Ella Elmira (or Elmyra) Robbins was born in 1871 in Decatur County, Indiana, a daughter of James Gilman and Elmira (Stout) Robbins. She was married to the Rev. John Fielding Huckleberry in 1893 and they had five children: Evermont Robbins, William Carey, Mary Elmyra, Helen Rebecca, and Florence Naomi.
The Huckleberrys moved to Oregon in about 1921 (another interesting Decatur County to Oregon connection), though daughters Mary Elmyra (who had married George Vandiver) and Helen Rebecca seemed to have remained in Indiana.
The Rev. John Fielding Huckleberry, born in 1864, had graduated from Franklin College in Franklin, Johnson County, Indiana. He served five years as pastor of the Mount Pleasant Baptist Church in Decatur County and well as other pastorates in Indiana before moving to Oregon. The Rev. Huckleberry died in McMinnville, Oregon, in 1950. At the time his wife was staying with their daughter Mary Vandiver back in Indiana. She flew out to be with him at the time of his death. Ella lived only five more years, dying in 1955, in Oregon.
Two of their children who came to Oregon, William Carey Huckleberry and Florence Naomi Huckleberry, appear to have never married. They died in 1967 and 1972, respectively.
The older son, Evermont Robbins Huckleberry, however, led a storied life that he wrote about in his book The Adventures of Dr. Huckleberry, Tillamook County, Oregon. Dr. E. R. Huckleberry received his MD from Rush Medical College in Chicago and then served an internship at Los Angeles County Hospital. He spent the next thirty years practicing medicine in Tillamook County on the Oregon Coast, McMinnville, and Umatilla, Oregon. After a stint in Texas, he moved to Utah where he retired as a physician. Dr. Huckleberry died in 1996 in Salt Lake City at the age of 102!
Tillamook County established the Tillamook County Huckleberry Health Fair in his honor, which ran annually from 1983 to 2017. The fair was an event to help local residents understand their health resources, as well as providing needed low-cost screenings and other services.
Dr. Huckleberry, in his very long life, was also a military veteran, missionary, teacher, author, and family man. At the time of his death Dr. Huckleberry had three great-great-grandchildren. Another long lived Robbins family member!
As I do periodically, I recently returned to a family group that I had not looked at in some time to see if I could find any new information. In this case I looked at Richard N. Robbins, a son of Stephen Robbins (c1831-1874), in turn a son of Micajah Robbins, all of Decatur County, Indiana.
According to loose family history notes, coming down from W. F. Robbins, Marvin Robbins Davis, and others, Stephen Robbins and wife Mary Jane Scripture lived in the community known as Scripture Bridge along Sand Creek. From those notes and from census records I knew that Stephen and Mary Jane Robbins had three children: sons Richard and Francis and daughter Gloria (Lora) Ann (Robbins) Monroe. Of these three families, other than one marriage record for Richard, it was only Gloria for whom I had any kind of information and had identified descendants.
The above history notes provided only this when it came to eldest son Richard N. Robbins:
I did have the marriage record for Richard and Melissa E. Luckey from 1877:
After that, other than the 1880 census, I had been unable to find them in any other records. And then, when I took a fresh look at some of Ancestry’s leaf hints for Richard last month these were the two that made me sit up and take notice:
Wow. Those opened up a whole new avenue (and geographic area) of research. Other than Melissa E. Luckey being called Emmaline E. Luckey, I knew I had two children of Richard and Melissa (aka Malissa, Emmaline, Elizabeth, etc.). Building on those hints about two children of the couple I was able to answer some questions, though others remained.
The most amazing discovery was that Melissa and her two children ended up in a wide-spot in the road known as Eddyville, about an hour north of me, just inland from the Oregon coast. The biggest question, still unresolved, is why did this family move from Decatur County, Indiana, to Eddyville, Oregon, of all places?
Eddyville – between Newport and Corvallis, Oregon
This is what I now know: Richard and Melissa had two children: Estella A. and LeRoy (“Roy”) Finley Robbins, both born in Decatur County, Indiana. Estella Robbins was married to Harvey Bowler Huntington in 1898 in Lincoln County, Oregon (the county in which Eddyville is located). Also, about 1898, Melissa (Luckey) Robbins married Moran Weltin. Finally, in 1909, LeRoy Finley Robbins was married to Mamie Wakefield.
