An Illustrated History of the State of Washington, by Rev. H.K. Hines, D.D., The Lewis Publishing Co., Chicago, IL., 1893 WILLIAM B. ROBERTSON, president of the Robertson Mortgage Company of Seattle, was born in Ashtabula county, Ohio, August 9, 1843. His parents, Gilman and Phoebe (Blakeley) Robertson, were natives of New Hampshire and Connecticut respectively, their ancestors being among the early settlers of New England and patriots of the Revolutionary war. Gilman Robertson was reared a farmer, and was among the first to settle on the Holland purchase in western New York, and later on the Western Reserve in Ohio. William B. was the youngest of six children, and as his father died when our subject was in his boyhood, leaving the widow and large family with slight support, William B. struck out in life at the age of eleven years to shape his own destiny. He continued in the lines of agriculture up to 1861, when he enlisted in Company H, Twenty-seventh New York Volunteer Infantry, and served in the Army of the Potomac. He was in the first battle of Bull Run, followed by the battles of West Point and later that of Gaines' Mills, where he was wounded in the leg on the 27th of June, 1862, and taken prisoner. After one month's detention, he was exchanged and then sent to the hospital at Philadelphia, when it was found, necessary to amputate his leg, complications having set in through neglect while he was a prisoner. After partial recovery he was returned to Elmira, New York, and was honorably discharged. He then sold his trunk and such trinkets as were of value and with the proceeds secured instruction at a writing school, and later was offered a position as bookkeeper in a wholesale tea, coffee and spice house, where he remained about four years. He then engaged in the buying, improving and selling of real estate, and in the loaning of money, in which he evinced such wisdom and sagacity as to rapidly acquire an extended and lucrative business, which he continued about twenty years. Save for his service as Assistant Assessor of Internal Revenue under the administration of President Johnson, he would accept no political emolument or public office. He was married in Elmira, January 2, 1865, to Miss Eliza J. Chapman, a native of that city. In 1888 Mr. Robertson come to Washington, and after visiting the cities of the Northwest he decided to locate at Seattle and engage in the real-estate and loan business. In the fall of 1888 he purchased 100 acres and platted the same as Hiawatha Park. He has since been selling lots in their addition, although giving more particular attention to loans. In April, 1892, he organized the Robertson Mortgage Company, with a paid-up capital of $250,000. He is president of the company, while his son and only child, Tracy H. Robertson, is secretary and treasurer. The province of the company is the extending of first-mortgage loans on real estate and the purchase of county and municipal bonds and warrants. Tracy H. Robertson is a graduate of Union College, Schenectady, New York, in the class of 1891. His graduation was attended with high honor, as he secured the Ingham and the third Allen prizes on his essays in English literature, and also the Blatchford oratorical medal. Mr. Robertson, Sr., was one of the organizers of the Seattle National Bank, and is a director and member of the loan committee of the Seattle Savings Bank, of which he was also one of the organizers. He is a director of the King County Abstract and Title Guarantee Company. He is a careful, conservative, and sagacious financier, a gentleman of keen foresight and sound judgment, who by personal effort and discernment has acquired a substantial competency, and by advice and financial assistance has done much in furthering the development of Seattle. Submitted to the WA. Bios Project in January 2004 by Jeffrey L. Elmer * * * * Notice: These biographies were transcribed for the Washington Biographies Project. Unless otherwise stated, no further information is available on the individual featured in the biographies.