Christopher C. Robbins: Oregon Architect

March 24, 2025 / robbinsroots / Leave a comment

Several years ago I was contacted by someone with the Clackamas County Historical Society about Christopher Carll Robbins, a noted Portland area architect. In fact, Robbins had designed the Stevens-Crawford Heritage House in Oregon City which is one of the museums run and maintained by the historical society. Then began some research into his life and some of his architectural accomplishments.

Chris Robbins was a son of Nathaniel Norval and Permelia Ann (Bird) Robbins, and a grandson of Nathaniel and Nancy Robbins. He was born in 1866 in Stafford, Oregon, just to the northwest of present-day Wilsonville, and was married to Anna Holcomb in 1887 with his brother Oren Decatur Robbins as one of the witnesses.

In 1887 C. C. and Anna Robbins appear in Seattle, Washington, in a state census. Chris is listed as a 21-year-old machinist. Anna is 19. They are listed there again in 1889. Since the 1890 federal census hasn’t survived it is nice to have at least these state censuses to locate our family members between 1880 and 1900.

In an interview with the noted Oregon journalist Fred Lockley he reminisced about his background:

“When I was 17 [c1883] I came to Portland and secured work in a sash and door factory owned by J. C. Carson. I followed that trade for the next 21 years, meanwhile studying architecture. In my late 30s I hung out my shingle as an architect, since which time I have planned and built hundreds of houses in Portland.” (“Observations of a Journal Man,” Oregon Journal, 9 December 1933)

An undated photograph of the employees of the J. C. Carsons’ Sash and Door Factory in Portland shows C. C. Robbins in the top row, second from the right, and listed as a “machine hand” which is also the occupation he is listed as in the 1900 census. Perhaps the photo was taken around the same time.

Chris Robbins (#9 – 2nd from right, back row)

He mentions “studying” architecture but I don’t know if he received formal schooling or read and studied architecture from books and observing others. In the early 1900s he begins to show up in newspaper articles as being an architect and designer of houses and buildings. A foreman of the Carson Sash and Door Factory, Holly A. Cornell, went on to be an architect in the 1890s. Perhaps Chris followed the same path: machinist to architect? In the 1910 census his occupation is given as “architect” as it was for the following census years of 1920 and 1930. His death certificate listed him as a “builder.”

Another excerpt from his interview by Fred Lockley:

“In 1896 Mr. Hubbard, superintendent of the fish hatcheries in Oregon at that time, employed me to build a fish hatchery on the Little White Salmon. The hatchery was located about a mile and a half above the mouth of the Little White Salmon. When we had the fish racks and traps built a large number of Klickitat Indians came down for their yearly salmon catch. They were very much upset at the sight of the racks and traps. They threatened to tear out the racks. John Talbot of Clackamas was in charge of the fish-taking gang. He wanted us to get out our guns and shoot the first Indian that touched a salmon or bothered the fish traps. I finally persuaded him that it would simply mean that the Indians would wipe us out if we shot them. There were 17 white men and several hundred Indians. I persuaded Talbot to send word to the military authorities at Vancouver. An officer came up and held a pow-wow with the chief of the Klickitats. The difficulty was settled by our turning over to the Indians all of the salmon after the eggs had been extracted. They never had so many fish in their lives. They gave us arrow points, moccasins and buckskin gloves and offered us dried salmon.”

I was not able to find contemporaneous confirmation of this story at White Salmon (which is located on the north side of the Columbia River in Washington State) though I did find an article from 1896 where W. F. Hubbard, superintendent of the fish hatchery on the Clackamas river, discusses the number of salmon hatched that year and that “the upper Clackamas hatchery is a success and that the Indians do not distrust the fish in the upper river now, much preferring to take the fish after same have been relieved of the eggs by the hatchery people…” (Oregon Courier, Oregon City, Ore., 8 May 1896).

