Robert Isbell bought some farm land near Deport 1882, and later platted and made apart of it an addition to the town.  When he was 15 years old he came with his father, who was also named Robert, to Lamar County and the camped on the land that later was bought by the sun for a farm.  During the Civil War the elder Isbell was living in Missouri with his family.  They moved to Arkansas after the war and young Roberts mother died there in 1866.  It was then that they came to Lamar County and after a few years went to Gainsville and later into the Chickasaw Nation where in 1875 the father was killed in a difficulty.

While they were in Deport community young Robert married Mary Susan Westbrook, and they went to live in the Chickasaw Nation where his father was living, and they stayed there until 1882 when they returned to Deport and bought the farm land.  He said that his father had tendency to "look further" and traveled, but he had enough of it and was settling down for life.

Robert Isbell all he learned in brief and interrupted schooling was the alphabet, but later he learned to write and his innate ability enabled him to conduct his affairs successfully.

He not only farmed, but he fed cattle for market, accumulated some money, and when the cotton seed oil mill and the First State Bank were established in Deport he was a stock holder in both.  In addition to his Deport property he had bought a farm of 460 acres in Red River County south of Clarksville an it was cultivated by tenants.

Some tragedy intruded into the life of Robert Isbell.  One of his brothers died in the Confederate Army, another was assassinated in the Chickasaw Nation where his father has been killed. Oh his children his eldest son, William, was killed in the Deport tornado in 1907, and a daughter Lurany, who became Mrs. Murphy Elkins was fatally burned in 1905.

        Born in Shelby County, Alabama on March 15, 1851, Robert Isbell is the son of another of the same name and the grandson of one Zachariah Isbell, and the latter passed his life in the vicinity of Shelby County, Alabama, there dying at an advanced age. Conspicuous among his family were the following sons and daughters:  William, Robert, Ezekiel, John, Rebecca (who later became Mrs. William Walker), and Polly (who married a Mr. Watson). These children scattered through Tennessee, Arkansas and Oklahoma, and their posterity multiplied and introduced the name and blood into many sections of the entire west.

        Of these children, Robert Isbell, the father of the subject, married Elizabeth Love, a daughter of Allan Love, resident of Calhoun County, Alabama, indicated in a sketch of Samuel Love to be found elsewhere in these volumes. Mrs. Isbell died at Gainsville, Arkansas, February 1st, 1866, leaving Nancy, who married George Parker, and died in Pickens county in the Chickasaw Nation; John, who was a Confederate Soldier and died near Burneyville, Oklahoma; Louraney, who married Jim Gregory and spent her life among the Chickasaw Indians; Rebecca, the wife of Dave Bishop of Waco Texas; Robert, of Deport Texas; Zach B. who lost his life at the hands of an assassin in the Chickasaw Country; Julia, the wife of Stephen Thompson of Burneyville, Oklahoma; and William, a farmer of Jack County, Texas.

        In further mention of Robert Isbell, Sr., it may be said that he was born in 1815 in Shelby County, Alabama, and that he was wholly illiterate. He was of a restless and roving temperament and continued westward until he reached the Chickasaw Nation. During the Rebellion, he was a resident of Missouri and he served four years in the Confederate Army, in a Company in charge of Capt. Cooper, made up about Bloomville, and as a part of the Trans Mississippi Department of the Confederate Establishment. On his way westward, he stopped briefly at Gainsville, Arkansas and remained but a few years at Lamar County, Texas. But when he left this county, he made his way on to Gainsville (Texas) and was later tempted to cross over into the Chickasaw Nation, where his blood was ultimately mixed among the younger generation of that tribe. He was the first man to bring civilizing influences into the community of Burneyville, and he was murdered there in 1875. His lack of education might not have proved a hindrance to his financial success had he not been the victim of a nomadic disposition that kept him constantly on the move, so that he passed away at the age of 60 without having accumulated any property, and without any fame save that accorded to him by his devoted family, who knew him for many excellent qualities of heart and mind.

        Robert Isbell, Jr. worked as a farm hand for a number of years in the community that today claims him for one of its opulent citizens. Concerning his earlier years, it may be said that he accompanied his wandering family to Missouri as a boy, thence to Gainsville, Arkansas, and after the war the progress of the family brought him to Texas, where they settled in Lamar County. Robert Isbell was then 15 years old, and his residence today commands the spot where the camp of Robert Isbell, Sr., was first pitched in Lamar County.  Ambition early manifested itself in the life of this young man, and he thirsted to become a landowner and a man of affairs in his community, wherever that might be. Soon after his marriage, which occurred in 1873, he went to the Chickasaw nation, there remaining until 1882, and being occupied as a farmer, returning in that year to Red River County, Texas, and buying land on Blossom Prairie. With added experience came increased confidence in his ability to successfully cope with his fellow man in trade and traffic, and he launched out upon a career of land dealing in which he a since continued with profit and pleasure. He has converted raw and unattractive land into fertile farms and has brought neglected places into the fullness of life because of the improvements he has brought about thereon. He has fed cattle for the market and otherwise mingled with the commercial side of life in his locality in gathering together the modest fortune he possesses. From his farm of 135 acres adjacent to Deport he has sold all but 43 acres which he has retained for town site purposes, and Isbell's Addition to Deport places his name permanently in the annals of life of this busy little town. He owns a farm of some 460 acres south of the town of Clarksville, and cultivates, with the aid of his sons, about 300 acres of it. Other business connections he maintains in Deport is that with the Deport Cotton Oil Company, in which he is one of the heaviest stockholders, and the First State Bank, of which he is a stockholder and director.

        Mr. Isbell was married on June 5th, 1873, to Ms. Mary Susan Westbrook, daughter of Samuel H. Westbrook, and the sister of John R. Westbrook, one of the leading businessmen and farmers of Deport, and concerning whom a sketch will be found elsewhere in this work. Six children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Isbell, concerning whom the following brief mention is made; William, the eldest of the six, married Fannie Compton, and was killed in a cyclone disaster of 1908, leaving four children, Lela, Aletha, Beatrice, and Morris; Louraney, married Murphy Elkins, and was burned to death in 1905, she left two daughters, Anna and Ophelia; Samuel Robert, Jim Allen, and John are farmers in the vicinity of Clarksville, where they manage one of the magnificent farms of their father, and George W. aids his father in conducting the general business of the place.

        Mr. Isbell is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and his official connection with its affairs has covered a long period of years. He has represented his denomination as a delegate at state conferences, and in other ways proved his interest and usefulness in the church body. His fraternal relations are confined to the Masonic Order, and he is a Master Mason.

© Shannon Barker & Marian Brown
Last Updated: September 12th, 1998