Samuel Robertson, banker, is a native of Glasgow, Scotland, dating his birth, March 31, 1831. His father, James Robertson, was a weaver in that city, and his grandfather had to flee from Scotland to Ireland at one time on account of political troubles. The mother of Samuel was Marion Harvie, also Scotch. In May, 1841, the family came to Upper Canada, and our subject went on the farm of Henry Widdefield, three miles from Newmarket, where he spent between one and two years, doing chores, and attending school three months; spent two and a half years in the village of Newmarket as an apprentice in a woolen factory; then entered the store of M. P. Empey (then warden of North York), in the same village, and was with him until 1848, when he removed to Toronto. After clerking in that city a few months, Mr. Robertson went to Schomberg, in the same county, clerked there three years, then became a partner of Asa Moore, of the same place, and one year later came to Hollen, township of Maryborough, in the county of. Wellington, where he was in the mercantile trade for fifteen years.
The health of Mr. Robertson failing at the end of that period, he deemed it best to have a change, and more out door exercise, he therefore moved on a farm which he owned at Hollen, and remained on it six years, planting an orchard, improving and making a very pleasant home.
In 1873 Mr. Robertson removed to Harriston; dealt in grain two years; was in a cheese box factory the same period, and in May 1877, opened the Harriston Bank, a private institution of which he is the sole proprietor, and which is quite prosperous.
Mr. Robertson is a stirring business man, making a success of any enterprise in which he engages, and his pursuits, as is here seen, have been somewhat varied. He may be called most emphatically a business dispatcher; has a good share of public spirit and takes pleasure in seeing the town progressing.
He was a councilor five or six years of the township of Maryborough, and has been a magistrate for twenty-five years. When appointed to this office he was the youngest magistrate in the county, and now he is one of the oldest.
When the “Trent affair” occurred in 1861, and there was a prospect of a war with the United States, Mr. Robertson being a Captain of Militia, raised a company of volunteers, of which he was appointed Lieutenant, and was engaged in drilling this company at times for two years; but they had no occasion to deal in “villainous saltpetre.”
Mr. Robertson is a Reformer, an influential man in the party, and an earnest worker during a political canvass.
He is a Royal Arch Mason, and has held several offices in the order. He belongs to the Methodist Church of Canada, and has been an official member for the last twenty years.
Mr. Robertson was first married in March, 1853, to Miss Margaret Henderson, of the county of York, she dying in 1872, leaving eight children, one of them, the eldest daughter since following her to the spirit world; and the second time in 1873 to Miss Margaret Garbutt of the county of Wellington, having one child by her.
