Anyone who has done family research for any length of time has experienced serendipity, that totally unexpected and fortunate occurrence which brings forth some marvelous source or record or photograph or family connection. So it is with three letters which unexpectedly appeared one day, describing other letters which reported a sad story of the Oregon Trail.
A distant cousin in Wyoming, Abbie Current, sent three original letters (two from 1852 and one from 1861), to cousin Barbara Stinger in Oregon, because she thought the letters were important in our family’s history of the Oregon Trail.
All the letters were addressed to Elizabeth (Robbins) Wadkins (sometimes spelled Watkins) of Scott County, Indiana. One letter is dated August 21, 1852; it is from William Robbins (father of James Gilman Robbins of last week’s post) of Decatur County, Indiana, to his sister Elizabeth Wadkins. The next letter is dated August 27, 1852, and it is from Elizabeth’s niece Nancy B. Anderson of Greensburg, Indiana. The third and final letter is also from Greensburg, dated January 18, 1861, and is from Abram and Charlotte (Robbins) Anderson to Charlotte’s sister Elizabeth. (Abram and Charlotte were the parents of the middle letter sender, Nancy Anderson.) This post will deal with the two 1852 letters.
By the time these letters were sent to Elizabeth (Robbins) Wadkins, her brother Nathaniel, with his wife and family, had been gone from Decatur County for eleven months, and were still on the road to Oregon. They had left in September of 1851 and arrived in Randolph County, Missouri, to “winter over” before leaving for the Pacific Northwest in the spring. While in Missouri, they were joined by their cousin Jacob Robbins (sometimes called Jacob Jr. but more accurately Jacob III). We know from family reminiscences that the Robbins party sent letters back “home” to Decatur County when they arrived at a place that had a post office. Fort Laramie (in what is now Wyoming) was such a place.
But, no such letters have ever come to light. They could have all been lost or destroyed over the years, or they could still be sitting in a wooden chest in someone’s attic or barn. What we do have, are two letters which mention letters sent by Nathaniel Robbins.
In the first letter Nathaniel’s brother William reports to their sister Elizabeth (spelling and punctuation has not been corrected):
“I received a letter from Nathaniel on last Saturday it was dated Ft. Laramie Nebraska Teritory July the 3rd it stated that him and his family was all well that was alive. He lost 3 of his Daughters on the 30th of May with cholera. Mahala Died half past 7 oclock Emeline half past 9 and Amand half past 12— they was all interred in one grave on a high mound one mile west of big Sandy, they then moved forward some six or seven miles to little blew river thair Absalom Barns Died and was buried on a high mound on the road side. I have received a letter from John Herren son William which told us that they was all well the letter was dated May the 3rd…..”
Explanation: Nathaniel’s three daughters and one son-in-law died of cholera in southern Nebraska, a few days before reaching Fort Kearney. William Herren of Salem, Oregon, was the son of Dosha (Robbins) Herren, another sibling of William, Elizabeth, and Nathaniel. The Herrens had moved to Oregon in 1845.
In the second letter Nancy B. Anderson, Elizabeth and Nathaniel and William’s niece, reports:
“My granmother and aunt Mary Kirkpatrick has both departed this life since you was to see us and we have received a letter from uncle Nathaniel dated July the third he has seen a very serious time since he left he has lost four of his family Amanda Emaline Mahaly and Absalom barns with the colary but now he writes that the rest of the family are all well and he is going on his journey”
Explanation: Nancy is referring to her grandmother Bethiah (Vickrey) Robbins who died in December of 1850 and Mary (Robbins) Kirkpatrick, who died in June of 1851. Even though Elizabeth only lived about 50 miles to the south, she hadn’t seen her family in some time.
The source of these letters, Abbie Current, is not a descendant of any of the families mentioned in the letters. How did they come down to her? The letters were sent to Elizabeth (Robbins) Wadkins in Scott County, Indiana. None of Elizabeth’s siblings lived in that county. There were, however, many other Robbins cousins there, including several named Nathaniel Robbins, who were Abbie’s ancestors. It is most likely that someone in the Wadkins family came across the letters, saw a reference to Nathaniel Robbins, and assumed they were connected to the Nathaniels in Scott County. All the Robbins’ in Scott County are related to the Decatur County families, but the connection is a generation or two earlier. Whatever miracle resulted in the letters being preserved, we can be grateful that they survived and were shared a century and a half later!
Robbins Roots 