PIONEER OF THE WEST

NANCY MARYLAND COREL (LAHAY) DOBBINS

March 27, 1834-November 6, 1917

Las Animas Leader, Nov. 14, 1917

Las Animas, Colorado

Transcribed by Bobby Dobbins Title

Mrs. Nannie Dobbins, one of Bent county's pioneer citizens, passed away at the home of her son, R. G. Dobbins, last Tuesday evening, after a gradual failing in health due to extreme age.  The funeral service was held from the home on Seventh and Grove avenue on Thursday afternoon, the Rev. Eugene B. Kunts, D. D., officiating.

Mrs. Dobbins was born in Virginia, March 27, 1834, and at an early age moved to Kansas, settling near Lawrence.  Here she witnessed much of the border strife that made the history of that state.  She was a witness of the sacking and burning of Lawrence in 1856 by Quantrell and his band, and many other atrocities and wrongs of those stirring times.  In 1867 she was united in marriage with James S. Dobbins, to which union three children were born – Mary, who died in infancy; Robert G., cashier of the American Sugar plant here at Las Animas; and Scott W., who preceded his mother to the grave but a few weeks.  They continued to live near Lawrence until 1875 when they came to Bent county and settled near Rule Creek, 14 miles east of Las Animas.  With the coming of the railroad shortly after, the Santa Fe tracks were laid through their home and corrals, necessitating a removal.  For several years they resided at Fort Lyon, then a big frontier post; afterwards they settled on land just east of the Purgatoire and engaged in the stock business.  In 1904 Mr. Dobbins died, and Mrs. Dobbins then resided for several years with a sister, Mrs. Olive McGee, at Kansas City, Mo.  Some three years ago, on account of rapidly failing health, she returned to live with her son, R. G. Dobbins and family, in her declining years.

Passing away at the ripe age of 83 years and 7 months, with a residence in the west of nearly 10 years and in Colorado 42 years, would classify Mrs. Dobbins as one of the pioneers of the Great West.  What she has seen in her long lifetime, the things that made history for this great frontier of a great nation, would make a volume more interesting than a romance.  She was the type of woman that helped to make the development of the west a possibility.  Well educated, rugged of health and born with the fortitude that enabled her sex to undergo the hardships of the frontier and to face its dangers, both physical and mental, w\she went through life never shirking her part in any scheme of events no matter what it might be.  To such pioneers of the early days (…..) all that our county now is, for their fortitude made all things that followed, possible.

The many friends of Mrs. Dobbins during her lifetime, and of the family left behind, extend their deepest sympathy to the bereaved relatives at this time of sorrow.

-o-

"Nannie," as the family called her, was married first to Francois (Frank) LaHay, in Kansas.  They lived near what is now the Clinton Lake.  Two children were born to that marriage, son Ollie and daughter Ella, but unfortunately Frank died in 1863 while in Missouri and both children died in 1864.  At that time, Nannie moved back to Lawrence, where she lived with her sister Olivia Corel McGee and family.  The McGee's lived next door to the Dobbins family....

Nannie was my great grandmother.

MUSIC AND THE JAPANESE BEETLES

TRABER NORMAN DOBBINS

1896-1952

"He was a Renaissance man," his daughter Carolyn wrote to me when I reached her to find out more about my dad's cousin Traber.   I had heard of "Cousin Traber" all my life; as well as Cousin Percy, both of whom were sons of "Uncle Gaston."  My dad had left Colorado in 1930, and there were no relatives from his side of the family who followed.  Thus, when I started researching my family's history, everything "Dobbins" was new to me.

Traber was born in Las Animas, Colorado on November 25, 1896.  His mother died when he was two, and he was raised by his dad and stepmother, along with a half-brother, Percy Dobbins.  The Dobbins family were very musical.  Gaston and his brother, Scott, were both musicians, playing horns in the Las Animas City Bands for many years and also belonging to the Colorado Springs "Midland Railroad Band."  As an adult, Gaston worked as an accountant in the local beet factory, but his passion throughout his life was music, teaching music and leading bands.  Traber followed his father's footsteps in music, early learning to play the clarinet, saxophone and well as other wind instruments.

Below is a picture of Traber in the Las Animas band circa 1910.

Traber enlisted in the Navy in March 1918 and served as a musician, 2nd class, in the Naval Band at the Naval Hospital, Ft. Lyon, Colorado, until his discharge in February of 1919, according to his obituary.

