Amherst - Quintessential Ohio

It’s Saturday. There's a demonstration show this weekend and the next at the Antique Gas and Steam Museum down the road. If I can make good progress on the Ohio genealogy book this coming week maybe I’ll switch blogs and dig out my camera to experience and share those noisy behemoths. I’ve lived here a long time and have never been to this unique museum. The weather is so beautiful – shame on me for sitting at the computer! Time to rev-up my old blog - http://sandyhikes.blogspot.com/

I’m wrapping up the third segment of Aquila’s Orchard – or to carry the metaphor -- that’s three acres of trees in the form of blogs posts. That isn’t too far-fetched. Each post in a blog is like a living organism. It acquires edits and comments and photos and songs. It can move people and be read around the world. What an amazing time to be living.

The first ‘acre’ of Aquila’s Orchard demonstrated the purpose of the blog – which is family history. The break-ground posts were a mixed bag but it is obvious that they were steering me toward Ohio.  I have three early posts concerning my Robb family, who lived in Cadiz, Ohio. That first section ended with the random choice of Sir William de Tancarville who lived from 1070-1129. He had a relationship with the Marshall family from my last year's Christmas project. I knew I could be endlessly random and needed a purpose for this Christmas.

That second acre was started  in June with entry “Ohio Pioneers” – I’d found my focus. And, that acre is chock-full of Ohio counties.  Acre number three is nearly filled with the best of Ohio YouTubes – they have been great fun. I’ve saved these two for last as they are up-beat and seem quintessentially Ohio – small towns and gatherings of good, fun loving, artistic, and sometimes reverent people.

Church Street, Amherst, Ohio 1910



Amherst Grindstone

The residents of the small City of Amherst, not far from Lake Erie and Cleveland got together to do what they called a “lip dub video” to promote their lovely town. A good portion of the town's residents skips, dances, and lip-syncs their way through the streets to a couple of oldies but goodies.  The video is a bit long in order to include everyone who wanted to be a part this great community project and well worth the few minutes to watch it. The love, enthusiasm and joy in celebrating their hometown touches me and moves me. I watch the credits, backed up by Elvis, while mopping up tears and blowing my nose. They made me smile and want to visit Amherst – The Sandstone Center of the World.

Amherst Ohio Lib Dub



The second video is one of several that points out the good and bad of Ohio. The side bar on the right includes the depressing "The 10 Worst Cities in Ohio Explained." Say it isn't so Ohio!

Top 10 Facts About Ohio



Credits:
Top 10 Facts About Ohio, Nick Uhas, YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QicVbTTz9nI
Amherst Ohio Lib Dub, Main Street Amherst, YouTube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IslkfUQa3Ic
Photos:  Wikipedia, prepared sandstone;
"English Carols" by Nikiphoros Lytras (1832–1904), Wikipedia

30 August 2012 ~ The Robb Family, pt 2

Flag of Northern Ireland

Flag of England

There is a Robb family that has been in America since Colonial days and it would be grand to connect to this well documented family – but try as I might over the years – I couldn’t find a connection.  They were of Irish or Scots heritage and that is where I was running into a problem. Our Robb’s were English transplants to Northern Ireland.

Most of the following information comes from The History of Carroll and Harrison Counties, Ohio* and without this book I’d still not have a clue. Although this is 3^rd party, hearsay information it certainly points us in the direction to search for documentation.

Charles I by Anthony van Dyck

Back in the days of King Charles I [Charles  there was a bitter rivalry between Catholics and Protestants and a bloody civil war erupted. Many English fled to Northern Ireland to escape the civil strife.  Our Robb's were apparently part of this group of emigrants.



Battle of Naseby, artist unknown

Charles I, the son of the Stuart King James VI of Scotland, was  the one king unlucky enough to be beheaded by the English people. It was probably near the end of his reign in 1642 when things were getting rather violent that the Robb’s moved into Northern Ireland. 

County Tyrone Crest

The outcome of this English migration from England to Northern Ireland is that they built lives, married other English/Irish Protestants and a bitterness grew up between them and the indigenous Irish Catholic population – a bitterness that remains today. In 1850, after 200 years our family was on the move again from County Tyrone to Harrison County, Ohio. Why Ohio? I don’t know but a research trip to Northern Ireland to fill in the gaps is in order!

Lake Tappan, near Cadiz, Ohio

First Joseph Robb traveled to Ohio alone to establish himself and start a farm. He was about 30 years old. He settled near Cadiz  in a beautiful, forested and hilly area with lakes and streams inland from the town of Steubenville in eastern Ohio. 

In 1851 Mary Ann Robb followed Joseph with some of their children. She made the very difficult decision to leave three of the boys behind in Northern Ireland (one of them three years old). No doubt they were left with family and possibly it was to insure their education. But it may be that they didn’t have the means to move the entire family at once. Whatever the reason, the boys didn’t reach Cadiz, their parents, and siblings until 1859 – 8 years later. 

After all those years you can imagine the excitement of the boys as they reached their parents – the youngest of whom may not have remembered them at all. I’m sure there was great celebration and excitement as the boys arrived and for several days great happiness. Still the farm work was ongoing. On the 5^th day after the boys arrival Joseph went out to work with a young team of draft horses he was training to harness. 

He must have been an experienced horseman but there was a lot to distract him. Maybe with the new arrivals, or in showing off for the boys he lost his concentration. We’ll never know for sure why but the harness slipped and one of the horses got tangled, panicked and in his struggle fell on Joseph crushing the life out of him.

Imagine the horror for those boys just arrived, the sadness of their siblings, and the huge task of running a farm and raising 12 children that was left to Mary Robb. Whatever the burden, she was up to it. She kept the family together and the farm going, no doubt with the help of her boys. Samuel Robb, fresh for Northern Ireland, was seventeen. He was extraordinarily successful in everything he tried and it is his biography and that of his brother, David, that give us the above information.

Samuel Robb

Far from being spooked by horses due to his father’s tragic end, Samuel was a horseman and wealthy enough to be the first to import and breed Kentucky thoroughbreds in the area. He found oil, gas, and coal on his property and purchased land as investments in several states. Three of his brothers traveled to Iowa to farm. Samuel gave it a try but saw his fortune in Ohio and returned to Cadiz to be one of her favorite sons. 

Mary Ann Robb's maiden name was Porter. The comment was that Joseph Robb, who was of English descent, married an Irish girl. It may take a trip to Northern Ireland to take this Robb or Porter family back to earlier generations. The Porter's may account for my Uncle Weldon's red hair (he was called 'Red') and the lovely red heads in my cousin Susie's family.

Susanna Cristadden -- wife of Joseph and Mary's son, John Clarence Robb, most surprisingly, can be traced much farther back. . .but for decades her last name was a stumbling block. . . 

What kind of name is that?

Photo Credits:
Samuel Robb from the History of Carroll and Harrison Counties, H. J. Eckley, William T. Perry, Lewis Publishing Co., 1921.*
Tappan Lake  - Muskingum Watershed Conservation District - http://www.mwcd.org/photos/tappan-lake
All other photos - wikipedia.com