Christopher Robert

He served five years as a shipping clerk in New York City before starting a business for himself in New Orleans.

In 1830 he married Anna Maria Shaw (1802–1878); they had four children, Jane, Christopher, Frederick, and Howell.

Robert became the superintendent of the Sabbath School, and he was also a ruling elder in the Laight Street, New York, Presbyterian Church.

[3] Robert came into contact with the American Home Missionary Society in about 1829 when he asked them to provide a minister for a mining settlement in Galena.

He also provided bursaries for many theological students and funded Beloit, Lookout Mountain, and Hamilton colleges and a seminary at Auburn.