I was able to find occasional mentions of the Robbins, Weltins, and Wakefields, in the local newspaper, of which these articles are an example.
Identifying Estella and LeRoy allowed me to follow their lives and work their family lines down to the present day. Estella (Robbins) Huntington died in 1960 in Tacoma, Washington, her husband Harvey having died in 1947. Their oldest child, Agnes Melissa, was born in Eddyville while the rest of their children (Lola Myrtle, Herbert Harvey, and Clyde Samuel) were born in Portland. There are quite a few descendants of this family.
LeRoy Finley Robbins died in Lincoln County (probably Eddyville) in 1949, his wife Mamie having predeceased him in 1938. The couple had a daughter Myrtle Ruth who married and had one child. LeRoy and Mamie also appear to have had an unnamed baby for whom there is a gravestone in the cemetery. There are only a couple of descendants of LeRoy.
Melissa (Luckey) (Robbins) Weltin, Richard N. Robbins’ wife, died in 1946, while her second husband Moran Weltin died in 1926.
The Weltins, along with LeRoy Finley Robbins and his wife, are buried in the Eddyville Cemetery. Being only about 90-minutes away, it was time for a road trip! The small cemetery is up a steep drive, beginning right next to a house, barely off Highway 20. Through the gate and up the hill I found Melissa and her Oregon family.
The question is: what happened to Richard N. Robbins? We have no records between the birth of LeRoy in Decatur County, Indiana, 1883, and the marriages of Melissa and Estella in Eddyville, Oregon in 1898. Or do we? There is a record of a Richard N. Robbins marrying in Kentucky in 1893 (that would jibe with the history of W. F. Robbins, et al, mentioned above), but I don’t know if it is the same man. Is it possible that Richard and Melissa were divorced? Does that explain why Melissa and her two children went from Indiana to Oregon? and why there is no mention of their father in the records of Estella and LeRoy? But why Eddyville? I have found no connection in either family with that small settlement.
Perhaps one day these questions will be answered.
[Jacob Robbins-Absalom Robbins-Micajah Robbins-Stephen Robbins-Richard N. Robbins]
Greensburg (Indiana) local columnist Pat Smith, headlined an article in the Daily News: “Robbins Reunion Was a Success.” Pat had contacted me for a report about the reunion.
“Months ago (or maybe even a year ago) I wrote about a Robbins reunion that took place in 1922 and wondered if anyone would be interested in one this year, 100 years later. It did take place, and Kevin Mittge wrote to me about it saying it was a great success and that local attorney William (“Bill”) Hunter Robbins welcomed families to Decatur County.”
She goes to mention some of the Robbins history in Decatur County and then writes “I visited his [William Robbins Sr.} grave in 1975 when writing a series about Revolutionary War veterans buried in Decatur County with the help of the Daughters of the American Revolution.”
Pat also describes how reunion attendees came from all over Indiana and all over the United States, using some of the statistics that I provided in a previous post.
And finally she credits the generous reunion attendees for, not only covering the expense of the room rental and photographer fee, but providing much more that was donated in the name of the Robbins reunion to the Decatur County Historical Society (which organization, by the way, sent me a nice acknowledgment of the reunion’s donation).
Many thanks to Melissa Robbins of Greensburg for forwarding a copy of the newspaper to me!
Well – we’re only one week out from the 2022 Robbins Bicentennial Reunion! We are looking forward to seeing everyone and spending some time getting acquainted and sharing our common family history and experiences. Some of us (such as myself, Kevin) are beginning our travel to Indiana. Others will be traveling the reunion weekend. We wish everyone a safe trip and we will meet up in Decatur County.
We’ve done just about as much publicity as has been possible: newspaper, radio, flyers, Facebook, and this blog. But – if you still encounter anyone who might be interested: pass the word!
If you have any questions, you can continue to email “robbinsreunion2022@gmail.com” and will be answered as soon as possible. Also – for a little more detailed information click on the reunion link above.
Again, the reunion will be Sat., July 30th, 11am to 5pm, at the Westport (Indiana) Community Building. See you there!