The earliest newspaper mention I can find of Chris Robbins is in 1899, when the McMinnville, Oregon, newspaper, The Yamhill County Reporter, mentions that: “Chas. P. Nelson has the draft for his new residence, fresh from the pen of Mr. Robbins, the architect. It will be a very neat residence, and will cost about $900.”

One of many houses designed by Chris Robbins

Some of the existing buildings he is credited with designing include Roswell Conner House in McMinnville (1905), Oregon City Masonic Lodge (1907), and the Masonic Building in McMinnville (1913). This information is obtained from the Oregon Historic Site Records of the Oregon Historic Preservation Office.

More information comes from numerous newspaper articles such as: “Architect C. C. Robbins has completed plans for a new edifice for the Central Christian Church, which will cost between $45,000 and $50,000, to be built at East Twentieth and East Salmon Streets.” (see drawing below) (Sunday Oregonian, 12 July 1908, sec. 3, p. 4, col. 3-6)

There is also mention of a home being built for the Robbins family and you must wonder if Chris didn’t design it himself: “A handsome 2½-story dwelling is being built for C. C. Robbins at East Twentieth and Everett Streets. The cost will be about $3,000.” (Oregon Daily Journal, 15 April 1906, sec. 2, p. 32, col. 4)

We also find this news article: “House Burglarized – Jewelry of the value of about $150 was taken from the home of C. C. Robbins 67 East Twentieth street north, yesterday afternoon, while Mr. Robbins and other members of the family were at the automobile races. Entrance to the home was gained by breaking a plate glass in the side door.” (Oregon Daily Journal, 10 July 1912, p. 9, col. 2)

Entry in the 1914 Portland City Directory

Later in 1916 Chris has added more to his resume: “C. C. Robbins, architect, has joined J. H. Hill and is engaged in the manufacture of billiard, pool and bowling alley supplies and ivory, fiber and wood novelties at 302 Pine Street.” (Oregon Daily Journal, 21 Oct. 1916, p. 9, col. 4-5).

Chris and his wife Anna were the parents one son, Archie Robbins. About his son Chris told Fred Lockley: “My son, Archie, is an expert toolmaker. His health became wrecked while in the service during the World war and he is in the veterans’ hospital at American Lake [Washington].” Sadly, Archie was a pedestrian struck and killed by a car in Tenino, Washington, in 1939.

Christopher Robbins died in January of 1943 and Anna did not long outlive him, dying six months later in June. Both are buried in Lincoln Memorial Park in Portland.

[Jacob Robbins-William Robbins-Nathaniel Robbins-Nathaniel Norval Robbins-Christopher Carll Robbins]

Robert Bird Cemetery (Clackamas County, Oregon)

July 8, 2024 / robbinsroots / Leave a comment

Last year, prior to the 2023 Robbins Reunion in Oregon, I posted about the Adams Cemetery which is very near the reunion location. This year I thought I would post about the Robert Bird Cemetery, also important to Robbins family history, which is not far away – and, in fact, is easily accessed off of Interstate 5. While the Molalla Cemetery held Jacob and Sarah Robbins and their descendants, the Robert Bird Cemetery held Nathaniel and Nancy Robbins and many of their family.

Location of the Bird Cemetery, between Gage and Newland roads

The cemetery was located on the very eastern edge of a part of Robert and Rachel Bird’s large landholding in Clackamas County. Bird was surrounded to the north, west, and south by members of the Robbins family on their respective Donation Land Claims.

red star indicates approximate location of the Bird Cemetery

The burial of a Robbins in the cemetery that can be confirmed is that of William Franklin Robbins who died in May of 1856 after a hunting accident. I’ve quoted this reminiscence from his daughter Melissa before but it’s worth sharing again:

“But how soon happiness can be turned to sorrow for when I was but four years old Father was taken from us by death in the accidental discharge of his gun while trailing a Bear in company with his Brothers, tho so young I could always remember seeing his body carried from the forest and of being lifted up to view him for the last time as he lay in his casket. There being no horse teams in our community except Grandfathers [Nathaniel Robbins] which hitched to a wagon in which was placed the casket and in which Mother [Melvina], baby sister [Artemissa] and I also rode with the rest of the crowd walking we proceeded to the Cemetery one half mile distant and there without a Minister of God to offer a last prayer or to speak one word of comfort to the grief stricken ones his body was laid to rest and while I was too young to realize my loss yet Mother’s heart broken sobbings at that time has followed me through life.”

