Horace M. Robbins

Dr. Horace Maynard Robbins (1867-1947) was a Scott County physician who served as superintendent of schools from 1897 to 1899. Later in life he served as mayor of Fossil, Or.

See Also: Scott County School Superintendents
Preceded By: H.K. Pemberton • Succeeded By: George W. Cross

Early Life

Born April 22, 1867, Robbins was the son of John Hughett (1824-1908) and Lucinda Lewallen Robbins (1835-1913). His parents never married. His mother had been married to William Robbins (1832-1863), who died during the Civil War as a captain in the Union army. Following his death, she lived with John Hughett, whose wife had also died, and they had two children together. They never married because she was receiving a $25 monthly Civil War pension for her husband, which she would have been required to forfeit if she remarried.

Horace M. Robbins was a half-brother to Jasper Hughett, a prominent Robbins merchant who also served as Scott County Superintendent of Schools.

Robbins married Ella Smith (1879-1970), from Jellico, and they had two sons, Horace Maynard Robbins Jr. (1905-1992) and Kenneth Robbins (1907-1994).

Professional Life

Robbins taught school for three years before attending Maryville College in Maryville, Tenn. Later, he received his medical license from the Tennessee Medical College, a forerunner to the University of Tennessee School of Medicine.

Following his graduation from Tennessee Medical College in 1901, he and his family moved to eastern Oregon, where he practiced medicine and served as mayor of the town of Fossil.

Superintendent of Schools

Robbins was appointed Scott County Superintendent of Schools by the county court in 1897. He served one two-year term before returning to school and receiving his medical license. He was preceded as school superintendent by H.K. Pemberton, and was replaced by George W. Cross.

Robbins was one of several early school superintendents in Scott County who was from Robbins. His brother, Jasper Hughett, served as school superintendent from 1879 to 1883. William F. Lee, another Robbins man, served as school superintendent from 1887 to 1889. H.K. Pemberton, who served as school superintendent from 1893 to 1895, was also from Robbins, growing up in Wolf Creek.

Death

Robbins died July 16, 1947 at Hahnemann Hospital in Portland, Or., at the age of 80. He is buried at River View Cemetery in Portland.