We are now less than three weeks away from the 2022 Robbins Bicentennial Reunion! I thought I’d update some things on this blog and the Facebook page over the next week or so. Don’t forget that you can also email the reunion at robbinsreunion2022@gmail.com with questions (I usually check it a couple times a day).
Publicity: An article appeared in the Greensburg Daily News the last week of June announcing the reunion. I was interviewed live by Greensburg radio station WTRE (AM 1330) last week and hopefully some local listeners caught it. I have also mailed out a number of flyers to the two libraries in the county, the visitor’s center, the museum, and a number of churches. If there is any last minute publicity anyone would like to try – go for it! (I’m attaching a PDF copy below of the flyer which you are welcome to print out, download, or distribute any way you think useful).
Food: As a reminder, this event will be a potluck. While a couple of us who are coming some distance are hoping to visit Costco in Indianapolis and pick up some food trays, it would be great if attendees can bring main, side, or dessert dishes. Coffee will be provided thanks to one of our cousin volunteers!
Expenses: We only have two dedicated expenses, which is good for a unbudgeted family reunion! The community center costs $350 and a professional photographer who will be taking a large group photo costs $100. We have folks who can cover the costs up front but we are hoping they can be shared out among attendees afterward. We will have a donation jar at the reunion. Any amount collected in excess of the above expenses will be given to the Decatur County Historical Society.
The South Park Cemetery is the largest cemetery in Decatur County and is located on the southern edge of the city of Greensburg. The volunteer-run site FindAGrave, South Park lists 14,798 graves, with more being added each day (it listed 14, 797 just a few hours prior to me writing this). The cemetery is so large that the last time I visited I took about 50 photos and then called it quits – I promised that the next time I visited I would bring a lunch and plenty of water for a day-long visit.
South Park Cemetery on the southern edge of Greensburg
The first cemetery in Greensburg was established in 1823 south of the Penn Central right of way and east of highway 421. When the railroad came through in 1853, the bodies in Greensburg Cemetery were moved to two cemeteries: Methodist Cemetery, formed in the 1840’s (west of Vine Street), and Decatur County Cemetery, established in 1850 on the west side of the present South Park Cemetery. In 1884, the newly established South Park Cemetery Association took over Decatur County Cemetery and enlarged the grounds. A few years later Methodist Cemetery became part of South Park. South Park has been enlarged several times since 1894.
Entrance to South Park Cemetery
The cemetery website also provides the capability to search for a name with an accompanying map so you can find most burials (I think it’s a work in progress since one grave I’ve photographed there isn’t listed). So it’s not perfect but still it’s one of the best, most user-friendly cemetery websites I’ve ever encountered.
In searching for the grave of John Everman Robbins (1825-1896) it brings up the exact location of the grave and where it is within the cemetery. If you click elsewhere on the map you can move in or further out to see the location. How cool is this?
At some point the families who buried their kin in the small Mt. Pleasant Cemetery south of town began to utilize the larger South Park, if they weren’t already using one of the other rural cemeteries I’ve previously discussed in these blog posts (i.e. Burks Chapel, Rockcreek, Mount Aerie, etc.). So for example, William Robbins Jr. and his wife Elinor are buried in Mt. Pleasant but all four of their children, Sarilda (Robbins) Styers, John Everman Robbins, James Gilman Robbins, and Merritt Holman Robbins, are all buried in South Park. This follows true for many family groups with the result that almost all branches of the family are represented here. I’ve also found many cases where a family member moved far away but upon death was brought back to South Park for burial.
Below are just several photos of some of our family members buried in South Park.
There are other cemeteries in Decatur County holding the remains of family members, including Hebron Cemetery near Adams, for example, where members of the Stark family are buried (Stark, Guthrie, Cline, Edrington, and others), but South Park is my last post specifically about cemeteries that we hope to visit on our post-reunion cemetery tour in July.
To conclude I wanted to mention a cemetery memorial to Anna J. Foley. Back in the 1980s I had contacted Anna as she did genealogical research in Decatur County and she was able to find a number of old obituaries and give me a list of land records related to my ancestor Nathaniel Robbins. So it was a surprise (and a delight) that the last time I visited South Park I saw this memorial to a local historian at the entrance to the cemetery.
