Robb, Elmira Freeman – 1829-1902

FREEMAN, ROBB

Posted By: Diana Wagner
Date: 10/9/2016 at 12:55:57

Obituary
Died at her home in Newton, May 1, 1902, of heart failure, due to pneumonia, Mrs. Elmira Robb, widow of the late J. E. Robb, who preceded her about one year and a half years ago. Three children, Mary E., Wilson M. and Elmer H., were present during her last illness and are left to mourn her loss.
Mrs. Robb was distinctly a home woman – a mother. She cared little for mingling with society in general but her thought and her plans were always with and for her family, and such faults as she had were likely to be in the over-zealous care of her children. She was early a member of the Methodist church and wile of a retiring disposition, strove to lead a consistent Christian life and her life and her last hours were spent in talking of the home over the river where her husband had preceded her and where she asked her children to meet her, as she said, at the beautiful gates.
Elmira Freeman was born in Wayne county, Indiana, October 17, 1829. Her father and mother were typical of that class of rugged, hospitable settlers of that day; were well to do, surrounded by all of the comforts of a farm of the day. She was one of a large family, and their home was always open to their friends or the way-farer.
December 2, 1847, she was united in marriage to James E. Robb, and in the following spring they commenced to make a humble home on the prairies of Iowa, in Muscatine Co. Here were born to them their four children, one of whom, the eldest, Hattie A., died at the age of thirty, and was left in her last resting place in that county. Here their early trials occurred and here they gradually surrounded themselves with the comfort of life. In 1883, they removed to a farm in Jasper county and in a few years moved into a home on East Walnut Street in Newton where they remained until the death of the husband, since which time Mrs. Robb made her home with her son, Dr. Robb.
The funeral was held in the M.E. church, on Saturday, and the body laid to rest in the Newton cemetery.
Source: Newton Journal, May 7, 1902, page 2