Adelaide Julia Walker was born in Xenia, Ohio. Her father went West in the Gold Rush, leaving her mother with four small children. He and his wagon train never returned. It is thought they all died of cholera. Mrs. Walker married again. When the Civil War broke out, she and her daughters, Helen and Adelaide went to the Tripler General Hospital in Columbus, Ohio – worked as nurses through the war. Son, Thomas, paid someone to take his place in the war. After the war they came to Minneapolis where Adelaide became teacher and later principal of Marcy School.
Andrew Robbins and Adelaide were married in 1869 – went to live in Wilimar, Minnesota. When they decided to return to Minneapolis after 14 years, they stored their household goods ready for shipment in the railroad station which burned down and they lost everything. Mrs. Robbins loved flowers and knew the botanical and Latin names for those she grew. She and daughter, Edith, spent two months seeing Europe with her Tourist Club in 1899. Mrs Robbins was a very demanding person – a good talker and rather set in her ways. Mr. Robbins was said to have the “patience of Job”, as it seemed to take forever for his wife and five daughters to get ready to go anywhere. Her brother, Thomas B. Walker, was a prominent, wealthy lumberman of – the owner of the Walker Art Gallery in Minneapolis. She passed away in 1929.
-This material was gathered from the North Hennepin Post and the diaries of Ellen M. Bisbee, (sister of J. P. Shumway and Nathan F. Russ J. P. Shumway). It was compiled and edited by Evelyn and Esther Shumway for a Robbinsdale Historiocal Society slide show in 1980.
