Robersonville, incorporated in 1872, is a town in Martin County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 1,269 at the 2020 census. Robersonville is located in North Carolina's Inner Banks region. Once an affluent eastern North Carolina community, it is noted for its abundance of historic mansions and estates, due (large in part) to families obtaining wealth from the tobacco industry and later manufacturing. It is currently home to the East Carolina Motor Speedway.
History The earliest known residents of the Robersonville area were the Tuscarora and Morotock Native American people. According to various deeds, family bibles, wills, and church records, European settlers arrived many years before the Revolutionary War. One of the earliest known churches of the area was Flat Swamp Primitive Baptist Church, founded in 1776. Among the early settlers of this area was the family of Henry Robason, who is said to have been born in 1710 in England. Eventually the family name became "Roberson", and the family tree grew throughout the region. Before the Civil War, George O. Roberson and his father, William, owned a store originally located on the northwest corner of what are now Railroad and Roberson streets. The local militia trained at this store during the Civil War. After returning from the war, George built a store across the street from the original one.
Another primary landowner in the area before the Civil War was W.D. Barnhill. According to records, he owned some four hundred acres to the south of what is present-day Robersonville. In 1859, he constructed a plantation house which came to be known as "Pinegrove" (not to be confused with Pine Grove Plantation in SC). It was constructed amongst the pine groves of what would later become Robersonville to help keep the house cool during harsh summers. The Barnhill family lived at Pinegrove for more than four generations until the house caught fire in the early 1900's. The great-grandson of W.D. Barnhill, Gray Barnhill, constructed a new house on the site of the previous plantation house in 1910. This Queen Anne style structure still exists today with the only remnant of the previous plantation house being an old chimney attached to the west side of the current house.
When the town was incorporated February 16, 1872, it became the first town in Martin County not located on the Roanoke River; thus, it wasn't dependent on the river for communication with other settlements. Instead, the railroad was the main artery of communication and trade. The town was named after Henry, William, and George Roberson. Of the three brothers, Henry D. Roberson is considered to be the "Father of Robersonville". He served as director, stockholder, and one of the foremost promoters of the railroad that ran from Williamston to Tarboro. It was first known as the Williamston and Tarboro R.R., but, the name was soon changed to the Seaboard and Raleigh Railroad, and then the Albemarle and Raleigh Railroad. It is now part of the Atlantic Coast Line system. Although the Seaboard and Raleigh Railway Company would not be incorporated until late 1873, town founders envisioned it as a prominent trading center and market for western Martin County. Growing slowly during its first decade, after the railroad's completion in October 1882, the town had eleven general stores, two physicians, and a number of industries by 1884. The population was then 400 residents, with an influx of farm families and ambitious young men moving here because of various entrepreneurial, educational, and social opportunities. The first mayor was William W. Roberson. The original town commissioners were Henry D. Roberson, Staton Everett, and Eli Askew. Vance L. Roberson served the longest tenure of public service of any Robersonville citizen. Henry Staton Everett served longer than any other mayor.
In the late 1800s, the Jewish Agricultural Society helped many Jewish families relocate from Russia to the United States. While most of these families settled in the Northeast, a few were relocated to eastern North Carolina due to its agrarian-based economy and abundance of affordable land. Most notably the Margolis, Smith (Schmidt), and Bernstein families came to the Robersonville area in the early 1900s and took to farming in addition to owning department stores and shops. In 1902, Adath Shalom (Congregation of Peace) was established. The first synagogue was built in 1907 and existed until it caught fire in the late 1940s. Afterward, most families attended religious services in nearby Rocky Mount, to the west. The handful of Jewish families who resided in Robersonville and nearby Williamston either died or relocated to larger cities, with the Margolis family being one of the last to leave in the 1990s.
Postal service began on July 10, 1874, with Wilson T. Outterbridge as the first postmaster. Mrs. Geneva Weaver served the longest term of any Robersonville postmaster. The first electric plant was built around 1914 and was privately owned and operated. Around 1940, the town contracted to buy current from Greenville. After World War II, a contract was negotiated with Virginia Electric & Power. Later, Carolina Power & Light was used. At one time, J.S. (Jim) Simpson supervised the distribution and maintenance of electricity, under the direction of Town Manager James E. Gray and Clerk Alice Briley. Today, the town has a contract with Electricities, Inc. The water and sewage disposal system was installed in 1924.
