The forebears of Margaret Hines Roberts and J. M. Roberts, the couple who, more than anyone else, were responsible for the early cultural and emotional development of Thomas Wolfe, were representative figures of the settlement of the Midwest and the upper South in the nineteenth century. The coming together of these two people was touched as much by the miracle of chance as was the coming together of the western North Carolina and southern Pennsylvania forebears of Thomas Wolfe. Novvie Roberts, one of the first southerners to attend Vassar College, met D. W. Dodson, as he was about to graduate from Harvard Law School. They married in 1882, studied in Europe for four years, began a family, and settled in Novvie's home state of Tennessee, at Nashville, where Dodson opened the East End College. This was, in fact, a high school created mainly to educate many of his wife's numerous siblings, among them, John Munsey Roberts, known as J. M. Their father, William Orton Roberts, also known by his initials, worked a 250-acre farm in the Roberts Bend section above the Duck River near Columbia, Tennessee. W. O. was a renowned unpaid itinerant Methodist minister, adamant about education, and a walking encyclopedia. He cofounded the Methodist Missionary Church after a controversy with the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, which caused him to leave mainstream Methodism. His woolly white beard grew to mid-chest level, and, combined with his fluffy white hair, exemplified his Old Testament personality. In photographs, he appears to be a blend of Saint Nick and Old Nick, a fair appraisal of his general behavior.