The next earliest burial is that of William’s youngest sister Angeline Robbins, who died in 1862 at twenty-one; then came a young son of Nathaniel Norval Robbins, Absalom Allen Robbins, in 1863. The patriarch himself, Nathaniel Robbins, drowned in December of 1863, and his grave is marked with a large gravestone. His daughter Nancy (Robbins) Barstow followed in 1872 as did bachelor son John Dow Robbins in 1873. A young son of Nathaniel Norval Robbins, Absaloma Allen Robbins, died and is buried there in 1863.

We also have a few mysteries. There are three gravestones which just say “Robbins.” These are most likely Nathaniel Spencer (“Nat”) Robbins, William Franklin’s oldest son, who died in 1895, and his first wife Sarah Evans Robbins, who died in 1880. These two graves, and the other one marked “Robbins”, are next to the gravesites (according to the cemetery map) of Evans family members, such as Sarah’s parents John and Elizabeth Evans. It’s possible that the third “Robbins” gravestone is either for Nat’s second wife Martha Rodgers (death date unknown) or for William Berry Robbins, Nat’s youngest son, who died in 1924 at the Oregon State Hospital in Salem. His death certificate simply says his body was removed to “Oregon City” which is near the Robert Bird Cemetery. Note that the website FindAGrave mistakenly gives two of these “Robbins” gravestones erroneous names. Someone simply copied a name from the cemetery map which was not that of a Robbins family member.

There are also a couple of gravestones simply marked “Barstow” but it is believed there should be about five Barstow burials there. Nancy Robbins, daughter of Nathaniel and Nancy, was married to Joseph Barstow in 1856, just a month after her brother William’s death. Nancy died in 1872 while Joseph lived until 1915. Three children died in infancy or in their teenage years: Grace Lillian (1863), Harriet Permelia (1872), and Eugene Leroy (1876). It is likely all three are buried in the Robert Bird Cemetery.

Another mystery: Melvina Myers, wife of William Franklin Robbins, was married to Robert Lavery after William’s death. Yet, she is buried as “Melvina Robbins” in the cemetery. There is no evidence of divorce. Was it an unhappy marriage? or was there bad feeling between Melvina and step-children after Robert died in 1867.

So, Nathaniel and Nancy Robbins were buried in the cemetery, as were their children William Franklin Robbins, John Dow Robbins, Nathaniel Norval Robbins, Zobeda (Robbins) Sharp, Nancy (Robbins) Barstow, and Angeline Robbins. Of the grandchildren buried in the Robert Bird Cemetery we have: Nathaniel Spencer Robbins (likely), Artemissa Ellen (Robbins) Thompson (my great-grandmother), Nathaniel Norval Barnes, William Barnes, Absalom Allen Robbins, Alfred Cotton Sharp, Oliver Perry Sharp, Samuel Franklin Sharp, Minerva (Sharp) Mayes, Nancy Melinda Sharp, Edward L. Sharp, Walter Scott Sharp, Dora Sharp (likely), Annaretta (Sharp) Priester, and Kate (Sharp) Jones, and their respective spouses and some of their children and grandchildren.

In 2019 a plaque was installed by the Daughters of the American Revolution, Tualatin Chapter, honoring Nathaniel Robbins, a member of Oregon’s Constitutional Convention, and Robert and Rachel Bird, the original owners of the land on which the cemetery is situated. You can read my blog post about that here.

And finally, here are some additional photos from the Robert Bird Cemetery:

Herren Family Cemetery (Marion County, Oregon)

July 8, 2024July 8, 2024 / robbinsroots / Leave a comment

The Herren Family Cemetery is an interesting one – for many, many years you needed to get a state prison official to escort you to the cemetery. The reason being: the property was owned by the State of Oregon and was used by the Oregon State Penitentiary’s as part of their Farm Annex.