The Robersonville Primitive Baptist Church was founded in 1883. The land was given for the sole purpose of building a house of public worship and school. The original church was dismantled in 1883, and the present sanctuary, one of the oldest buildings in town, was completed the same year. The building was later restored in the 1990s by Dr. Everette James and is now home to the St. James Place Museum of southern folk art. The clapboard, late Gothic-Revival church building now houses original furnishings, folk art, and antique duck decoys. More than 100 North Carolina quilts, including 42 African-American examples, and hundreds of pieces of North Carolina pottery are exhibited.
As site of the county's first tobacco market on August 7, 1900, Robersonville embarked on a second, more expansive era of development with a population that rose to 1,200 during the early 20th century. The town was becoming a rural trading center and market for agricultural commodities. The tobacco market was once reported to be the largest in the world with a single set of buyers. Mr. J.C. Andrews was chosen as "soliciting agent" to seek subscriptions to buy the land necessary for the market. In 1903, he and Mr. J.W. Ferrell purchased the Carolina and Southern Warehouses. Taylor Warehouse opened that same year and was run by W.H. Adkins, J.H. Taylor, and R.A. Bailey. These warehouses changed hands and names many times. In 1930, the New Red Front Warehouse was built and operated by Jimmie Taylor and Jim Gray. In the same year, Haywood Everett and J.R. Morris were the managers of Central Warehouse. The Adkins and Bailey Warehouse, which used to be Taylor Warehouse was now under management of W.H. Adkins and R.A. Bailey. In 1947, the Planters Warehouse was built on the opposite side of town from the other three. Mr. E.G. Anderson and Mr. H.T. Highsmith were the proprietors of the warehouse. In the spring of 1968, the Adkins and Bailey Warehouse burned down. Mr. James E. Gray financed the rebuilding of a new warehouse on the same spot. The new Gray's Warehouse was opened in the 1968 season. In 1971, Planters Warehouse was purchased by Mr. Norman Hardee and Mr. Edwin Lee. They renamed it Hardee's Warehouse. Also that year, Gray's, Red front, and Central Warehouses were under the ownership of James E. Gray, Jim Gray, R.K. Adkins, and Jack Sharp, taking the place of his late father-in-law, Mr. Charlie Gray. In 1973, Mr. James E. Gray died and his son, Harry Gray, took over his position. The tobacco market in Martin County did very well until 2001 when the larger companies began to contract directly with the grower.
Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, Eddie Vanderford and Harry Gray (Gray's Red Front and Central Warehouse), and Kenneth Roberson (Hardee's Warehouse) were running the auction sales in Robersonville. In 2001, Harry Gray leased Gray's Warehouse to Philip Morris as a tobacco receiving station and Mr. Gray contracted tobacco through Lester Warren, station operator and agent for Philip Morris. In 2008, Harry Gray retired from the tobacco business and Alliance One International took over the receiving station with Mr. Warren still the operator.
Robersonville has had a tobacco market since 1900. Central Warehouse and the Red Front Warehouses have been razed. Hardee's Warehouse is now owned by the Roberson's "Scattered Acres Farms." Gray's Warehouse is still receiving tobacco and tobacco is still King. Cotton is also one of the biggest cash crops. The growth of new industries brought new residential areas which opened to provide homes for the town's increased population – most notably New Town, a residential neighborhood that would become one of eastern North Carolina's most cohesive and civic-minded early 20th-century African-American communities.
The newly acquired prosperity, improved educational opportunities, and modern municipal services fostered a lively cultural and social life in town, where entertaining diversions and several cultural, civic, and social groups flourished. Even during the Great Depression, economic expansion slowed drastically in Robersonville, but the municipality benefited from state and federal relief programs. Inexpensive sports and popular social pastimes, such as Little League Baseball and bridge, also eased the hardships for many during those rough years.
Robersonville soon developed into a leader of the Industrial Revolution, which has characterized the economy of Martin County in the last half-century. In 1910, the Robersonville Hosiery and Manufacturing Co. was incorporated. In 1912, the firm was reorganized as Robersonville-Tar River Hosiery Mill, Inc. The ruins of this brick building still stand on the corner of N. Railroad and Mill Streets. Most of the industry – a large cotton ginning plant, lumber mills, and grist mills – in the early part of the 20th century focused on the handling of agricultural or lumber products. Southeastern Tobacco Co. operated a large tobacco re-drying and stemming plant for many years. John Henry Roberson, Jr., a direct descendant of the founders of Robersonville, owned his own farm south of Robersonville, and was involved in many civic affairs with his brothers David Roberson and Grover H. Roberson. Grover H. Roberson left the Robersonville area in early 1940 to join the U.S. Navy. Grover saw action at the Battle of Anzio. After the Battle of Anzio, Grover was in the company of a group of other naval officers and had a special audience with Pope Pius XII at the Vatican in Rome, Italy.