Baptist Church Cemetery in Allen County.
At or about the same time, other families were heading to Allen County because of the Union presence there. Two families that were neighbors to Henry Roberts were McGuffey and Duke. We don't know if they made the trip together for safety sake or if they went at different times. But, they all wound up in Rough Creek and continued to be neighbors and to intermarry with each other. The exact date of the migration is unknown to me but the best I can figure is probably 1862 give or take a year.
The pioneer/settler in the McGuffey line was Abraham McGuffey. Abraham was a veteran of the War of 1812 and then, died in the Mexican War in Mexico in 1848. His first generation descendants were the ones who went to Kentucky. His wife, Lillie Morgan, remained in Tennessee until her death sometime between 1870 and 1878. Many of you may know Harold Ralph Maynard, the best Funeral Director here in Putnam County. Abraham is Harold Ralph's GGG-Grandfather.
The Duke pioneer/settler to this area was Robert Green Duke out of South Carolina via North Carolina. They lived as close neighbors to the McGuffeys. Robert Green's first four kids married McGuffeys. The 5th kid of Robert Green married Larkin Maynard from which Harold Ralph is descended. It is likely that the McGuffey and Duke family went to Kentucky together given their strong intermarriage. George Mizell Duke who married Mattie Lee, a Joseph Roberts descendant, is descended from this line. George and Mattie are buried in the Richard Lee Cemetery in Boma.
When they arrived at Rough Creek, the Spears family was already established having arrived there 20-30 years earlier as pioneers from Virginia and building the first building for the Rough Creek Baptist Church in 1852.
The Spears, Duke, McGuffey, and Roberts families constituted the larger part of the community. They, of course, intermarried heavily. When the McGuffey and Duke families left Putnam County, they took the majority of their clan with them to Kentucky. Not so with the broader Roberts family. Only Henry's family went to Kentucky. His siblings mostly remained in Tennessee.
In the Rough Creek Baptist Church Cemetery there are 112 graves listed on Find-A-Grave. Of the 112, the Spears family comprise at least 37 graves. The McGuffey family has the 2nd most with at least 29 graves. The Roberts family has at least 16 graves. The Duke family has at least 5 graves. The Dukes would have had more but many of the family converted to Methodist in later times and they are buried in different cemeteries. Thirty-seven in Union Chapel United Methodist Church Cemetery and 14 in the Mt Pleasant United Methodist Church Cemetery, still in the Rough Creek area.