Photo from FindAGrave, dated 2009 (not what it looks like today)

Let’s go back to the beginning. The Herren cemetery was established on the original 635-acre Donation Land Claim of John and Theodoshia (“Dosha”) (Robbins) Herren. The Herrens were first to come west, crossing the Oregon Trail in 1845, and notably took the disastrous Meek Cut-off across Central Oregon. You can read by this couple here and their trip here.

The strangely oblong shaped piece of land that John and Dosha settled on was southeast of the city of Salem, and included part of a ridge – overlooking the future site of the Oregon State Penitentiary to the north and overlooking Mill Creek and the future site of Turner to the south. An early survey map even marks the Herren house along the Salem to Turner road.

The cemetery is located on the ridge above the “J. Herren” house

On the ridge above their house was the Herren cemetery. The earliest burial seems to be that of John Herren himself, who died in March of 1864. Several grandchildren, Charles C. Herren in 1868, Olevia Herren in 1874, and Nannie Welch in 1872 were also buried there. Dosha (Robbins) Herren died in 1881 and was buried beside her husband John.

Over the years more family followed, including William Jackson Herren (1891) and his wife Nancy Evaline (1905), Elizabeth Columbia (Herren) Hastay (1881, seemingly unmarked), James R. Herren (1887), Levi M. Herren (1914), and additional grandchildren. At least one nephew of John Herren, Joseph Garrison, was also buried in the cemetery in 1867.

William Jackson Herren and wife, with John and Dosha buried behind

The Herren family is said to have sold some or all of their property to the state. I have yet to identify when this occurred but the Oregon State Reform School first operated near the cemetery beginning in 1891. After the school moved in 1929, it operated as the Farm Annex of the Oregon State Penitentiary

View of the Farm Annex in operation taken from near the cemetery location

from 1929 to 1990. Farm operations were gradually phased out at the site until it closed its doors permanently in 2021. A news article from 2022 states:

“In 1889 the State purchased the land for a reform school, the Oregon State Training School for Boys. After that relocated, the Oregon State Penitentiary began developing a farm annex in 19289, using forced prison labor to raise sheep, pigs, turkeys, rabbits, bees, and crops. By 1959 the State had expanded the farm to more than 2,089 acres. The State farm annex shut down over two decades ago, leaving much of the land unused, except for MCCI [Mill Creek Correctional Institution], a minimum-security prison, which was housed in the former reform school on a 390-acre chunk of the land. That site includes an unused cemetery from another previous owner of some of the land, the Heron (sic) family.”

Location of cemetery in relation to Farm Annex buildings

In 2023 the property was sold to Clutch Industries, under the name Herron (sic) Crossing LLC. Before the sale, when it was initially announced that the state was going to be auctioning the property a descendant of another nearby original land owner claimed there were Native American remains buried nearby also. An online article states the following:

“A state archaeologist, John Pouley, said an agreement signed by DOC [Department of Corrections] and the Oregon Historic Preservation Office outlined precautions taken to consult with historic groups and local tribes. DOC spokeswoman Betty Bernt said there was “no evidence of human remains at the archaeological site other than the [Heron (sic) family] cemetery,” in which 20 graves are still visible from 1864 to 1922. She did not say what research was done to reach that conclusion.”

Being maintained by the Oregon State Penitentiary meant that the cemetery was well cared for. The prisoners who worked outside at the Farm Annex mowed the lawn, tended the iris beds, and kept the gravestones upright and in good condition.

When in 2023 the cemetery was sold to a private owner the condition changed. While the cemetery is supposedly open to the public you must cross the company’s private property to access it. Now instead of a prison escort you need to get a company escort. In the past the cemetery was well maintained. This is what it looks like today:

The cemetery today (compare to photo above from FindAgrave in 2009)

The grass is overgrown. The iris are lost in the weed thicket. Gravestones are laying over. The writing on the markers is starting to crumble. How much longer will this cemetery even be in existence? This isn’t the first cemetery our family has had to worry about, and sadly it won’t be the last.

