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Submitted by: Margaret Robe Summitt
Email address: verirood@frontier.com
 

Husband: Truitt Kendall ROBE
Birthdate: 16 January 1869
Birthplace: Cass County, Missouri
Death date: 29 Nov 1949
Place of death: Seattle, King County, Washington
Father: William Ristine ROBE
Mother: Mary Jessimah BOWEN

Marriage date: 25 November 1891
Marriage place: Granite Falls, Snohomish County, Washington

Wife: Ella Daisy TURNER
Birthdate: April 1874
Birthplace: Kansas
Death date: 29 January 1966
Place of death: Wenatchee, Chelan County, Washington
Father: William M. TURNER
Mother: Martha HENDREN

CHILDREN

Child No. 1: Mildred Mary ROBE
Sex: F
Birthdate: 12 November 1895
Birthplace: Robe, Snohomish County, Washington
Death date: August 1975
Place of death: Wenatchee, Chelan County, Washington
Marriage date: 1916
Marriage place: Granite Falls, Snohomish County, Washington
Spouse's name: Chester LEE

Child No. 2: Doris Martha ROBE
Sex: F
Birthdate: 28 May 1897
Birthplace: Granite Falls, Snohomish County, Washington
Death date: March 1977
Place of death:
Marriage date:
Marriage place:
Spouse's name: Mackinley LABAR
 

Documentation: !Birth: History of Skagit and Snohomish Counties,
Washington. One of the founders of Granite Falls, Snohomish, WA; the town
of Robe beneath Mt. Pilchuck in the Stillaguamish Valley is named for
him. Part owner of the Robe-Menzel Lumber Co. with property so. of
Granite Falls. In 1892 when the railroad was being laid through the
Valley, he met the chief engineer in charge of the work, also named Robe,
a son of Major Robe of Ft. Vancouver. This civil engineer claimed to be a
distant cousin, saying that the Robes originated in Massachusetts, then
moved south, one branch (his) settling in Maryland and the other
(Truitt's) in West Virginia. His engineering proved faulty; a graduate of
the top civil engineering school (probably Iowa State) in the Midwest, he
pooh-poohed locals' warnings about floods, calling the Stillaguamish
nothing more than a "trout stream." Laying the roadbed along its banks
proved a disaster; major washouts occurred so frequently that in time the
railroad was abandoned. (source: History of Skagit and Snohomish
Counties). West of Granite Falls is the small hamlet called Loch Sloy,
named for the Loch Sloy Lumber Co. Also a Cranberry Creek flows through
Robe. I wonder if Truitt K. Robe had a hand in these names, as Loch Sloy
is the motto of Clan Macfarlane, of which the Robes are a sept, and the
clan badge is the cranberry. Patricia Lee Hilscher told me via phone 4
Dec 1997 that this engineer's name was Charlie Robe, and that the family
connection was not so distant as suggested here. She also has heard that
the Robb/Robe family belongs to Clan MacFarlane, as a small family that
was taken under the clan's protection. She has a book on the Macfarlanes
that says this. She thinks this Charlie Robe came from Illinois--I recall
a quote from the Everett Herald in Philip Woodhouse's book Monte Cristo
about the wife of the engineer, newly arrived in the railroad
construction camp from Chicago.
!1900 Census, Snohomish Co., WA (Granite Falls P.O.). Supervisor's Dist.
285, Enumeration Dist. 217, sheet 9 (22 Jun 1900). Occupation: Lumberman.
Was in WA St. Legislature 13th session with Gov. Lister & Speaker Taylor
(ca. 1913); Patricia Lee Hilscher has a photo of him with these
gentlemen. See Renfro, Alfred The Fourteenth Session p. 234; N 328 W2736
1915 (call no.)
!Polk's 1911 Everett & Snohomish Co. Directory lists Truit K. Robe as
vice-pres. of Coast Ice & Cold Storage Co. Inc. and a resident of Granite
Falls. Patricia Lee Hilscher says that Truitt was a kind, gentle man, and
was only heard to swear "damn" once, when a cock Chinese pheasant that
was a long-time visitor to the area was shot in a front yard by some
boys. Had snowy white hair. Patricia (granddaughter) sent me photos 1998
giving middle name Kendall.  He was very well-read and smart.  He had a
sheep ranch in Friday Harbor.
!Marriage: 1900 Census says couple had been married 8 yrs.  Snohomish
County Marriage Certificate Book A, p. 19 (stamped page 67B).  Married by
Presbyterian Rev. J.W. Dorrance.
!Death: cremated; ashes in Wenatchee with his wife's grave, as told to me
by Patricia Lee Hilscher. Died of rectal cancer.  At the time of death he
was a resident of Friday Harbor. His ashes were first taken to Friday
Harbor for interment, then to Wenatchee at the time of his wife's death.
"perhaps one of the reasons that the extremely difficult task of building
the railroad into the mountains went so quickly was the fact that it was
built straight up the six-mile long Stillaguamish Canyon, which the
eastern engineers in charge of the project opted for against strong local
advice (especially that of M.Q. BARLOW, who urged a more expensive-
initially-overland route) since the canyon provided the steadiest rate of
descent out of the mountains.  The easterners pooh-poohed the warnings of
how wild the canyon would be in flood, calling it nothing more than a
'trout stream.'  They were wrong.  They ran the railroad through a series
of seven tunnels and three bridges as they worked their way up the river,
but in September 1892, before the rails were even laid through it, Tunnel
#7 collapsed.  On November 18, a flood through the canyon washed out the
right-of-way, whose rails had not even been laid yet.  The flood was a
warning.  It was ignored.  Everything was rebuilt and in September 1893
the first train chugged into Monte Cristo."