Butler County Genealogy Trails Kansas Wilbur Robbins Bio

BUTLER COUNTY'S EIGHTY YEARS BIOS

WILBUR E. ROBBINS

(Transcribed by Lori DeWinkler)

Wilbur E. Robbins, local agent of the Santa Fe Railroad Company the past twenty-nine years, high in the councils of El Dorado business men, honorary life member of Patmos Masonic lodge and excellent citizen, was born in Bear Branch, Indiana, September 9, 1868. He has been a resident of this city since April 28, 1905.

Concerning Mr. Robbins and his long connection with the Santa Fe Company, The El Dorado Times recently said, editorially: “During all of this long and honorable period, Mr. Robbins has not only been a faithful and intelligent employee of the company, but has been a loyal citizen to whatever community in which he was located. The greatness of the Santa Fe, which has placed it in the first rank of railroad systems of the world, lies not in its rolling stock, tracks and equipment, not in the marvelous territory it serves, not in the machine-like efficiency it has created and maintained, but in the loyalty and high-mindedness of men like Wilbur Robbins who serve its interests. The devotion of forty-four such years as Mr. Robbins has given his company is a priceless entity, one like that faith which moveth mountains.”

Mr. Robbins was sent to school in Bear Branch, but quit at 15 years of age to learn the stonecutter’s trade at Osgood, not far from his native town. Three years later, or in 1886, the family removed to Kansas, settling at Brownell. He immediately obtained a job as clerk in a general store and remained there for eight months, while he learned railroad telegraphy, under W. J. Pratt, agent at Brownell for the Missouri Pacific. He secured his first position as telegrapher at Coronado, Kansas, on the Santa Fe, February 26, 1890 and has continued in the employ of that company ever since, or for the last forty-four years, now being one of the four oldest, in point of seniority, in Kansas. The records of the Santa Fe show Mr. Robbins’ service with the company as follows: Coronado, February, 1890, to March, 1890; Geneseo, March, 1890 to April, 1890 (all as relief operator); Coronado, April 1890 to April 1891 (beginning of his services as regular operator and agent); Bazine, April 1891 to August, 1891; Scott City, August 1891 to August, 1894; Dighton, August 1894, to July 1899; Chase, July 1899, to August, 1894; Dighton, August, 1894, to July, 1899; Chase, July, 1899, to August, 1902; Belle Plaine, August, 1902 to June, 1903; Division Relief Agent, Newton, June, 1903 to April, 1905; and agent, El Dorado, April, 1905 to the present time.

Mr. Robbins not only has grown and developed with El Dorado, which he found upon his arrival to be an agricultural center of about 2,000 people, but he also has grown and developed with the Santa Fe, which, forty-four years ago, was serving two states, but now is serving virtually all the great Central and Southwest and perhaps is the most scientifically organized railroad system in the world. He has been constantly active in promoting the industrial and civic welfare of El Dorado and affiliates with the Chamber of Commerce and other organizations. He is a thirty-second degree Mason, with his Blue lodge enrollment at Patmos, where he has been formally presented a life membership because of outstanding service. His other Masonic connections are the El Dorado Commandery, No. 19; El Dorado Chapter, No. 35, R. A. M. Augusta Council No. 20, R. & S. M., Wichita Consistory, No. 2; and the Midian Shrine Temple, Wichita. He is a communicant of no church, but was brought up in the Baptist faith and prefers the doctrines of that denomination. In politics, he is a Republican.

He is of Scotch and English descent and is the son of Daniel K. and Olive (Weaver) Robbins. Of his paternal ancestral line, Daniel (W. E. Robbins’ father) was a native of Indiana and a physician, practicing in Indiana and Kansas. Dr. Robbins was the son of Thomas Robbins, a native of New York and an Indiana farmer for the greater part of his life. Thomas was the son of Peter Robbins, a native of New York and who followed the trade of a millwright. He was the son of Asher Robbins (great-great-grandfather of W. E. Robbins), was born in Scotland and came to America as a young man, settling in Connecticut in 1740. He was the founder of the family in America. The Robbins were “fighting patriots” and served in the various wars which America has furnished for every generation—Dr. Robbins served with the Indiana troops in the War Between the States; Peter Robbins, son of Asher, was a Revolutionary soldier fighting with the New Englanders. Peter Robbin’s brother, Daniel, was the founder of the present McKisson & Robbins wholesale drug company,New York City, and the oldest business of its kind in America. W. E. Robbins’ mother, Olive (Weaver) Robbins, was the daughter of David Golay Weaver, native of New York, who, by his marriage to Eliza Campbell connected the Weaver and Campbell families, among the more numerous and widely known of the Old Dominion. David Golay Weaver was born in New York state June 21, 1809, and was the son of Jacob and Charlotte (Golay) Weaver who settled in the Ohio River valley of southern Indiana near Vevay, where, with other French and Swiss families they planted vineyards and engaged in grape culture which was the principal industry in that section for many years. Jacob came to New York from Holland during Colonial days and his wife, Charlotte Golay, emigrated from Switzerland during that period. Eliza (Campbell) Weaver was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, May 10, 1815, and while still a small child, she with her parents moved to southern Indiana, settling in the Weaver neighborhood where she grew to womanhood and became the wife of David (Golay) Weaver on August 18, 1836, and where David established his home and continued to reside until coming to Kansas in the early 1880’s. To this union thirteen children were born, seven boys and six girls, and with one exception all grew to manhood and womanhood and married and reared families. A coincidence in the birth of this large family was the sex rotation, the first child being a girl, next a boy; and so on until the two last, both of whom were boys.

On December 17, 1890, Mr. Robbins was married to Miss Katherine G. Hoffman, of Coronado, Kansas. Mrs. Robbins, who was the daughter of Oratio Thomas Hoffman and Katherine (Fox) Hoffman, died March 18, 1934. The parents lived for many years in Illinois, going there as pioneers from New York before moving to Kansas in 1888. Oratio Hoffman was born near Leesburg, on the Atlantic Coast in New Jersey, and was the son of Jonathan and Elizabeth (Chance) Hoffman, whose ancestors were English people. He died at Blackwell, Oklahoma, March 6, 1919. Katherine (Fox) Hoffman, mother of Mrs. Robbins, was the daughter of David and Matilda Fox, who homesteaded in southern New Jersey in an early day near Leesburg, where numerous relatives still reside.

Two children were born of the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Robbins; Blanche, now the wife of G. R. Elliot, in charge of advertising with the Western Lithographing Company, with headquarters at Wichita, and Mildred, living at home.