The Westport Cemetery, likely the second largest cemetery in the county after South Park, is located directly west of the small community of Westport. The earliest Robbins that I’m aware of (and there may be others) buried here is Harvey Robbins (1829-1917), son of George and Nancy (Pruitt) Robbins. If you’ve been reading this blog you might remember George is buried in the Burks Chapel cemetery. I don’t know where Harvey’s first wife Xantippe is buried – she died sometime before 1869 – as that year Harvey married Delilah (“Della”) Borden, who is buried with her husband.
Location of Westport Cemetery
Coleman Robbins, the only known child of Harvey and his first wife, is also buried here. He was struck by a train in 1919, had never married, and has no descendants. Some years ago I came across the coroner’s report for Coleman. Among the information on that report was the following statement: “I was called to Westport Ind. on the above date because of the death of Coleman Robbins who was accidentally killed by a Big Four S. Bound train….Mr. Robbins was crossing the RR with a wheel-barrow load of kindling and being deaf never heard the train whistle….”
It is interesting that Harvey and Coleman share a gravestone, and Della and youngest daughter Brida (Robbins) Bliton (1888-1939) share another. Among the other related family names here are: Bake, Dishinger, Hutton, Jessup, Skinner, and Spencer.
Mount Aerie Cemetery
The Mt. Aerie Cemetery is located right along state highway 3, halfway between Greensburg and Westport, surrounding the Mt. Aerie Baptist Church. While only half the size of the Westport cemetery, it seems to hold many more family members.
Location of Mount Aerie Cemetery
In this cemetery rests Charity (Robbins) (Hanks) Purvis (1811-1892), daughter of Absalom and Mary (Ogle) Robbins, along with three of her children. Charity’s first husband was James Hanks, who died along with a son in 1843, while out coon hunting. It is unknown where they are buried. Charity then married John Purvis and both of them are buried here in Mt. Aerie.
Other related surnames here include: Davis, House, Knarr, Logan, Myers, Purvis, Skinner, Stout, Taggart, Van Treese, Wasson, Whipple, and more.
Mapleton Cemetery
This small cemetery is situated east of highway 3, along a peaceful farm road. There are only a handful of relatives here, but one of the most interesting is William Franklin Robbins (1850-1922) who figured so prominently in the 1922 reunion and died tragically only six months later (you can read more about him here).
Location of Mapleton Cemetery
Besides William and his wife Julia, son Henry Cleveland and daughter Mary Cordelia (Robbins) Morgan, are surnames Miller, Scripture, and Skinner.
Union Baptist Cemetery
The Union Baptist Cemetery, just around the corner from the Mt. Pleasant Cemetery (my first cemetery post in this series; Mt. Pleasant is in the woods in the upper right hand corner of the Google Earth view below), has relatives from a wide variety of branches of the family. Descendants of William Robbins Jr. are buried here including William Gilman Styers and other members of the Styers family; descendants of Marmaduke Robbins, including his granddaughter Jennie Robbins and her husband Tom Vanderbur; Aaron Robbins, a descendant of George; various ubiquitous Skinner descendants of Charity (Robbins) (Hanks) Purvis; and descendants of Thomas Jr. and Matilda Robbins, most of whose family lived in Jennings county.
Location of Union Baptist Cemetery
This completes my posts on some (there are others) of the main rural cemeteries in Decatur County with Robbins relations, but my next post will discuss the huge South Park Cemetery, the largest one in the county, located in the city of Greensburg.
The Burks Chapel Cemetery is a small plot right next to the road on W. County Road 750 S. I believe it is privately owned but being near the road the last time I visited it was a simple thing to park and enter. (I guess we’ll find out on our cemetery tour if the owners object to a group of visitors!).
Burks Chapel Cemetery location
In this cemetery rests one of the early progenitors of many descendants of the family: George Robbins. George, the son of Absalom and Mary (Ogle) Robbins, was born in 1792 and lived until 1888. He and his wife Nancy Pruitt were said to be the parents of at least eleven children.
George Robbins
Jonathan and Margaret (Spilman) Robbins
George’s son Jonathan Robbins, with his wife Margaret Spilman, are also buried in this cemetery. Among the other related family names here are: Bower, Coleman, Cripe, Flint, Scripture, Skinner, Vanderbur, and Voiles.
