The Robert Jefferson family’s history includes two Eleutherian students in the 1850s.

Who were they?

That is the most important question for researchers interested in the students who were educated at Historic Eleutherian College – from it’s inception in the late 1840s as a place where all children could study, regardless of race or gender, to its later roles as a normal school and a public school.

The late Jae Brietweiser, who with the late Dottie Reindollar saved the college building and got it named as a National Landmark, began researching two names found in an Eleutherian catalog from the mid-1850s – they were African American sisters Lucy and Georgiana Jefferson.

So, who were these girls with such an interesting surname?

The girls were born in 1840 and 1841, respectively, and were the children of Robert and Celia Wetchens Jefferson, who, at the time, were enslaved at a plantation in Canton, Mississippi.

In a feature article focusing solely on Robert Jefferson, published in 1879 in the Indianapolis Journal, Mr. Jefferson recounted how his master allowed him to work for himself for one year to raise enough money to buy freedom for himself and his family. Robert said he paid $2,764 for his own freedom, plus $1,500 to release his wife and children from slavery.

It seems a miracle that Robert was able to make good on his end of the deal. The total he paid in 1852 – $4,264 – is equivalent to almost $140,000 in today’s dollars.

Robert told the reporter that the family made their way north, first arriving in Madison, Indiana, in 1854. One or two years later, Robert had saved enough money to buy property in Indianapolis, where he built a new house for the family.

The sisters may only have attended Eleutherian for one year, but both went on to live rich and prosperous lives – especially Lucy, who married William A. Roberson, an African American businessman from St. Louis, on July 30, 1861, in Indianapolis.

William and his brothers, Frank and Robert, became barbers and eventually built well-known business, including William’s Lindell Hotel Bath Institute and Tonsorial Parlor, which was the first to bring the concept of Turkish baths to the city.

Sadly, William died at age 42 in February 1878. But he left his wife and children a tremendous fortune. Under Lucy’s financial management, the family continued to live
in high fashion. Her son, Frank, became a renowned architect and established his own firm. He designed many St. Louis landmarks, including the St. Louis Botanical Garden Greenhouse. His son, Frank Jr., also became an architect and worked for the National Park Service, designing monuments and parks in Minnesota, Wyoming and Nebraska.

Celia Roberson, William and Lucy’s daughter, married prominent labor activist Charles E. James in 1889 in St. Paul, Minnesota. James was president of the St. Paul Trades and Labor Assembly and leader of the Boot and Shoe Workers Union, according to a biogra-phy of William Roberson written by historians Nikki Williams Sebastian and James Morgan III. Celia and James were so wealthy, their children’s birthday parties were featured in the society pages of St. Paul newspapers.

When William died, Lucy tried and failed to purchase a burial plot in Bellefountaine Cemetery, where most of prominent St. Louis residents were laid to rest. The cemetery board had banned blacks from purchasing lots, even though many beloved servants and former slaves were buried in plots owned by the white families for whom they worked. W wealthy St. Louis philanthropist worked on Lucy’s behalf to change the policy, and Lucy then became the first African American to purchase a plot at that cemetery, according to the biography.

“My impression is that Lucy was a formi-dable matriarch of a proud, educated and prominent activist black family in 19th century America – that no one has ever heard of,” Nikki Sebastian Williams said in an interview. She also sees Lucy as a trailblazer in education: After leaving Eleutherian, Lucy went on to attend Antioch College in Ohio in 1858.

“She was smart, she managed her husband’s extensive estate well and the family continued, it appears, to live comfortably,” Williams said, noting that William Roberson’s estate file contained more than 100 pages.

Lucy later returned to Ohio and served as a matron at Wilberforce University. She died back in St. Louis on Feb. 26, 1931, at 92. She was buried next to William in Bellfountaine Cemetery, where other family members also were interred.

The story behind Robert’s surname

In the 1879 Indianapolis Journal article, Robert recounted that, at the time of his birth, his mother was a house slave for one Mr. Christian who owned a plantation near Charles Town in what was then Virginia; today it is the seat of government for Jefferson County, W.Va.

Former President Thomas Jefferson was a frequent guest in the Christian home.

“My mother … had the care of Mr. Jefferson’s apartments during the time he passed at her master’s house,” Robert told the reporter. “Her name was Millie Reddiford, and she was said to be a very pretty woman in her young days, although a dark mulatto in color. I was born in the month of March 1803 at Charles Town. … I can remember my master’s house and grounds very well, and have myself seen Thomas Jefferson. My mother and all of her people always told me that he was my father, and I have no reason to doubt them. My mother was then unmarried, and Mr. Christian himself said my name was Jefferson, and he gave me the name I now bear.”

By the time of his death in 1882, this man who was born and raised as a slave was worth an estimated $25,000 – an estate that would be worth approximately $630,000 in today’s dollars.

Members of the Historic Eleutherian Board of Directors are working with other historians and genealogists to use DNA testing to see if the family’s connection to the country’s third president can be proven.