The Huckleberrys

July 4, 2023 / robbinsroots / 2 Comments

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!

[Jacob Robbins-William Robbins-William Robbins Jr.-James Gilman Robbins-Ella (Robbins) Huckleberry]

Oregon Reunions in the Past

July 4, 2023 / robbinsroots / 2 Comments

There have been many years of Robbins and allied family reunions in Oregon. Originally they were large reunions, with the original Oregon Trail pioneers in attendance, but as families grew and married into other families and moved away from the home place, over time the reunions sometimes fractured into separate parts or died way altogether.

While most families hold reunions at some point, the Oregon reunions might have originally been driven by the shared experience of coming across the Oregon Trail and an early organization that helped bring pioneers together.

The Oregon Pioneer Association was established in 1867, with one of the leading founders being William Jackson Herren, son of Theodoshia (Robbins) Herren. He was elected president of the organization in 1877, the same year he returned to Decatur County, Indiana, to visit his Robbins cousins that he hadn’t seen in decades.

The Association was made up of members who had come to Oregon prior to January 1, 1854, and each year they held meetings of members, many of whom were members of the Robbins and Herren families. As the original pioneers died out, the organization dwindled, eventually being subsumed into the Sons and Daughters of Oregon Pioneers. The Oregon Pioneer Associations’ annually published Transactions listed those members and other pioneers who had passed away over the years.

By the time the pioneer group was dwindling away around the turn of the last century, family reunions started being held. Original pioneers were dying off, families were spreading out, many moving off the farm to look for jobs in urban areas both near and far. For the Robbins family, 1922 was the banner year, with large reunions in Decatur County, Indiana, and in Oregon. As families grew and locations changed, the various reunion groups separated, then rejoined, then died away, only to be replaced by something new.

I have collected articles over the years about some of these reunions and I include a few of them here.

I started attending Robbins reunions in 1977, and they continued on until the early 2000s before petering out. In those years the reunions were held in Camas, Washington; Champoeg State Park; Willamette Mission State Park; and finally Silver Falls State Park. The 2023 Robbins Reunion is being held at Feyrer Park in Molalla, a long-time location of reunions of the Jacob Robbins family. For more information on the upcoming reunion click on the 2023 Oregon Robbins Reunion above.

Portraits of Jacob Robbins (1809-1896)

May 12, 2023 / robbinsroots / Leave a comment

Of all the grandchildren of Jacob and Mary Robbins of Kentucky, the third generation, the one individual who seems to have had the most photographs taken, is Jacob Robbins (1809-1896). This was the Jacob who married Sarah Spilman and emigrated with his family to Oregon in 1852 along with his cousin Nathaniel Robbins and his family.

That multiple photographs of Jacob were taken is a testament to his long life as he lived until 1896, long after photography became common place. His wife Sarah, on the other hand, died in 1865 and only one known photograph of her exists, as also occurs with his cousin Nathaniel Robbins, who died in 1863.

Here is a summary of the six photos or drawings I have of Jacob and Sarah Robbins and who originally shared the photos with me (all three contributors have since passed on).

**Jacob and Sarah (Spilman) Robbins (*Margaret Davis, Yakima, WA*)**

**Jacob Robbins (*Margaret Davis, Yakima, WA*)**

**Jacob Robbins (*Patrick Masterson, Port Orford, OR*)**

**Jacob Robbins (*Lloyd Robbins, Vancouver, WA*)**

**Jacob Robbins (*Patrick Masterson, Port Orford, WA*)**

If anyone has additional photos of Jacob and Sarah Robbins, or of anyone from that generation – children of William Sr., Absalom, James, Jacob Jr., Mary Chastain, Martha Chastain, and Margaret Robbins, I’m always happy to get a scanned copy!