Rodney Cemetery (Decatur County, Indiana)
The Rodney Cemetery is located next to the Rodney Friendship Separate Baptist Church in Christ (so reads their sign), in a fairly wooded section of Decatur County, along S. County Road 60 SW. I have not been able to find any additional information about this church but the cemetery seems old, but with recent burials too.
Rodney Cemetery location
Micajah Robbins (1788-1865), another patriarch of the family and eldest son of Absalom and Mary (Ogle) Robbins, is reportedly buried in the Rodney Cemetery, but his grave seems to be unmarked. Notes by a grandson, John W. Holcomb, state: “Macajah m. Elizabeth Hanks a cousin of William Hanks. They were my Grandfather and Grandmother. They are buried at Rodney Cemetery near their home.” (Micajah’s wife was actually Elizabeth Vickery). It’s possible that the grave was marked at one time but the stone was lost over the years, perhaps even buried below the surface of the lawn today.
Levi and Sarah (Lemasters) Robbins
There are other Robbins family members buried at Rodney, including Micajah’s daughter Nancy (Robbins) Evans and family, and descendants of Micajah’s brother George, including Levi W. Robbins (1841-1930) and some of his family line. Other related family names found in the cemetery include: Bower, Giddings, Harrison, Martin, Shoemake, and Stone.
Rock Creek Cemetery (Decatur County, Indiana)
Rock Creek Cemetery, which is also spelled Rockcreek, is located towards the southeastern corner of Decatur County, along W. County Road 1100 S, next to the Rock Creek Baptist Church.
Rockcreek Cemetery location
William (“Rock Creek Billy”) Robbins is buried here. “Rock Creek Billy” being one of those many early Robbins family nicknames to distinguish this William from all the other Williams! This gentleman was the son of Jacob and Rachel Robbins and brother of the Jacob Robbins who emigrated to Oregon in 1852.
William (“Rock Creek Billy”) Robbins
“Rock Creek Billy” Robbins was married twice, first to Mary Moffett, then following her death, to Elizabeth Ferguson, and altogether he fathered perhaps as many as twelve children. As happens in the Robbins family, there were intermarriages, so his oldest daughter Eliza Catherine (“Katty”) Robbins was married to her cousin, once-removed, Job Robbins, son of George (see above about Burks Chapel Cem.).
Besides finding the Robbins surname in the cemetery, you will find many other family names such as: Deweese, Evans, Ford, Harrison, Hockersmith, Holcomb, Ponsler, Rork, Spencer, Sutton, and Taylor.
Sunday, July 31st, the day after the Robbins Bicentennial Reunion this summer in Westport, Indiana, will feature a tour of some of the Decatur County cemeteries where our Robbins ancestors are buried – I’m hoping some of the readers of this blog can join us. I’m planning to do several posts highlighting some of the cemeteries we hope to visit, focusing on those with the oldest forebears of all the various branches of the family. But I might add: every cemetery in Decatur County holds someone of some relation to the Robbins family.
The Mount Pleasant Cemetery is privately owned and accessed through the owner’s property. So, while the schedule of the tour is yet to be worked out (and it can be done as a group or a “self-tour” once we have a map, directions, and descriptions uploaded to this blog and our reunion Facebook page) it makes sense to have a set time for a single group visit to this private cemetery (arranged for 11am that day).
Mount Pleasant Cemetery (Decatur County, Indiana)
This cemetery holds, I believe, the earliest county burials of the Robbins family and their in-laws. It is located on the original land tract of John Robbins (1795-1881), son of William and Bethiah (Vickery) Robbins, south of Greensburg on South County Road 60 SW. John’s land patent for the property was issued in 1823.
Here is a map showing the general location relative to Greensburg:
And a close up courtesy of Google Earth:
The cemetery isn’t limited to Robbins family members and in-laws (Kirkpatricks and Andersons, specifically), but other families with later connections to ours: Barnes, Cheek, Evans, Ferris, Hunter, Ketchum, Kitchin, Marsteller, Paramore, Snook, Travis, and Vanderbur, among others.
