Amasy Robbins Remembered by Earl G. Robbins

Earl writes: "I hope the many descendants of Amasy Robbins, Sr. and Mariah Hartwell Robbins send you stories and accounts of their lives. We are truly an unusual group of people. Grandpa could neither read or write and I doubt if grandma could. Nor could any of their ten children except the two youngest, Ollie and Dora. They attended the Needmore School a few years after grandpa and his six sons built it in the late 1880's or early 1890's. Of the thirty-five or so houses in Needmore at that time, only two or three still stand. Yet the school house is still there defying time, weather, use and abuse. It has been used as a school, church, barn, garage, home and storage house.

Grandfather Robbins was given a large tract of land, 150 acres or so, for serving in the Civil War in the place of the son of a wealthy man. When he returned from the war he built a home on it and settled into developing it by cutting off and selling the timber and getting children. When a son or daughter grew up and married he cut off a piece of it on which to build a home and raise their family. My father, Amasy Robbins, Jr., was one of them. He got seven children, one by Rose Ferrer and six by Martha Ella Davidson. All of us children pretty well grew up in Needmore, but like everyone in American during the past seventy-five or so years we and or our children are scattered off over the world and are engaged in every kind of work. And if a Robbins of our clan was noted for anything, it was WORK. We have doctors, professors and teachers, engineers, bankers, writers, civic, social and religious leaders. One Robbins is listed in Who's Who in the World and another is listed in Who's Who in America.

Yes, grandma and grandpa would be proud to know of the accomplishments of their offspring. Yet when they, their 6 sons, 4 daughters, and their many children lived in Needmore, they were looked down upon because of their lack of a little education."

Gladys writes: " I didn't know any of my grandparents. They had all passed away before I was born, as had Pop's brother George and his sister Dora.

We used to go see Uncle Amie (Amasy Robbins, Jr.) and Aunt Ellie a lot. Pop (Oliver "Ollie" Robbins) would say "Now if we can't get started by 7:00 (a.m.) we're not going". (From North Vernon to Needmore in a Model T, about 8 miles). I thought Aunt Ellie was the best cook in the world. She made the best egg noodles. She would fix all this good food -- pies, biscuits, chicken -- and have dinner on the table at 12 noon. (I'm luck to get a family dinner on the table by 2:00 in the afternoon!) They had the nicest house and it seems anytime when the weather was hot there was a nice cool breeze blowing through her lace curtains. They had a summer kitchen not connected to the house and I thought this must be like the wealthy plantation owners down south.

If the weather was good we would stop and see Uncle Dode and Aunt Rose. (By the way, Rose was related to us on Pop's mothers side also.) If the weather was bad, we couldn't get back to the lane to Dode's house. I also remember having dinner with Dode and Rose. When we visited Dode and Rose us kids would go out in the peach orchard and pick up peach seeds. Dode would crack them open and we would all eat the kernels from the seeds.

Dode used to make his own whiskey. I remember Rose would bring out a bottle and would kind of shake the bottle in front of Dode and say "Don't you want to put a little of this in you, Dodie" Then they would all have a drink. Pop got the whiskey gauge when Dode died -- I wish I knew where it is now.

Uncle Dode was pretty feeble when Rose died (a very short time before Dode). Someone had stopped to check on them and Rose was dead in the bed beside Dode and he didn't know it.

I was there when Dode died. I think Pop and Frank were there too. I was 16 years old and it was my first close up experience with death. I helped lay him out. We straightened him out on his back, crossed his hands over his chest, tied a strip of old sheet around his feet below his toes to keep his feet straight. Another strip of sheet under his chin and tied it on top of his head to keep his mouth closed and we put pennies on his eyes to keep his eyes closed.

John and Allie Rousey (Pop's Sister) lived on the road to Uncle Amie's. Many times we stopped there for a short visit on the way. It seems we went to see Pop's sisters Minnie & Janie a lot on Sunday afternoons. I only remember going to see Phillip and Mary one time. That was when he was burned badly trying to put out a fire in one of his fields. I remember one trip to Scott and Minnie's when they lived out by Butlerville. We had to go up a big hill. Pop made all of us get out of the car and walk up the hill. The boys (Leo and Leon -"Bud") had to walk behind the car with a big rock in case it started to roll back down the hill they could chock it with the rock.

Pulling out memories, I am sure they are intertwined with stories I have heard, but my pictures are so vivid I can see Dode with us cracking peach seeds, see Allie and John, him with a cancer on his face that looked like raw hamburger, Phillip sitting in a chair in his yard with his hands, face and head all bandaged from the fire, Minnie and Janie's houses, that hill we had to walk up to visit Uncle Scott & Aunt Minnie and certainly the big house with the summer kitchen. I can still feel the cool breeze and taste those egg noodles.

I lived it, or it was stories I had heard, or both, but they are my sometimes happy, sometimes sad, but precious memories of very important people in my life. I was many times blessed to have all of them.

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