[Jacob Robbins-Jacob Robbins-Jacob Robbins]

An Eddyville (Oregon) Family

March 3, 2023 / robbinsroots / Leave a comment

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]

The Previous Pandemic (1918-1920)

July 31, 2021 / robbinsroots / 1 Comment

During the past year I’ve been thinking a lot about our last big worldwide disease scourge, the 1918 Influenza Pandemic. Some aspects of that disease were similar to Covid: the worldwide nature of the disease; masks and resistance to masks; differences in the way various countries, states, and cities responded to the crisis; and more. Then there are the differences: there was no vaccine for the disease in 1918; group quarantines were a larger part of the disease-fighting effort; and the disease really struck at young adults harder than other age groups. There are members of the Robbins family that lost their lives from influenza one hundred years ago and I thought I’d highlight just one of those tragic cases for this blog.

Martha E. (“Nellie”) Morris was the granddaughter of Levi M. Herren, who at the age of nine crossed the continent on the Oregon Trail with his parents and siblings. Theirs was the wagon train that became lost in Central Oregon on the Meek Cutoff. Levi and his wife had a small family and there are only a handful of descendants of this line today. One of Levi’s daughters, Ida Angeline Herren, grew up and married Ralph Morris and they, in turn, had three children, one of whom was Nellie. The Morris family lived primarily in the Albany, Salem, and Portland areas, with Ralph being a farmer, rancher, farm implement salesman, grocer, and more.

In 1913 Nellie married Guy Geer, a young Minnesota native, who lived out east of Salem in the beautiful pastoral Waldo Hills area. I’ve not seen a photo of Guy, but his 1917 World War I draft registration card describes him as medium height, medium build, brown eyes, and dark hair. (The following year when he enlisted in the Oregon Militia he was described as being 5-feet 8-inches tall.) Nellie’s father Ralph was living on his ranch in the Lookingglass Valley down south of Roseburg in 1916 when he passed away, and Guy’s 1917 draft registration lists the young couple, with one child, also living there, with Guy listed as a farmer.

Also in 1917, the Salem City and Marion County Directory lists Guy Geer, with an assessed valuation of personal property in the amount of $305, and his post office being Shaw, Oregon. Shaw is a tiny community near Sublimity in the Waldo Hills. So the young family appears to have been somewhat mobile, moving between the Sublimity area, Lookingglass valley about 145-miles to the south, and then, after they sold their Douglas County farm, to Portland where they appear in the 1920 census.

The enumeration date of the 1920 census was January 1st and it was on January 9th that the Geer family was visited by the census taker. It turns out that an unexpected number of family members were living together at their address in Portland. Ida Morris, a renter, was listed as head of household. In that household were her son Harland Morris, her daughter Ruth Morris, her daughter Nellie Geer, Nellie’s husband Guy, and two children Morris and Elma L. Geer. Boarders included Iza L. Geer (Guy’s younger sister) and Merle Matthews, another possible relative. Interestingly enough, the house was owned by Selvina Stephenson. Selvina had been the widow of Perry Herren, Ida’s uncle who died by suicide in 1874 (46 years before!). Obviously family ties remained strong over the years.

Guy Geer’s occupation was a mechanic in a garage, while his 22-year-old brother-in-law Harland was a mechanic for the railroad and his 22-year-old sister-in-law Ruth was a clerk for Western Union. Unfortunately this seemingly happy multi-generational family unit was not going to remain intact.

The first cases of the misnamed Spanish Flu were identified in the United States in March of 1918 at Camp Funston, Kansas. Due to wartime censorship the disease was minimized by the allied nations in World War I, but neutral Spain had no such reason for censorship and after the Spanish king became ill, the name “Spanish Flu” stuck.

From the spring of 1918 until the spring of 1920 there were worldwide an estimated 500 million cases with deaths estimated anywhere from 17,000,000 at the low end to 100,000,000 on the high side. The first case in Oregon was identified in September of 1918 and when the pandemic ended the state had suffered 50,000 cases and 3,675 deaths. (To compare with Covid, Oregon, to date, has had 219,755 cases and 2,858 deaths).

