My Genealogy Hound

Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Montgomery County, Arkansas published by Southern Publishing Company in 1891.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

* * * *

William Owens Robins belongs to that sturdy, honest and independent class, the farmers of Arkansas, and is now engaged in cultivating an estate comprising 694 acres, on which he has resided since 1882, 75 acres of which he has cleared by his own efforts, this land being well adapted to the purposes of general farming. He was born in Murray County, Ga., in 1832, being the second of ten children—seven sons and three daughters— born to the marriage of Thomas J. Robins and Mary Bates, the former born in Franklin County, Ga., in 1808, and the latter in South Carolina, in 1811, their marriage being celebrated in Hall County, Ga. Later they moved to Murray County, Ga., and in 1849 came to this county and State, settling on a farm in Caddo Gap, on which both parents died, the former in 1874, and the latter in 1864, they having been consistent members in the Missionary Baptist Church for many years. William Robins, the paternal grandfather, was born in South Carolina, and died in Murray County, Ga., in 1847, his widow dying in Hempstead County, Ark., to which place she had moved in 1857. Mr. Robins was of Scotch descent, and was an extensive slave and stock trader. Julius Bates, the maternal grandfather of William O. Robins, was also a South Carolinian, but afterward became a resident of Murray County, Ga., where he farmed until his demise, in 1862, he being also a Scotch man. Although William O. Robins received a very meager education in his youth, he was naturally intelligent, and has, at all times, made the most of his opportunities. He was married in this county in 1854, to Emily, daughter of John and Mary McDonald, who were born, reared and married in South Carolina, moving soon after to Gilmer County, Ga., and in 1852 to this county, where the father died in 1857, and the mother in 1859. Mrs. Robins was born in South Carolina, and has borne her husband five children, three living. Mr. Robins at first lived on his father’s farm, then spent twenty-five years on the south fork of the Ouachita River, and since 1882 on his present farm. While residing on the south fork, fourteen years were spent in merchandising, a calling he followed for two years where he now resides. He has since followed farming, saw and grist-milling and cotton-ginning. He is a member of New Hope Lodge No. 42, of the A. F. & A. M., at Caddo Gap, and has always been public-spirited and enterprising. In 1862 he joined Company B, Gunistead’s regiment, but was afterward with Monroe’s regiment, operating in the Cherokee Nation and in Arkansas.

* * * *

This family biography is one of 37 biographies included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Montgomery County, Arkansas published in 1891.  For the complete description, click here: Montgomery County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

To view additional Montgomery County, Arkansas family biographies, click here

Use the links at the top right of this page to search or browse thousands of other family biographies.