Daniel Robins was born in the United States (probably New Jersey) about 1765 and came to Canada with his brother, Stephen, both of them settling in Gainsborough Twp. The name of Daniel's wife is unknown. He had seven children:

JOHN DANIEL ROBINS m. Anna Hoover

John D. Robbins was born in Gainsborough Twp. On 14 Sept 1814 and died there on 12 Dec. 1894. He married Anna Hoover in 1838. They had seven children: Henry, Carlinda, Rachel, Allen Wm., Ann Liza, Rebecca, and Idilla. Rebecca (1853 - 25 Oct. 1927) married Jacob Franklin Servos (3 May 1841 - 14 Feb. 1914) and had three sons: Allen, Alvin, and John Robins Servos.

Allen Robbins was born in Gainsborough Twp., Welland Co. on 1 August 1845, the third of seven children born to John D. Robbins and his wife, Anna Hoover. He was married in Gainsborough on 24 Oct. 1875 to Agnes Wilson, daughter of William and Sarah Jane (Chambers) Wilson. Agnes was born 15 March 1857 and died 26 September 1932. Allen died in Gainsborough Twp. on 10 June 1917.

Allen and Agnes Robbins had five children:

1. Sarah Jane Robbins (12 Oct. 1876 - 30 Apr. 1957). She married Leonard Franklin Blanchard (16 Jan. 1872 - 11 Mar. 1955) on 3 Sept. 1898 and they adopted two boys, John and Franklin.
2. Arthur Leslie Robbins (27 Aug. 1878 - 15 Apr. 1944). Leslie married Ada Willford on 28 Aug. 1902. They had four children: Vera, Orland, Lawrence, and Lawrence's twin sister, Laura, who died at birth.
3. Henry Robbins (23 Nov. 1881 - 23 Nov. 1881).
4. Amos William Robbins (8 Nov. 1885 - 3 July 1962). Amos married Pearl Wilcox on 11 June 1913. They had six children: Oscar, Lorena, Velma, Mervin, Leo, and Lelland.
5. Alice Maud May Robbins (23 Oct. 1888 - 23 Oct. 1953). Alice married Eli Wilmer Beamer on 16 June 1909. They had four daughters: Sarah, Gladys, Mary, and Audrey.

On August 7, 1902, deceased married Miss Ada Willford, and settled down on the farm on which he lived till his death. To this union four children were born, three of whom are living. Baby Laura Mildred passed away in infancy.

The late Mr. Robbins had for many years been engaged as stationary engineer at the Forks Creek pumping station here for the Michigan Central Railway Co. from which he retired in August of last year. He engaged in farming also for many years. Mr. Robbins had suffered from high blood pressure for the past few months and suffered a stroke and passed away on Saturday morning April 15th. Left to mourn their loss are his wife Ada, one daughter, Mrs. Oscar Collins (Vera) of Niagara Falls, N.Y.; a son, Orland, teacher in high school, London, and a son Lawrence, also a teacher at the Kitchener High School; three grandchildren, Howard, Leslie and Ada Collins of Niagara Falls, N.Y. Besides the family, a sister, Mrs. Frank Blanchard and a brother Amos Robbins of Gainsboro township survive. Deceased will be greatly missed by many friends and relatives in the community.

The funeral service was held at the family home, Wainfleet, Monday afternoon. Rev. James Hampson, Fenwick, pastor of the Forks Road East United Church conducted the service at the home and graveside. He read the poem "The Open Door." Festus Ingram sang a solo "Sunrise Tomorrow." The pallbearers were neighbours and friends of the family, David Farr, Lloyd Van Natter, Amos Holmes, William Brown, Charles Overholt and Earl Stayzer. Interment was in the family plot at Hillside cemetery amid many lovely floral tributes.

The funeral was held from LAMPMAN'S FUNERAL HOME in Fenwick at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, May 20th, and burial took place in the Hillside (Dawdy) Cemetery in Ridgeville immediately afterwards.

EULOGY

by Michael F. Clark

Orland Edsal Robbins was born on April 7, 1907, not very far from where we are sitting, on his family homestead in Wainfleet. He passed away peacefully last Friday, May 15, in the early evening, at Wentworth Lodge in Dundas. It is clear that Orland's lifetime spanned most of our century. His longevity, having lived about one month past his 91st birthday, is not unprecedented in his family, as his beloved mother, Ada, also lived to about the same age. Orland's father, Leslie, in his efforts to raise a lively family of three, divided his working hours between the family farm in Wainfleet and his job of many years with the New York Central Railway. I would imagine that, despite the occasional hardships, the life Orland shared with his brother, Lawrence, and his sister, Vera, growing up on the farm was a good one, and prepared them well for their adult lives, during which all of the Robbins children found considerable happiness and success.

