One of the influential citizens of Foster township, Marion county, is the
gentleman to whose career attention is now directed, and it may be said that
the agricultural interests of the county have few if any more able
representatives.
Francis M. Robb was born in Kinmundy township,
Marion county, Illinois, the present site of the village of Kinmundy,
September 22, 1847, the son of Samuel and Agnes (Pruitt) Robb, the former of
Tennessee and the latter of Virginia. Samuel was the son of Eli Robb, a
native of Tennessee, who came to Marion county, Illinois, in 1820 and
settled where Kinmundy now stands. He secured land which he converted into a
valuable farm and made a comfortable home here, where he died in 1854 of
cholera. He was one of the pioneers of this county. He was a Democrat and a
member of the Presbyterian church.
Samuel Robb, the father of the
subject of this sketch, was twelve years old when his father, Eli Robb, came
to this county, the former receiving only a limited education and lived the
rest of his life on a farm in this county, owning a large tract of land, and
he was a stock dealer. He was a strong Democrat and was well known
throughout the county, and his death occurred in 1881. The subject's mother,
Agnes (Pruitt) Robb, was the daughter of Robert and Martha Pruitt, who came
to Marion county in a very early day, about 1812, settling in what is now
Meacham township, where they got government land, but later went to
Missouri. Samuel Robb and wife were the parents of nine children, namely:
Francis M., our subject; Martha, deceased; William, deceased; Permelia; Eli,
deceased; Robert, Mary, Edwin, and an infant, both deceased.
The
subject has spent all of his life in Marion county, where he received only a
limited education. He has always been a farmer and is considered one of the
best in the township by his neighbors. He first got government land in
Kinmundy township, and in 1882 moved to Foster township, where he now lives
and owns two hundred and forty acres on which he has made all the
improvements and which he has developed into a very fine farm, being well
fenced, and the crops have been so skillfully rotated that the original
richness of the soil has been retained. He has a substantial and pleasant
home, a convenient barn and many good out buildings.
Mr. Robb was
united in marriage in 1867 with Julia Lowe at St. Louis, Missouri, the
daughter of Samuel and Margaret (Arnold) Lowe, both now deceased. They were
natives of Tennessee, having come to Marion county, Illinois, at an early
date, locating on a farm in Foster township.
Eight children have
been born to the subject and wife, named in order of birth as follows:
Hattie, the wife of J. Arnold; Delia, the wife of Charles Doolen; Margaret;
Agnes, the wife of Emmet Jones; Emma the wife of Guy Arnold; Lulu, the wife
of Frank Jones; Ella, who died in infancy; Eli, who married Josie Ballance,
a farmer.
The subject and wife are faithful members of the Methodist
Episcopal church. The subject is a loyal Democrat, and was Supervisor of
this township for two terms. He has also held other minor local offices. He
is a faithful member of the Masonic lodge at Kinmundy.
Mr. Robb is
honest in all his dealings with his fellow man and public-spirited, and he
has many friends in Marion county.
Extracted 27 May 2019 by Norma Hass from 1909 Biographical and Reminiscent History of Richland, Clay and Marion Counties, Illinois, pages 528-529.