All of the Robbins family buried in the cemetery are descendants of William and Bethiah through five of their children: Marmaduke Robbins, Mary (Robbins) Kirkpatrick, John Robbins, William Robbins Jr., and Charlotte (Robbins) Anderson. Note that three of these siblings married Anderson siblings, children of Sarah Anderson (also buried in the cemetery).
I believe the earliest Robbins known to have been buried in the cemetery, and probably the earliest burial of anyone there, was Nathaniel Robbins in 1824, the infant son of John Robbins, original owner of the cemetery property. Only a year later he was followed by his grandmother and matriarch, Sarah Anderson. I would not be surprised if the death of young Nathaniel is what spurred John into setting aside a tract of land for the cemetery.
William Robbins, our Revolutionary War ancestor, was laid to rest in 1834, while his wife Bethiah joined him in 1850. You can read more about William’s war experiences in my blog post here.
William Robbins grave in Mt. Pleasant Cemetery, Decatur Co., Indiana
Polly (Robbins) Kirkpatrick and her husband John, both of whom died in the 1850s, are buried there, along with two of their grandchildren Burrell and Martha.
John and Ruth (Anderson) Robbins, parents of the aforementioned Nathaniel, lived very long lives, until 1881 and 1871, respectfully. Several of their Paramore grandchildren are also buried there. And, while Nathaniel represented the earliest Robbins burial, John and Ruth’s son William Anderson Robbins was one of the later family burials, in 1907. Long before that point many of the Robbins family members had started being buried in the huge Greensburg cemetery, South Park, as well as in other cemeteries around the county.
William and Elinor (Anderson) Robbins are buried in Mt. Pleasant, along with some grandchildren, as are Abraham and Charlotte (Robbins) Anderson and family.
There is a possibility that Marmaduke Robbins, another son of William and Bethiah, is buried in the cemetery, as he died about 1838 and his grave has not otherwise been found. FindAGrave lists his son Jacob F. Robbins and wife Catherine Myers as both being buried in Mt. Pleasant (with Catherine’s 1899 newspaper death announcement stating: “Internment at Robbins cemetery, south of Greensburg”).
We are fortunate that the property owners take pride in the cemetery and feel a deep sense of responsibility for its preservation and maintenance and are always warm and welcoming to visitors. In speaking with one of the owners this week she said she’d make sure it was all “spiffed up” and ready for our visit!
I decided to combine these three children of Jacob and Mary Robbins into one post primarily because I don’t have a lot of source material about each one. My biographies of each will be rather short. While they didn’t all live in Decatur county, Indiana, each had some part of their family reside there.
Some of these families first settled in Jennings and Scott counties, Indiana, located to the south of Decatur. Keep in mind distances here are fairly small so even if someone lived in another county, they could actually be just down the road. Here is a map, just for comparison, of the geographical closeness of these areas.
1845 Indiana
James Robbins
When was James Robbins born? He married in 1790 and no consent by his parents has been found, though there is one for his wife. That would indicate he had reached the age of 21, providing a birth year of 1769 or earlier, in North Carolina. Then, he appears in the 1830 and 1840 Jennings county, Indiana censuses, with an age given as being between 50 and 60, and 60 and 70, respectively. That would give a birthdate ranging from 1770 to 1780. I’m going to propose a birthdate of about 1769 to 1770. (I had always listed the next brother, Jacob, as older than James, but this re-evaluation of the few sources we have made me switch them in my records).
James married Hannah Jarrett on 3 August 1790 in Franklin county, Virginia. Hannah’s grandparents provided consent.
Hannah Jarrett’s grandparents give consent for her to marry James Robbins
The next records in which I find James are tax records for Shelby county, Kentucky, where he first appears in 1797 continuing through 1805. It should be noted that, as ever with the Robbins family, there was another James: that one being a first cousin, the supposed son of Nathaniel Robbins, James’ uncle, and a few years younger. That James seems to have moved to nearby Bath county, Kentucky.
Also in Shelby county, in 1804, our James was a bondsman and a witness for his sister Margaret’s marriage to Thomas Robbins (see below).
And that is the last record in which I find James and Hannah Robbins until 1830 where he appears in the Jennings county, Indiana census: 1 male aged 50-60 (James), 1 female aged 50-60 (Hannah), and two males aged 15-20 (presumed to be sons James Jr. and Andrew M.). James is again found ten years later in Jennings county, now 60-69, with one female 60-69 (Hannah) in the household. Neither James nor Hannah are found again after that and presumed to have died in the 1840s and buried at some currently unmarked location in Jennings county.
