robbinsf
Transcribed from "An Illustrated History of The Big Bend Country, embracing
Lincoln, Douglas, Adams and Franklin counties, State of Washington",
published by Western Historical Publishing Co., 1904.
FRED E. ROBBINS, vice president
of the White River Lumber Company's Ritzville branch, was born at Vassalboro,
Maine, August 25, 1866. His father is Oliver P. Robbins, a native
of Maine, in which state the family has been since 1710, coming there from
Cape Cod, Massachusetts. During the Civil War, Oliver P. Robbins
was a member of Company I, Twenty-first Maine Volunteers for nine months.
He is now living on the old homestead in Maine which has been in the family
for several generations. Our subject's mother was Martha (Pierce) Robbins,
also a native of Maine, and a member of the old Pierce family prominent
in the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, as well as the Civil War,
and in the commercial circles of Boston, and throughout New England generally.
She now lives with her husband in Maine.
Fred E. Robbins lived on the farm in Maine
until he attained his majority, was educated in the district school and
Oak Grove Seminary at Vassalboro, and came to Oregon at the age of twenty-one.
He was at Gardener, on the Umpqua river, where he worked fifteen months
in a saw mill. He spent three years in placer mining on Forty Mile
creek, in Alaska, with fair success after which he returned to Washington
and worked for a time in a saw mill at Hoquiam. He took a trip to
the World's Fair at Chicago and a visit to his old home, which vacation
consumed eight months, after which he returned to Washington, and in 1894
engaged in the general merchandise business at Cumberland, King county,
which he followed there for three years, then two years at Black Diamond,
Washington. In 1899 he came to Ritzville to assume charge of his
present business. He owns some mining interests in British Columbia
and Idaho, and a handsome home in Ritzville.
Mr. Robbins has two brothers and four sisters
living: Frank; Payson; Mabel, wife of E. A. Morrill; Alice, wife of Leslie
Young; Lena, wife of Clarence Pierce; and Ethel.
At Seattle, March 12, 1891, occurred the marriage
of Fred E. Robbins to Emma Mansell, a native of Iowa, and the daughter
of Mr. and Mrs. John Mansell, both born in England. Mr. Mansell is
now living a retired life at Castle Rock, Washington, his wife having died
sometime since. Mrs. Robbins has four brothers, John, Charles, William,
and Enoch.
The issues of this marriage are, Norman, Martha,
Mabel and Fred, Jr.
In fraternity circles, Mr. Robbins is identified
with Ritzville lodge number 101, A. F. and A. M., Sprague chapter, R. A.
M., Sprague, Washington, and the Concantanated Order of Hoo Hoos, Spokane.
In the first named order he is the senior warden.
Politically, he is a Republican, although
not an active party man, and enjoys the honor of being the present mayor
of his city.
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