Michael Robbins
Michael Robbins (1781-1870) was an early resident of Brimstone in what is now southern Scott County, Tennessee, and was the patriarch of the Robbins family for whom the community of Robbins is named.
See Also: The Scott County Lineage Project
Biography
Born in Virginia in 1781, Michael Robbins may have been the son of John Robbins (1741-1834) and Lydia Ledford (1750-1802). However, this is not conclusively proven. Different sources list different parents.
Michael Robbins married Mary “Polly” Lewallen (born around 1796 to 1802), the daughter of Anderson Grant Lewallen and Lydia Rice. The Lewallen family were the first settlers on Black Wolf Creek near present-day Glenmary.
Michael and Polly had children that included Elizabeth Emily Robbins Goad, William Robbins, John Michael Robbins, and Jonathan Robbins.
William Robbins was the first man to sign an oath of allegiance to the Scott County Home Guard during the Civil War. Because of that, his home was targeted at the Battle of Brimstone in April 1862. He later enlisted in the 7th Tennessee Infantry, a Union regiment, and was commissioned a captain. He died of illness in Kentucky in 1863.
In his book, Scott County in the Civil War, Paul Roy recounted a history of the Robbins family compiled by Mildred Troxel, stating: “William’s mother brought him to Michael Robbins and his wife with the agreement that he could live with the family for two years and if the mother had not returned for him at the end of that period, then they could keep him as their own. When the mother returned to claim her child at the end of the two years, Michael and his wife were too attached to him to give him up.”
Elizabeth Emily Robbins married Joshua Goad Jr. (1824-1910), a grandson of Abraham Goad. They settled about where Huntsville Branch empties into Brimstone Creek, where the Walker farm is located today (their daughter, Almira Goad, married Daniel Walker). They had a son, John Goad, who served as sheriff of Scott County. Their daughter, Etta Tennessee Goad, married Scott County School Superintendent William F. Lee. She was the grandmother of U.S. Congressman and Knoxville Mayor John J. Duncan Sr.
Move to Scott County
Along with the family of Joseph Griffith and the family of William Hughett, Michael Robbins was one of the first settlers of Brimstone. However, it isn’t exactly clear when he and his family moved to the small community.
The first property record for Michael Robbins is found in 1813, when 140 acres were surveyed on Brimstone Creek. That places his move to present-day Scott County sometime prior to 1813. He appeared on an Anderson County tax list in 1805. The Brimstone area was part of Anderson County in 1805, which may mean that he lived at Brimstone as early as that year.
Death
Michael Robbins died about 1870, but it isn’t known where he was buried. His wife, Polly, may have died around 1877. It’s also unclear where she was buried.