But why daughter Carolyn called him a Renaissance Man was that over his lifetime not only was he active in the music field but he was interested and knowledgeable about  all wild life (particularly birds and wildflowers), and high school and college sports of all type (football, hockey, basketball, bowling, etc.); he received a medical certificate from the U of Mississippi in 1924, his BS degree from Mississippi State College in May of 1927, and a MS degree from the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas in May of 1932, having completed courses in entomology, bacteriology, pathology, physiology, chemistry and physics and at various times was an instructor in schools of higher learning.  In addition, in 1932 he was appointed a field aid in the Division of Fruit Insect Investigations, Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine, and in 1940 was assigned to the Japanese Beetle Labratory in Moorestown, New Jersey. 

  

He was still actively engaged in his many interests at the time he unexpectedly suffered a heart attack and died in 1952.  He left a wife, the former Vera Pruitt, and three children, Robert Norman, Carolyn and Beverly.  He was buried with military honors in the National Cemetery at Beverly, N.J.

NOTE:  Traber Norman Dobbins had a second cousin named Traber Norman.  Their Grandmothers, Nancy Corel Dobbins and Mary Corel Puckett were sisters.    My dad's grandma was also Nancy Corel Dobbins.

WILLIAM'S ONE!

William Stevenson Dobbins

April 28, 1821 to January 25, 1847

            As a genealogist, I often run into people from the past who seem to have left very few footprints to follow.  They exist on paper in a minimal way, and except for the genealogist, might very quickly move past the "Immortal Nobody" category. 

            That is the way I would describe William Stevenson Dobbins, born in Ohio in 1821, who was the youngest child of Robert and Catherine Dobbins, the youngest brother of 7 siblings, and  eventually the husband of Sarah Brand. 

            He did nothing important enough to get written up in a county history book, although if he hadn't died at the young age of 25, he might have distinguished himself in some way.  In fact, many researchers have wondered if a William S. Dobbins was even a part of the family.  He was not given any property by his father like all the other children received; and he was not mentioned at all in the Session Minutes of the Bennington Presbyterian church, whose membership list included every member of the Dobbins family and whose pastor was his own father.   

            Some researchers wondered if perhaps he was simple-minded, thus not in a position to be treated like all other family members.   He was buried in the Dobbins Cemetery, but the stone was silent.

            In my research I found two important issues:  In an old Family Reunion paper dating from 1911, this story was handed down. " It was customary then to have wood cut for Sunday use on Saturday by the boys.  At one time, when he was away on one of his long trips, the boys failed in this duty.  The father returned on Saturday and sent his son Will out to chop the needed wood.  He did not hear the axe, and went out to see what was the trouble and overheard the following soliloquy:  'R. B. D.  Roaring Big Devil – this is a hell of a work.'  To the boy’s astonishment, the father appeared, saying, 'Tut, tut, tut.  I’ll teach you to take your father’s name in vain – to the woodshed we’ll go.'" 

            In all my research done over the last 40 years on the Dobbins family, this is the only time William was ever given a body and a personality, albeit one of a bratty teenager.  In a county history book there is a single line that said a William Dobbins married a Sarah Brand, but no documentation of that fact in the county courthouse marriage records turned up.

            William remained an immortal nobody for a long time because another researcher and I, both on the trail of this young man, failed to move on a probate file in the county for what appeared to be a person by the name of William L. Dobbins, not Willian S. Dobbins – in spite of the fact that sometimes old handwriting "L"s and "S"s are confused with each other.   

            When I finally decided to try one last time to either "rule in" or "rule out" this man by taking this final step, I sent for, and received, a William Dobbins' probate records.  One paper showed that his widow, Sarah Brand Dobbins, turned over her appointment as executrix for her husband's estate to Robert B. Dobbins.   And in this probate material it became obvious that William's middle initial was "S" -- for Stevenson, his grandmother Dobbins's maiden name – Elizabeth Stevenson Dobbins.

            William is truly an immortal nobody.  He will not be remembered for anything he did – except act like a brat and be so immortalized in an unpublished family reunion paper and sent to me by a Dobbins still living in Illinois.  But he did acquire enough worldly goods by farming the land that there was need for probating his estate when he died at age 25..  He left a wife, but no children.  His tombstone is in the Dobbins Cemetery (now the Clemens Cemetery) in Fulton County Illinois. 

            I do believe that is enough for William Stevenson Dobbins to take his place here in my Immortal Nobodies blog.