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CHARLES BURTON ROBBINS is a native of Iowa who
has packed into a life of a little more than fifty years a
heaping measure of experience, service and achievements,
representing not only an exceedingly busy but a most useful
career.
He was born on a farm near Hastings in Mills County, Iowa,
November 6, 1877, son of Lewis and Harriett E. (Benson)
Robbins. The earlier generations of the Robbins family were
found in New England, and members of the family were soldiers
in the Revolutionary war. His grandfather, Joseph Robbins, was
a miller at Nelsonville, Ohio, and Lewis Robbins also followed
that occupation in Ohio until his marriage with Harriett E.
Benson. She was born at Buffalo, New York, but before her
marriage had taught school in Nelsonville. Her father, James
Benson, was a native of England.
On coming out to Iowa Lewis Robbins took up a homestead in
Mills County, and made a good farm out of it. He remained in
Mills County until March, 1893, when he moved to Lincoln,
Nebraska, and died in that city in October, 1893. The mother
passed away in May, 1896.
Charles Burton Robbins spent his early years on an Iowa farm,
attended country schools in Mills County, was a student in a
private school at Hempstead on Long Island, and in 1898 took
his A. B. degree at the University of Nebraska. Shortly before
graduating from that school America declared war on Spain, and
on April 27, 1898, he enlisted as a private in Company B,
First Nebraska Infantry. On May 10, 1898, he was promoted to
first sergeant, and on June 17th left San Francisco for the
Philippines. The regiment participated in the battle of Manila
on August 13, 1898, and was engaged in duty during the
Philippine insurrection from its outbreak until June 18, 1899.
All told, the regiment participated in twenty-eight battles,
more than any other regiment in the Philippines. Colonel
Robbins was cited for gallantry on February 5, 1899, and was
wounded in the head at the battle of Marilao, March 27, 1899.
He was commissioned a second lieutenant April 24, 1899, in
Company I of the First Nebraska Infantry. He accompanied the
regiment in June, 1899, and the regiment was formally
disbanded in August of that year. After leaving the army
Colonel Robbins did some post-graduate work in the University
of Nebraska and in April, 1900, started on a trip around the
world, revisiting the Philippines, and at the close of the
trip entered Columbia University at New York, where he won his
Master of Arts degree in June, 1903. While in New York he was
a member of Company C, Seventh Regiment, New York National
Guard, from 1901 to 1903.
He studied law while in Columbia and after returning to Iowa
entered the law offices of Grimm, Trewin & Moffitt, at Cedar
Rapids. He was admitted to the bar in October, 1904, and then
became junior partner of Grimm, Trewin & Robbins. His time and
abilities were taken up by private practice until July 16,
1909, when Governor Carroll appointed him judge of the
Superior Court, and he was on the bench until 1919. His
service on the bench was distinguished by something more than
the able conduct of the routine of office. It was he who
instituted juvenile court work at Cedar Rapids, and he was in
large measure responsible for getting through the Legislature
the contributing dependency act, the Perkins law and widow's
pension act, all important pieces of legislation in Iowa
social welfare.
Judge Robbins for many years has been known as an authority on
insurance law, and since 1905 has been associated with the
Cedar Rapids Life Insurance Company, being general counsel and
chairman of the executive committee of the board of directors until 1914, and since that year president
and general counsel of the company. He is also a director of
the Cedar Rapids National Bank and the Cedar Rapids Candy
Company.
His military record did not close with his service in the
Philippines. He was captain of Company D of the First Infantry
of the Iowa National Guard from 1914 to 1916. On November 2,
1916, he was commissioned major in the adjutant
general's department of Iowa, while on duty on the Mexican
border. From August, 1917, until May, 1919, he was major and
adjutant of the Sixty-seventh and later the Sixty-ninth
Infantry Brigade, with the United States Army, and was with the American Expeditionary Forces during 1918-19. In 1921
he was commissioned a major in the United States Reserves,
lieutenant-colonel in 1923, and colonel in 1926, and is now
colonel and commanding officer of the Three Hundred Forty-ninth Infantry. Colonel Robbins was chosen
commander of the Iowa Department of the American Legion in
1922, and in 1924 was civilian aide to the secretary of war
for the Citizens Military Training Camps.
In 1928 he was called to Washington as an assistant secretary
of war, and served in that capacity until March 5, 1929. When
he left his post in Washington, after a year of service, the
department employees voted him the most popular man who had ever held an assistant secretaryship, and
subsequently the seven major general in charge of the Army
Supply Department presented him with an American flag in
appreciation of his work. In commenting on this signal
recognition of one of Cedar Rapids' citizens, a local
newspaper editorially said: "In other ways Colonel Robbins
achieved a remarkable record during his short term of service
in Washington. Hanford MacNider had set an enviable
record, but Colonel Robbins kept well abreast of it. He could
see no reason why the Government should be victimized just
because it is supported by taxpayers. On one occasion the
department was to sell one and a quarter million
uniforms. The assistant secretary discovered that all of the
bidders had gotten together on their bids. The plan was to
split the profits. The uniforms were promptly withdrawn from
sale and later were disposed of at an increase of several
hundreds of thousands of dollars above the former high bid.
"Col. Robbins' skillful maneuvering also is responsible for
the appropriation of $250,000 annually for three years to
furnish tanks for the army, and mechanize it in other ways.
His own experience in war taught him the importance
of tanks and motor trucks. Doubtless his keen appreciation of
army needs contributed to the high esteem in which he is held
by the generals. He brought to his post a rare combination of
business ability and first-hand knowledge of military affairs.
Add to this his knack of making friends and getting things
done and you have the secret to his brilliant record as
assistant secretary of war."
Like many other very busy men Colonel Robbins has a hobby. He
is collecting old coins. He is a Republican in politics, a
member of the Universalist Church, a member of the Iowa State
Bar Association, Iowa Historical Society, Delta Tau Delta
fraternity, and is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason,
also belongs to the York Rite bodies, the Independent Order of
Odd Fellows, and is past exalted ruler of the B. P. O. Elks.
He is a member of the Sojourners Club of Washington and was
twice president of the Cedar Rapids Commercial Club. While
with the organization he was chairman of the committee that
started the movement, later became chairman of the election
committee, for the bond issue to provide for the Memorial
Building. The result is the million dollar building that is
one of the finest war memorials in the country, serving a
great utilitarian purpose as a community center of Cedar
Rapids, being used as city hall, Chamber of Commerce quarters,
armory for the National Guard, club rooms for the Grand Army
of the Republic and Spanish War Veterans, and also as a civic
auditorium. Colonel Robbins is president of the American Life
Convention.
He married, September 19, 1903, Miss Helen Larrabee of
Clermont, Iowa, who died August 9, 1919. Her father, the late
William Larrabee was the distinguished Iowan, educator,
author, manufacturer, farmer and banker, member of the State
Senate, and with a career culminating as the twelfth governor
of Iowa. He was also the first president of the Iowa state
board of control. Colonel Robbins has two daughters, Anna
Marcella and Julia Larrabee, both at home, and one son, Lewis
Frederic, a student in the State University of Iowa. |
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~ source: A Narrative History of The People
of Iowa, Edgar Rubey
Harlan, LL. B., A. M.,
Chicago and New York, 1931
~ transcribed and contributed by: Debbie Clough
Gerischer, Iowa History
Project |
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