Occasionally a family dies out. Not in the sense that there are absolutely no connections to a particular person or an ancestral couple, but in the sense that they no longer have any direct living descendants. So it is with Absalom and Bethiah Emiline (Robbins) Barnes.
Absalom Barnes was married to one of Nathaniel and Nancy Robbins’ daughters, Emiline, as she was called by the family, in 1848 in Decatur County, Indiana. In 1850 the Barnes, with one son, were living next door to Emiline’s parents, her siblings, and her grandfather Absalom Robbins. The Barnes were another large family in that county.
The young couple joined Nathaniel Robbins’ family as they left Indiana in the fall of 1851, now with two little boys, wintered over in Missouri, and then set out on the Oregon Trail in mid-April of 1852. About a month out on the trail the Barnes’ wagon tipped over, reportedly only spilling some molasses and breaking some small things. But sadly this would not be worst thing to happen during the trek, as both Absalom and Emiline died of cholera in Nebraska, along with two of Emiline’s sisters.
Hired man John Lewis recorded in his diary of the Emiline’s death on May 31st: “…this morning found the ill no better & we remaind in camp Mrs Barns d6ied at half past nine…” and then Absalom’s on June 3rd: “…we laid in camp on the account of the sick being worse A Barns died at 5oc in the afternoon & was beried at 6oc he was beried on a high gravel point on the bank of the little blew R. 5 m. west of the place whare his wife was…” Both of the little boys would be taken in by their grandparents.
The oldest boy, Nathaniel Norval Barnes, was born in 1848, while the younger William Zachew Barnes (the middle name probably coming from his grandfather Zacheus Barnes), was born about 1851. Both were born in Decatur County. After arriving in Oregon, Nathaniel Robbins, the boys’ grandfather, went to the Clackamas county court and was named guardian of the two boys. For the rest of the 1850s and into the 1860s they lived with their grandparents. Again, sadly, William was not destined for a long life. He died at age 16 in 1867. In 1870, Nathaniel Barnes, the last of the Barnes family in Oregon, was living with his bachelor uncle John Dow Robbins, working on his farm in western Clackamas County, near the location of today’s Wilsonville, Oregon.
N.N. & Annie Barnes, with daughter Etta Viola
The following year he was married to Annie Mary Walker, and they had two children, Ettie Viola and Frederick Elijah Barnes. Again an early death would strike the family. Nathaniel Norval Barnes died at age 37 in 1886. He joined his brother in the nearby Robert Bird Cemetery. That left his widow Annie, and children Ettie and Fred.
Annie lived until age 56, dying in 1910. Fred, the only son, never married. He enlisted at Vancouver Barracks in 1917 in the 116th Aero Squadron, based at Kelly Field, Texas, and served overseas from December 1917 to May 1919. The unit was re-designated the 637th in 1918 and was involved in the construction of the 1st Air Depot on the Western Front. After returning from the war, Fred died of cancer in 1921, age 46.
The remaining member of the Barnes family, Etta Viola, married John Seth in 1926. Fifty-six years old at the time of her marriage, she and John never had any children. They weren’t married long either: she died in 1933 at age 61, having outlived all the rest of her biological family. Her husband John only survived her by two years.
Etta Viola (Barnes) Seth
Frederick Elijah Barnes
And this ends the line of Absalom and Emiline (Robbins) Barnes. We probably wouldn’t even have photos of them today except that Etta Viola corresponded with her second cousin Hallie May (Lee) Jaques, a granddaughter of Nancy (Robbins) Barstow, Emiline’s younger sister. Hallie passed photos on to her daughter, genealogist Margaret Davis, who in turn passed copies of the photos, and photocopies of others, on to me. This family line died out, but they are not forgotten.
(Jacob Robbins-William Robbins/Absalom Robbins-Nathaniel Robbins/Nancy Robbins-Bethiah Emiline (Robbins) Barnes)
Robbins Roots 