Robertson, James MacGregor

James MacG. Robertson, born in Bridge of Ern, Perthshire, Scotland, in 1863, was the son of Scottish farmers Andrew and Ann Barnett Robertson. He immigrated to America at the age of twenty and eventually reached San Francisco before relocating to Fresno County to work as a carpenter. He later moved to Hanford, where he engaged in contracting and building substantial local structures. It was there that he married Ida Rose Adams on September 7, 1892, who was the daughter of Civil War veteran and former New Haven mayor John F. Adams and Martha Tipton.

Around 1905, James expanded his interests into the Coalinga oil field and became a stockholder in the Lucile Oil Company. Following a brief period rebuilding San Francisco after the big fire, he returned to Coalinga to serve as the president and manager of the Lucile Oil Company until his death on March 27, 1912. He was a dedicated community member who served as a trustee for the Coalinga School District, held memberships in the Masons and Elks, and raised four surviving sons named Kenneth, Douglas, Frederick, and James. Following his passing, his widow assumed the presidency of the company, which operated three producing wells on one hundred acres of land.