Roberta E. Billington was born in Limestone, Texas on April 6, 1856. She was the first girl born to Florinda Atkinson Billington and James A. Billington. She joined her brother, D.S. Billington who was born the year before. She was the only girl of the family that lived to adulthood. She was known as Bertie to her many friends, teachers, and community. She attended school in Carrollton, Missouri after coming north from their Texas ranch in 1867 with her mom and dad, and brothers Dee, Meriot, James William, and baby Thomas Jefferson.
She was 22 years
old when she married Thomas W. Hardwick in Carrollton, Missouri on October 9,
1878. Tom’s family was well known in Carrollton, but he left the area in 1864
to join the confederate army and then after the Civil War, to explore the western
frontier states which made him familiar with the land in nearly
every state west of the Mississippi river. His knowledge of the country, and
also his abilities as an interpreter, (for he could speak several Indian
languages and could also understand and use their sign language), made him eagerly
sought after by the government as a scout to conduct many famous expeditions.
Tom lived some time in Teton, Montana, then in 1877 he bought
land in the Deadwood area and became a deputy sheriff there. He made several trips back to Carrollton that
year possibly to court Roberta in addition to visiting his family. The local Carrollton newspaper reported their
marriage ceremony was at 7 in the evening and they left on the 9:30 train for
St. Louis for a one week honeymoon. When
returning to Carrollton, they announced their plan to make their future home in
Deadwood. While in the Deadwood area, they
worked their cattle ranch and also raised thoroughbred horses. Roberta and Tom
Hardwick may have encouraged the Billington brothers, Dee, Meriot, and James W.,
to come to the Dakota Territory which they did in the following years. Dee
lived in the Deadwood and Spearfish, DT area until 1936 (7), Meriot got a job in Kansas City, Kansas about 1891, and James W. and his wife Adalaide
Beuter left Deadwood and raised their two girls on a ranch near Dallas,
Texas between 1890-1897.
Roberta died on Oct 8, 1879, from complications in childbirth. Tom drove Roberta’s body by wagon, back to
Carrollton, to be buried near her family. The Oak Hill Cemetery is the
resting place not only for Roberta, but also her parents, her aunt, uncle, several Billington cousins, eight of her Atkinson relatives on her mother’s side, and
eighteen of her Hardwick relatives.