Bottom of the deed – executed in 1839 but not recorded until 1847
In looking at land records in Jennings county, I was excited to find one recorded in 1847 where James and Hannah Robbins sold land to Jacob Robbins. That would have advanced their lifetime a bit in the records. Unfortunately, the land transfer actually took place in 1839 but wasn’t recorded until 1847. Jacob probably had a reason to demonstrate legal ownership at that point and took the deed to the courthouse for recording, still leaving us with the 1840 census as the last appearance of James in the records.
James and Hannah Robbins are believed to be the parents of the following children:
Ransom Robbins (1793-1868) – lived in Jennings county, Indiana, before moving to Le Sueur county, Minnesota.
Jacob Robbins (1796-1874) – lived in Jennings and Fulton counties, Indiana.
Mary (“Polly”) Robbins (1798-1886) – married James Green and lived out her life in Jennings county, Indiana.
John Robbins (1805-1888) – lived in Jennings, Clinton, and Fulton counties, Indiana. Note: he was married to Mary Margaret Deweese in Decatur county – she being the relative of other Deweese’s who married Robbinses in Decatur.
Matilda Robbins (1807-1888) – married Thomas Robbins Jr., son of Margaret (below), lived out her life in Jennings county, Indiana. Their son Absolem Robbins moved to Decatur county, Indiana, where they have descendants to this day.
James Robbins (1811-1885) – lived in Jennings and Jackson counties, Indiana, before moving to Cloud county, Kansas.
Andrew Martin Robbins (1814-1882) – lived in Jennings, Jackson, and Marshall counties, Indiana, before moving to Le Sueur county, Minnesota.
Jacob Robbins (II or Jr.)
Jacob Robbins, another son of Jacob and Mary, was born anywhere from about 1767 to 1773 or later in North Carolina. The earlier date has been passed down in the family but the latter is deduced from his age in the 1840 and 1850 censuses and is the date I’m using.
The first record in which he appears is his marriage to Rachel Robbins, a daughter of his uncle Nathaniel and aunt Ann Robbins in 15 November 1790 in Franklin county, Virginia. Both sets of parents give consent for the marriage and brother William is one of the bondsmen. If consent was necessary for the marriage then Jacob was under the age of 21, giving a birth year no earlier than 1769. Because his marriage required a consent from his parents, while his brother James’ marriage the same year did not, I’m working on the assumption that James was the elder.
Consent by parents for Jacob and Rachel Robbins to marry
It is said that Rachel Robbins died young, around 1801, and that Jacob Robbins then married Nancy Hanks. This Nancy Hanks should not be confused with Abraham Lincoln’s mother Nancy Hanks – despite wildly inaccurate trees on Ancestry and elsewhere, Abe’s mother was not married to Jacob Robbins before Thomas Lincoln. However, it is believed that she was a cousin of Abe’s mother. I’m not going to go into the murky history here but you can read my previous post about the Robbins-Hanks-Lincoln connection. It is also suggested that Nancy (Hanks) Robbins died early and Jacob married a third time, one suggestion being to a Sarah Jane Johnston. I have found no marriage records between Jacob and anyone other than his first wife, Rachel.
One of the problems with identifying this Jacob in the records is that once he came of age (he is estimated to have reached 21 sometime in the early 1790s) it is hard to distinguish between he and his father and, later, his nephew Jacob, son of William. In the early Kentucky tax records, for example, it’s hard to tell them apart as we find listings for Jacob, Jacob Sr., and Jacob Jr. The name Jacob appears in Shelby county from 1796 to 1804, then picking up in Henry county in 1805 and running through 1825.
I’ll briefly mention some of the history written down by Jacob’s grandson, Harvey Robbins. Harvey’s stories, a bit imaginative and not always accurate or consistent as they were derived from oral history on these early generations, unlike his first-person accounts of the trip west and the Indian wars, still provide some color for these early years. He recorded that his grandfather Jacob was involved in the Pigeon Roost settlement of southern Indiana, infamous for the massacre by Indians that took place in 1812. The attempt to settle in Indiana failed because of this and Jacob returned to Kentucky. Harvey also mentions that his grandfather was nicknamed “Big Toe” Jake while his son, Harvey’s father, was called “Little Toe” Jake. Neither the event or the nicknames appear in any historical record.