Headline from the Oregon Statesman (Salem)

Influenza struck the world in four waves (early 1918, late 1918, 1919, and 1920). The Geer family were struck down near the tail end of the pandemic.

On February 16, 1920, at her mother’s house Nellie (Morris) Geer passed away, leaving her husband, and two small children. Three days later on the 19th, Guy Geer passed away, now leaving his children orphaned. One can only imagine the extreme sorrow that enveloped the Morris/Geer household in Portland. A double funeral was held there on Sunday, February 22^nd.

The Oregon Statesman, the Salem newspaper, announced on the front page “Two of Family Pass Same Day”, which while not accurate, reflected the shock of the family’s sudden loss. A Silverton newspaper mentioned that the parents died along with an infant child, but I’ve found no record of a child – only Morris and Elma were mentioned in the census, and the parents obituary, and there is no death record for a child.

The young couple were brought back to the Waldo Hills and buried together in the Union Hill Cemetery.

Geer gravestone in the Union Hill Cemetery

The two orphaned children, Morris and Elma Louise, continued to live with their grandmother Ida (Herren) Morris in Portland, graduating from Lincoln High School, until both moved to California in the late 1930s where they married, raised families, and lived until their own deaths.

[Jacob Robbins-William Robbins-Theodoshia (Robbins) Herren-Levi M. Herren-Ida (Herren) Morris-Martha (“Nellie”) (Morris) Geer]

The Drowning of Eugene Leonard

December 11, 2019 / robbinsroots / Leave a comment

On a hot summer day in 1909, Eugene Leonard dove into the rapid Deschutes river in an attempt to save his wife and others from drowning. Instead, he became the only victim of the chilly waters.

Eugene Leonard occupies a special place in the family tree as he was the youngest child of the youngest child of the youngest child: being a son of Sarilda (Herren) Leonard and a grandson of Dosha (Robbins) Herren and great-grandson of William Robbins. His mother Sarilda was born after the family arrived in Oregon and she met and married Thomas Sylvester Leonard in 1868. In just a few years the family had moved to southeastern Washington, settling in the small town of Dayton. The had four children, a smaller family than average for that time period. The oldest was Caroline Eloise (“Carrie”), followed by Edgar Harvey, Inez Olive, and finally Eugene K. Leonard, born in Dayton in 1887.

Eugene Leonard

The parents, Thomas and Sarilda, remained in Dayton for the rest of their lives, while the two daughters moved around quite a bit once they were married. The sons, Edgar and Eugene, remained in southeast Washington. Edgar worked as foreman, manager, and vice-president of milling companies in Waitsburg and Prescott, Washington, including the Portland Flouring Mill Company, and his younger brother Eugene followed in his footsteps.

Eugene Leonard was married to Goldie Thorington in 1907 in Walla Walla. During their short marriage they had no children.

In 1909 Eugene was working as the manager of the Sandow Milling Company, a branch of the Portland Flour Mill Company, in the small town of Wasco, Oregon. Wasco is located about 9 miles south of the Columbia River, in the heart of north-central Oregon’s wheat country.

On July 3^rd, 1909, Eugene Leonard and his wife Goldie left their home in Wasco for an automobile drive down to Bend for a trout barbecue. They were traveling with friends, including R. C. Atwood, the agent for the Wasco Warehouse & Milling company, V. H. Smith, a farmer from near Wasco; and G. W. Berrian, agent at Moro for the Eastern Lane company, and the three men’s wives (who in all the newspaper articles are simply referred to as “Mrs.” with no first names provided).