When we look back on the early part of our century we tend to think that life was simpler then: the pace was slower and more agreeably human, needs and expectations were much more basic and uncomplicated than they are now. There was in all likelihood -- especially if one grew up on a farm -- a greater awareness and appreciation of the wonderful and mostly beneficial cycles of nature, not to mention the immense satisfaction of working on and with the land with one's own two hands. Such, I am sure, would be the case on the Robbins's family homestead during those early years. There would be hardships to overcome, as there always are, owing to uncooperative weather perhaps, or an economic climate unfavourable to farmers. And perhaps the daily round of chores and other obligations presented to the three Robbins children as they grew up the occasional hardship as well. But all in all it was a good life, a life that was strengthening and in many ways enriching, a life productive of personal confidence, a hopeful attitude, and endurance, all traits one didn't have to look far to find in Orland Robbins. I think it is accurate to say that at last, at the end of a very long and eventful life, Orland Robbins has come home.

As with all of us, of course, between the intial leave-taking and the final homecoming, there was a lifetime of personal growth and events in between. And one didn't have to talk with Orland very long before learning of the great affection -- one he shared with his brother, Lawrence -- that he had throughout his life for the field of education. Indeed, something very positive and even inspiring things must have happened within the walls of the tiny one-room school house, S.S. No. 8, he and his siblings all attended, not far from the farm, as both brothers eventually became teachers. On the last day of his earthly life, in fact, during a conversation we had in the early afternoon, Orland mentioned with great fondness, it seemed to me, a lady teacher at this school whom he obviously regarded very highly. It may be there, too, that he began to develop his lifelong love for music, in particular his skills at playing the organ. On other occasions, he spoke with considerable pride of the many hours he put in preparing lessons and marking papers and exams, all with the admirable intention of helping his students learn to the best of their abilities. To further this end he would often spend considerable time after school hours assisting students who were having difficulties. So often would his thoughts come back to his teaching career, that there could be little doubt of his genuine love for his chosen profession, and the pleasure he had in pursuing it.

Orland began his preparation for his teaching career at McMaster University. He was a member of that university's -- following its relocation from Toronto -- first graduating class at the new Hamilton Campus. He began to teach in 1933 at Welland High School, where he stayed for eleven years, after which he taught in a number of high and secondary schools about the province. For the last eleven full years of his teaching career, Orland returned once again to this area, finishing up his last full year of teaching in 1967 at Westlane Secondary School in Niagara Falls. He also taught for four months in 1968 in Mississauga. It is obvious that the attraction of this part of the province, so close to his original home location, was very strong, as he spent 22 of his roughly 35 years in teaching in this area. Orland specialized in the areas of physics and mathematics, for both of which he had a particular aptitude and love. For many of his years in teaching he also served in the more demanding roles as a department head and principal.

In addition, throughout his adult life, Orland had a special place in his heart for what we know in Ontario as cottage country, a love for the more leisurely out-of-doors that he shared with his brother and sister. Following many years in his cottage on Lake Joseph in Muskoka, a location enjoyed to this day by his son, Doug, for several more years he then occupied a cottage on Clear Lake directly across from the one owned by his brother, Lawrence. During his post-teaching life he also developed a fondness for travel, and took several extensive and rewarding trips to locations in every continent except Antarctica. I once asked him if he enjoyed any one country or trip destination over the others, and he replied that he liked them all equally, indicating perhaps the delight he took wherever he might be visiting. Many winters during his retirement years Orland spent in Florida. In fact, during this period of his life Orland appeared to give the impression of a man who enjoyed being "always on the move".

But since Orland spent so many of his teaching years and the years thereafter, especially his final ones, in this general area, it could be said that with all of his teaching moves about the province and the great stretches of time spent in cottage country and in travelling, he never really left. In his heart and almost to the very end he, in his own way, remained faithful to his roots. As age advanced, as it does for all of us, there was a notable slowing down, a gradual decrease in the abundant supply of energy he had once enjoyed. For most of his final decade Orland lived first in his own apartment and then in a special care unit at the Ina Grafton Retirement Village in St. Catharines. Since November of last year, until the time of his death, because of the individual nursing care necessary in these last months, he has resided at Wentworth Lodge in Dundas, where he has been much more accessible to the attention and loving care of my wife, Laurie, Orland's niece, who has been visiting him regularly for many years.

In this brief review of Orland Robbins's long life, it is clearly evident that in many ways fortune has smiled down upon him. He may be said to have been richly blessed throughout the long course of his life. He was in many ways a very fine gentleman. While I personally was acquainted with Orland only intermittently over the past 30 years, I got to know him more intimately over the past two years or so. There is no question that these final years were tough on Orland. While not afflicted by one of those truly crippling diseases or other infirmities one often associates with advanced age, the vigour and the energy and the mental sharpness that were once his in such abundance were no longer there as they once had been. Yet, while the pace had slowed, and was continuing to do so, it seemed to me that he met this inescapable erosion of his powers with considerable dignity and patience and graciousness.

