James C. Robb

JAMES C. ROBB, M. D. The indispensable service performed by the competent physician and surgeon is the chief claim Doctor Robb makes upon the general esteem of the community of Fowler in Meade County, though he is also a druggist and one of the live and enterprising men depended upon for the success of any community movement. Doctor Robb located at Fowler April 20, 1908, and at once took up the practice of medicine and engaged in the drug business. His predecessor was Dr. E. T. Robinson. Doctor Robb is now the only active practitioner in that locality.

Doctor Robb was born June 11, 1879, in Lee County, Iowa, and grew up on a farm not far from Keokuk. His grandfather was born in Pennsylvania, and prior to the Civil war went west to California and engaged in sheep raising in the south central part of the state, where he spent his last years. His name was Hamilton D. Robb. His five children were: Lewis C.; Mary, who married Frank Peck and died in Arkansas City, Kansas; John, who lives in California at his father's old location: Nora E., wife of Robert Gilmer, of Arkansas City, Kansas; and Emma E., wife of Charles Rambo, of Hamlin, Texas.

Lewis C. Robb, father of Doctor Robb was born near Allentown, Pennsylvania, but left that state when a youth and went to Missouri, settling at Kahoka. From that vicinity he enlisted for service in the Union army in the Seventh Missouri Cavalry and was orderly sergeant in Captain Spellman's Company. His regiment served in General Grant's western army, was in the fight at Athens, Missouri, and was wounded at Lone Jack, being shot through the bowels with a musket ball. That bullet he carried in his back the rest of his life. He joined the Grand army of the Republic and was an active participant in its affairs. Immediately after the Civil war he located in Iowa and was a successful farmer of Lee County. He died there in 1902, at the age of sixty-four. He was very earnest in his membership and affiliation with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, serving as noble grand of his lodge and frequently attending grand lodge sessions. He was a devout member of the Presbyterian Church. Lewis C. Robb married Ruth Berry. She was born in the State of Ohio, just outside the City of Wheeling, West Virginia. Her father, Thomas Berry, moved from there to Lee County, Iowa, and was merchant and postmaster at Vincennes. Mrs. Lewis C. Robb is now living in Arkansas City, Kansas, at the age of seventy-four. Her six children were named: Jessie L., who married Dr. G. L. Sargent, of Purcell, Missouri; Frank C., a physician at Denver, Colorado; Edward E., of Arkansas City; Esther L., widow of Ernest Sargent, of Galena, Kansas; Dr. James C.; and Effie W., wife of William Hines, of Peabody, Kansas.

Doctor Robb while a farm boy in Iowa attended the local schools, and at the age of seventeen took up his medical studies in the Keokuk Medical College. He completed his course at the end of four years and graduated M. D. in April, 1901. In looking for a permanent location to practice his profession he spent several months in Illinois and Missouri and later visited the Otoe Reservation in Oklahoma, where upon examination he was appointed physician and for 1 1/2 years was occupied in the routine duties of acting as Government physician to the Indians and to the whites on the reservation, and also as medical supervisor of the Indian schools.

From Oklahoma Doctor Robb moved to Kansas in 1903, and for five years was engaged in professional work at Ashton in Sumner County. He was also an active member of the Sumner County Medical Society. From Ashton he moved to his present location at Fowler.

Doctor Robb married at Ashton Miss Lola L. Shelhammer. Mrs. Robb was born in Johnson County, Kansas, in 1885, daughter of W. Perry and Lula (Post) Shelhammer. Her father was a native of Pennsylvania, of German ancestry, as was also his wife. Mrs. Shelhammer died in 1905. They married in Johnson County, Kansas, and Mr. Shelhammer is now a farmer at Ashton. His children are: Mrs. Robb; Walter H., who is in a Kansas Infantry Regiment in the World war: Cash, city engineer of Fowler; William, of Ashton; Dorothy, wife of Ralph W. Dewell, of Fowler; Archie, twin brother of Dorothy, is a United States cavalryman; and Miss Catherine, of Fowler.

Doctor Robb is a member of Meade Lodge of Masons and is prominent in Odd Fellowship, being a past noble grand and has been a member of the Kansas Grand Lodge. He is member and physician to the Local Camp of Modern Woodmen of America, and belongs to the auxiliaries of all three orders. He has aided in the examination of applicants for army service, and is officially identified with the Red Cross work of Meade County. Mrs. Robb is one of the most active members of the Methodist Church of Fowler. She served as president of the Red Cross organization here, and has had much to do with the auxiliary work of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Modern Woodmen, and has been a delegate to the Grand Lodge of the Rebekahs.

Pages 2196-2197.