Near the confluence of the Deschutes and Crooked rivers

The party decided to stop near Cove for a rest and to do some fishing. Cove was a location along the Crooked River near where it enters into the larger Deschutes River, which drains much of the east side of the Cascade Range. Today the entire area is inundated behind Round Butte Dam and is part of Cove Palisades State Park. According the book Oregon Geographic Names (2003, 7^th edition):

The place on Crooked River known as Cove is not inappropriately named. At this point, which is about two miles south of the old river mouth, the stream was in a canyon with an overall depth of some 900 feet. About halfway down from the bluffs west of Culver, there is a bench or shelf, and this shelf is closed on the east by rock walls, forming a natural cove. Farther down into the canyon there was another natural cove near the river. The county highway from Culver to Grandview crossed Crooked River at the Cove Bridge and, after passing over a rocky divide several hundred feet high, made a second descent, this time to cross the Deschutes River. [This must be approximate location of the events in this story.]

According to newspaper reports the women were wading in shallow water when Mrs. Smith let out a cry, having stepped into a deep hole. Both Goldie Leonard and Mrs. Berrian rushed to help and were themselves caught in the deep water. Mrs. Berrian, a good swimmer, was able to get one of the women to shore, and then the men entered the water to save the remaining woman. Mr. Berrian succeeded in getting the women to shore but Eugene Leonard, who had gone in to try to save his wife, was caught in the swift water and disappeared. Goldie Leonard was pulled out by Mr. Berrian but was unconscious. She was taken to the small town of Shaniko on the road back to Wasco to recover. (Today’s Shaniko is a noted “ghost town” but in 1909 was an active community with a hotel.)

Eugene Leonard’s body traveled down the Deschutes and then down the Columbia before it was found ten days later twelve miles downstream from The Dalles.

The youngest member of the Leonard family, Eugene was the first to pass away, and was returned to his parent’s town of Dayton to be buried in the local cemetery. He was later joined by his parents (Thomas in 1921 and Sarilda in 1924). He wasn’t the first Robbins descendant buried there though, as his cousin Nettie Herren (daughter of Noah Herren) was buried in the Dayton Cemetery at the age of 20 in 1882. Years later the Leonards would be joined by more family, the Turners, descendants of Nathaniel Robbins, Dosha’s older brother, but whether they knew one another is doubtful.

(Jacob Robbins-William Robbins-Theodoshia (Robbins) Herren-Sarilda (Herren) Leonard-Eugene Leonard)

Robert Bird Pioneer Cemetery Marker Dedication

October 29, 2019 / robbinsroots / 2 Comments

On September 14^th of this year, the Tualatin Chapter of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution (NSDAR) dedicated a marker in the historic Robert Bird Cemetery outside Wilsonville, Oregon.

DAR marker placed 14 September 2019

The marker notes it is placed “in memory of the early Oregon pioneers buried here” and specifically calls out pioneers Robert Bird, for whom the cemetery is named (he provided the land for the cemetery), and Nathaniel Robbins, “signatory of the Oregon State Constitution ratified in 1857.” It might also be noted that several Robbins married Birds!

Barbara Stinger, descendant of Nathaniel Robbins, tells the story of the Robbins trip west

Barbara Stinger, great-great-great-granddaughter of Nathaniel Robbins, spoke at the dedication and read portions of a letter that Nathaniel Robbins’ son, William Franklin Robbins, wrote to and was published in The Decatur Press (Greensburg, Indiana) on the 2^nd and 9^th of September 1853. One of the excerpts from William’s letter included this statement: “I have only one thing to regret in coming to this country, that is the loss of my poor children, and relations; I will say to you as William Herren [first cousin, son of Dosha (Robbins) Herren] said to me, the country is good enough, the great trouble is in getting to it.”

Grave of Nathaniel Robbins in the Robert Bird Cemetery

While the Oregon Trail proved deadly for some of the family, most of the Robbins and Herren pioneers (seven related Robbins families emigrated to Oregon between 1845 and 1865) went on to lead productive lives in their new home, over 2,300 miles from Indiana.

It was an honor to attend this marker dedication, the first formal recognition, I believe, for Nathaniel Robbins, pioneer of 1852 and delegate to Oregon’s Constitutional Convention of 1857.

[Jacob Robbins-William Robbins-Nathaniel Robbins]

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