As I have mentioned, I visited Orland on the day he passed away. I remember his quiet and friendly smile as we talked together and with a few others out on the little terrace at Wentworth Lodge. Following supper, Orland wheeled himself back to the same terrace where, in the lovely early evening, his heart finally gave out and he fell peacefully asleep in the Lord.

Orland Robbins's life has for each of us, I think, some lessons that go far beyond the classroom. In the face of the distresses and severe disappointments that come to all of us, at one time or another, he showed a remarkable zest for living. In the final years of his life, when I knew him best, there was a notable gentleness and goodness of heart -- in particular in view of the indignities that advanced age and assorted illnesses increasingly brought to him --that may have had their source, at least in part, in his lifelong association with both the United Church and the Masonic Lodge.

And so, in one sense, Orland Robbins has returned home for one final time. Here are his bodily remains, come to rest at last among the family, and the neighbours and friends and community which lovingly nurtured and helped to shape him. But in another sense, too, the spirit of Orland Robbins is returning to another home, his Heavenly Home, where I'm sure we all hope and pray that he will find everlasting joy and peace.

The following year Orland accepted a teaching position in St. Catharines. This was only a few miles away from where his mother lived, now a widow, in Niagara Falls, and it enabled him to return to the area where he had grown up and spent most of his life. Had he known that his brother Lawrence, also a teacher, would be moving to Windsor at the same time that he was leaving, he probably would have remained in that city.

Douglas attended Maywood Public School for grade one through eight and his father and mother both taught Mathematics at the St. Catharines Collegiate. By the time he was ready to enter High School his father had left the Collegiate to teach at Thorold High School but his mother was still at the Collegiate, so it was the Collegiate that he attended instead of Lakeport which was in his own area. It was a fortunate move, for the school boundaries were changed the following year and those in his neighbourhood who started grade nine at Lakeport found themselves transferring to the Collegiate for grade ten. While in High School Douglas was an honour student and was active in the Concert Band and Yearbook Staff. He received his School Letter at the same time that he graduated from grade 13 as an Ontario Scholar in 1970.

Doug's mother and father had both graduated from McMaster University, so there was never any doubt in his mind as to where he would study upon graduation. He lived in residence for the four years and graduated Magna Cum Laude with an Honours Bachelor of Arts in English. Continuing to follow in his parents footsteps, he prepared himself for a teaching career by returning home to St. Catharines where he earned his Bachelor of Education degree from Brock University in 1975.

His first teaching position was as a grade 7/8 teacher of Mathematics and English in Aurora. He stayed in this position for only one year. Having developed an interest in helping those students with special needs, he next worked for Browndale in Midland, an organization that operates family group homes for children with behavioural problems. Though he enjoyed this work, his first love was still teaching and, when he learned that a new private school was to open in Alliston for learning disabled adolescent boys, he applied for and was granted a teaching position. His prior teaching experience and the leadership abilities he demonstrated, he was soon carrying out the duties of a vice principal at Sheila Morrison Schools. After the first year, the three teachers travelled to Pride's Crossing, MA where they studied at Landmark School, part of the Learning Disabilities Research Foundation, under Dr. Charles Drake. A year later Douglas was placed in charged of a new junior school that was opened in Lefroy, Ontario.

Wanting to return closer to home, he left the Sheila Morrison Schools in 1980 and within a year had purchased a large old farmhouse and founded a private school of his own for learning disabled children….Triumph Schools. Though the enrollment was quite small, his students did well with the individual attention they received, often advancing two grade levels in a single academic year. Douglas struggled to keep his school open for ten years, but when government funding to private schools ended, it became no longer financially feasible to run the school and it had to be closed.

Douglas met Allana Forest in 1982 and they were married in the Chapel at McMaster University on June 30^th, 1984. On February 20^th of the following year their son, William Douglas Robbins, was born at McMaster Medical Centre.

After closing the school in 1993 Douglas did some supply teaching for a time and after that was Literacy Co-ordinator at a local Native Centre for two years. He and Allana are now divorced and his son Billy lives with her in Nova Scotia. Douglas still owns the large 200 year old farm house that he bought in 1980 and continues to make it his home. He has carried out extensive renovations to the property over the past several years and derives a great deal of pleasure from his house and his garden.

Though he spent over twenty years in the field of education, he has in recent years been devoting more and more of his time to the research and publication of genealogical resource materials. He is the publisher of more than 40 books on this topic and has created a database of over 55,000 names which he makes available to fellow researchers.