I believe he is the Jacob Robbins who appears in the 1840 Scott county census, listed as a male between the ages of 60 and 69, with one female between the ages of 40 and 49 (identity unknown), and one male under 5 (unknown; a grandchild perhaps?). And then in the 1850 Decatur county census he is listed, age 77, living with a 12-year-old John H. Robbins, relationship unknown.
I covered this in a previous blog post here but it is possible we have a photograph of this elderly Jacob Robbins. The photo below came from the late Patrick Masterson, a descendant of Jacob, and he claimed that this photo was of Jacob Robbins. Photography was becoming more widely available in the 1850s – could this be the earliest example we have in the family?
Said to Jacob Robbins (1773-after 1850)
Below is my list of the children of Jacob Robbins. Because of the gap in birthdates it is certainly possible that he had additional children, who either died in infancy (except for family records there were few sources in early Virginia, Kentucky, and Indiana that would list these children), or are simply unknown to us. This is where some DNA research (of which I am not an expert) could prove useful, especially for those who have genetic matches to Robbins families that don’t seem to fit elsewhere but point towards this family line.
Aaron Robbins (c1791-?) – nothing much known.
John Henry (Hance) Robbins (1797-?) – lived in Decatur before moving to Scott county, Indiana.
William (“Rock Creek Billy”) Robbins (1801-1864) – lived out his life in Decatur county, Indiana and has descendants there today, I believe.
Jacob Robbins (III or Jr.) (1809-1896) – lived in Decatur county, until 1852 when he and his family, along with cousin Nathaniel and family, moved to Oregon.
Margaret Robbins
We do not have a lot of information, at present, about Margaret Robbins and her husband Thomas Robbins. Margaret was probably born about 1784 while the family was living in Franklin county, Virginia.
The first record she appears in is her marriage to Thomas Robbins in 1804 in Shelby county, Kentucky. The bondsmen were Thomas and her brother James, consent was given by parents Jacob and Mary (indicating a birthdate later than about 1783), which was witnessed by her brothers Absalom and James Robbins. While it is unclear who Thomas Robbins parents were, it has been suggested that his father was Richard Robbins and his mother possibly a Catherine (to date I’ve found no documentation for this), with Richard being suggested as the eldest son of Nathaniel and Ann Robbins, making Margaret his first cousin, once removed.
Permission for Margaret Robbins to marry Thomas Robbins
Thomas Robbins appears in the 1806 and 1807 Shelby county, Kentucky, tax lists, before showing up in Henry county in 1808 and continuing through 1814. Their absence after that suggests that Thomas and Margaret may have been among the early settlers of Indiana.
While their oldest son Thomas Robbins Jr. appears in the 1830 Jennings county, Indiana, census, Thomas Sr. is not found there. It is possible that one of the two other Thomas’s in that census year in Indiana, one in Jefferson county (next door to Jennings) and one in Daviess (a bit to the west) are our Thomas Sr. but the information doesn’t jibe clearly (not that that is unusual in census records).
There are several confusing land transactions in Jennings county which refer to Thomas’ widow Margaret and heirs (listed as Thomas Jr., William, and Polly Robbins). These records focus on a particular 40-acre section of land in that county, transferred back and forth beginning in 1840, suggesting a death date for Thomas before that. As Margaret is not found in the 1850 census, at least under the name of Robbins, it is possible she was deceased by that date. Further research, including into potential probate or court records for Thomas Sr., might clear up some of the questions.
The children of Thomas and Margaret Robbins:
Thomas Robbins Jr. (1805-1858) – married Matilda Robbins, daughter of James (above), lived out his life in Jennings county, Indiana. Their son Absolem Robbins moved to Decatur county, Indiana, where they have descendants to this day..
William R. Robbins (c1807-1880) – lived in Jennings county before moving to Washington county, Indiana.
Mary (“Polly”) Robbins (?-after 1843) – nothing much known.
[Jacob Robbins-Jacob and James and Margaret Robbins]
Robbins Roots 