Robert Richford Roberts and Elizabeth Oldham Roberts papers

Bishop Robert Richford Roberts (1778-1843) grew up as a backwoodsman in Pennsylvania and only had three months of schooling in his lifetime, but he was also the first Methodist bishop west of the Alleghenies and the first resident Methodist bishop in Indiana. He was elected to the Episcopacy at the General Conference in Baltimore in 1816 in what began twenty-six years of travel throughout the United States. Roberts, as bishop, was also one of the founders of Indiana Asbury University, heading the Indiana Conference education committee that included Calvin Washington Ruter. He left his estate to the school when he died in Indiana in 1843, and his wife, Elizabeth Oldham Roberts (1778-1858) moved to Greencastle soon after. The Preachers' Aid Society raised the funds to erect the monument that marks both their graves between Asbury and Harrison Halls in front of the Roy O. West Library on the DePauw University campus.