Sheriff of Cameron County
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Bad News After the War When he returned home in July 1919 after the Armistice, Col. Robertson found his wife, the former Adele Wedegartner, in poor health. She had spent the war working at the local Red Cross almost literally. |
For her, the war had been doubly tragic. Besides a husband, she had brothers in the opposing armies. Following her death November 21, 1921, railroad officials sent a private car for the immediate family and a coach for friends for the funeral trip between San Benito and San Antonio. |
The oil field boom was on and Colonel Sam contracted and built refineries for about two years. When this chapter in his life closed, he was broke again but the projects he had been involved in were going concerns. Back in San Benito, he threw himself into a hot political battle, sparked by spreading activity of the Ku Klux Klan. Throughout his life he championed the underdog. Because of his outspoken adherence to this creed, he was persuaded to run for sheriff. While not a speaker, he put roaring enthusiasm into his campaign. His speech usually crackled with expletives and he apologized for his "unchaste language" to women, who then were eligible to vote.
He won, unseating W. T. Vann, veteran Cameron County sheriff. Wearied by an overdose of politics, he decided to visit his late wife's family in Germany before taking office in January. Through Isabel Seidler, a shipboard acquaintance, he met her sister Fraulein Maria Seidler whom he married in Vienna after a brief courtship.
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The new Mrs. Robertson learned English from her husband, including some startling epithets. Within a short time his vocabulary had been purged of profanity permanently.
However, his vernacular slang was confusing to his bride for some time. Answering an early morning telephone call at their Brownsville home for the sheriff, she said, "I am so sorry. But he has just gone to the hay."
As sheriff he improved jail conditions, took an interest in rehabilitating habitual offenders and arrested some of his friends for liquor violations.