James Brooks Ayers Robertson (March 15, 1871 – March 7, 1938), sometimes called JBA Robertson, was an American lawyer and statesman who would become the fourth Governor of Oklahoma.
Born in Keokuk County, Iowa, James Brooks Ayers Robertson was born on March 15, 1871 to a father of the same name from Pennsylvania and a mother named Clara Robertson from Ohio. Both of Robertson’s parents moved to Iowa in the early 1850s where Robertson Sen. served a...
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James Brooks Ayers Robertson (March 15, 1871 – March 7, 1938), sometimes called JBA Robertson, was an American lawyer and statesman who would become the fourth Governor of Oklahoma.
Born in Keokuk County, Iowa, James Brooks Ayers Robertson was born on March 15, 1871 to a father of the same name from Pennsylvania and a mother named Clara Robertson from Ohio. Both of Robertson’s parents moved to Iowa in the early 1850s where Robertson Sen. served as a volunteer soldier in the Union army during the American Civil War. Robertson’s Iowa upbringing would instill firm progressive attitudes in his mind.
The fifth child born to a family of six sons and five daughters, Robertson owed his education to the Iowa public school system. Working hard to improve himself, Robertson, at the age of 16, would become a licensed teacher and became successful throughout the Iowa school system. While teaching, Robertson was privately studying law and the legal system. Robertson would pass the Iowa bar exam in...
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