Sixth Generation

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Family History of Amelia Maria Robbins Ament, born 8 DEC 1829 (from a letter written February 19, 1898, by G. Collier Robbins to his niece, Cora Fracker).

You asked me to tell you about the Coat of Arms that I still have. It is not of the Robbins family but of my mother?s, the Whites, whose father was an Episcopal Clergyman of Union Village, Washing county, New York, and consists of the Arms of the Washburn, Sextons and Whites each coat of arms but united and is inscribed ?the United Arms of the Washburn, Sextons and Whites.? I have it framed at home.

Marion Augustus Robbins is connected and is a descendant of the Rocky-Hill family of Robbins; our ancestors came over in the Mayflower and landed or settled at Rocky Hill near Hartford I believe in 1620. That one of the original Robbins went to Virginia and from that branch of the family all of the Virginia and Kentucky Robbins have descended. When in Rocky Hill I visited the old Ancestral Homestead and the village graveyard and counted the tombstones of over two hundred Robbins. The Boston Historical Society has a drum that was beat at the battle of Bunker Hill and was made by John Robbins. It is now in the memorial hall of the old state house of Boston.

On the old stage road from Hartford to Middletown, just outside of the village of Rocky Hill, stands the old mansion of John Robbins, built A.D. 1767, date over the doorway and it was kept as a tavern during the Revolutionary days. George Washington stopped there on his journey through Connecticut. The old site is still preserved in the family. Its devise was an equestrian representation of the duke of Cumberland. Mansion is still well preserved. I saw the old signboard that had been pierced with bullets during the Revolution.

It is a matter of history that in the first volunteer company that fought against the British at Charleston, Mass., there were three Robbins from Rocky Hill and Wethersfield, Conn. I neglected to say that there are two Robbins families at Rocky Hill, Conn., the Robbins with but one ?b? are sea-faring peoples always interested in ships and whaling vessels. They are English while our family came from Scotland. Royal E. Robbins was the founder of the Waltham Watch Co. or Robbins Appleton & Co. are from Rocky Hill and are relatives.

The Daughters of the Revolution are a good society and you can claim more than many of them as your ancestors were Puritans, arriving at Plymouth Rock near Hartford, Conn., in the Mayflower. The village graveyard of Rocky Hill and Wethersfield show more inscriptions on the gravestones of the Robbins than all the Iowans now living can trace back. You can tell them that three of your ancestors were in the volunteer company that fired the first volley against the British at Charlestown, Mass.; then you can refer them to the Mass. People to the Berkshire Hills where my father (silversmith) was born in the town of Pittsfield, and any one from Pittsfield will know of the Robbins family in the Berkshire Hills.

A few miles north their descendants are numerous and you may find some of them in Iowa. My father?s family (Joshua Newcomb Robbins) married Dec. 19th, 1812, started with an emigrant party from Pittsfield, Mass., in 1817, taking horses, covered wagons, bedding, etc. to the Alleghany River near the present city of Titusville, PA. There they cut down trees, whipsawed them into lumber, and built flatboats, putting horses and wagons on board they floated down the Alleghany River into the Ohio, then down to where Cairo now stands, then the men cut down trees along the river bank and with ropes, horses, men and women and children pulled the boat up the river by hand. When they arrived at St. Louis, then a small village with rail fences around the houses, there they separated, some going to Illinois and elsewhere. My father?s family, with a few others, still went up the river (Mississippi) and to St. Charles. There they abandoned their boats and traveled to the hills of what is now Lincoln County. My Uncle Prospect Robbins was with them on the journey, he settled in St. Genevieve, Mo., where he died. Your father, Charles Prospect, was named for his Uncle Prospect.

My father settled in Lincoln County and laid out the town of Troy, Mo., the County Seat, and named it in compliment of my mother who was from Troy, New York (Sarah White, born Sept. 8th, 1794). Your father and my sister Adaline and myself were born. Charlie first, Addie fourth and myself sixth, out of thirteen children.

(I believe this letter was written by George Collier Robbins)

Others have added the following to the letter:

Grandma Crummy (Sarah White Robbins Crummy) was married twice and her children were all Robbins, Charles, Adeline, George, William and Amelia. (1) Charles was Cora Fracker?s father and he married two sisters. The first wife was mother of Anna Gaines, Kate Ament, Sarah Johnson and Charles P. Robbins. (2) Adeline married Mr. Evans and Daisy, Mattie, Henry, Will and Charles were her children. (3) George Robbins had but one son, Frank. He did live in Los Angeles. Uncle George Robbins adopted brother Charles? son Charlie and daughter Mary Rowena when Charles and his wife died years ago. (4) Uncle William was married twice. His first wife had three girls, Anna (Mrs. Gordon) is in San Diego. Ada (Mrs. Hazzard) is in Hebron, Nebraska. Willie (Mrs. Blair) is dead. Charles P. Robbins? home is in Spokane and he has three girls. His sister (Mary Rowena) is in Los Angeles. Minnie Robbins only daughter Irma, Mrs. Jerome Webster, lives in Pasadena. Ca. Luella Fracker lives in San Diego. (5) The children of Amelia Robbins Ament were Joseph P Ament, Sara, Julia, Amelia, Mary C,, William Dudley, and Ellen.

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