Thankful James Robbins (1947)

BRIGGS, JAMES, ROBBINS, WHITE, WIGHT

Posted By: Mary Welty Hart
Date: 2/21/2006 at 09:56:34

Winterset Madisonian
Winterset, Iowa
January 8, 1947

MRS. J. M. ROBBINS
Oldest Person in Madison County Dies at 101

A chapter of Madison county history was closed New Year's day with the death of Mrs. J. M. Robbins, eldest resident of the county, who succumbed at her home in Winterset at the advanced age of 101 years.

Mrs. Robbins had lived in Madison county since 1874, and was known to practically everyone in the county. Recently her advanced age had confined her closely to home, but for many years she had been active in many phases of community life, particularly in church work and the W.C.T.U.

Even in her later years, Mrs. Robbins' health remained good, and she retained her faculties to an unusual degree. She read widely, and always maintained a deep interest in public affairs.

Mrs. Robbins was the former Thankful Alma James, daughter of Willet and Serelda James. She was born in Jennings county, Indiana, on May 4, 1845. Her parents were pioneers in southern Indiana, and she spent her 101 years in the pioneer tradition.

When she was 18 years of age, she was teaching school in that faction-ridden border country during the Civil War. Her first school was in a community where every term attempted since the outbreak of the war had been broken up by factional rioting between abolitionists and secessionists. But no school of Miss James' was ever broken up. She held the respect of both sides, not only because of her teaching ability but because of her unselfish work in the community.

On Sept. 12, 1867, she was married to J. M. Robbins, who had just returned from the Civil War. They started their married life on a frontier claim in Kansas, where they spent seven years. Plagued by crop failures and heavy livestock losses in that state, they decided to come to Iowa, and made the trip here by covered wagon in 1874.

Here they settled on a farm in the Buffalo neighborhood, where they spent the remainder of their active years. About 36 years ago they moved into Winterset, where the remainder of their lives was spent in the old stone house on South First street, which is itself more than 100 years old. Mr. Robbins died in 1936.

Mrs. Robbins was the mother of 10 children, four of whom died in infancy and two others in later years. She is survived by four children: Frederick O. Robbins of Denver, Colo., Mrs. L. M. Briggs of Winterset, Mrs. Grace Wight of Big Horn, Mont, and Mrs. Paul A. White of Davenport.

Funeral services were held Sunday from the Winterset Baptist church, in charge of the Rev. W. C. Porter. Burial was made in the Winterset Cemetery.

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