Originally published in The Vidette-Messenger of Porter County on March 13, 1946.
Files For Post Held By Granddad In 1868
From 1868 to 1874 Samuel Putnam Robbins served as county commissioner of Porter county. Today his grandson, Joseph S. Robbins, of Portage township, is a candidate for the republican nomination for county commissioner of the North district.
Samuel P. Robbins was identified with the early life of Porter county, coming here in 1835, before the county was established. During his service on the county board Valparaiso university came into being, and the present county jail was built. The elder Robbins played a prominent part in encouraging Henry Baker Brown, then a young Ohio educator, in starting the school in Valparaiso. He favored a donation to Brown, but was opposed by the other commissioners, A.V. Bartholomew and A.B. Price.
Idea Ridiculed
Many people at the time ridiculed the idea. But Robbins persisted and won Bartholomew over to his side and Brown went on to build one of the greatest educational fronts of learning in the United States.
Joseph S. Robbins, who aspires to the county board post, was born and reared in Porter county. He is a son of Mr. and Mrs. Lewis H. Robbins, both Portage township pioneers.
Robbins has confined his public office holding to acting as a member on the Portage township advisory board and serving as postmaster at McCool for nine years.
He is married and has four children: Lewis Robbins, who lives on the old Robbins homestead near McCool, and three daughters, Miss Ruth Robbins, a deputy in the Porter county treasurer’s office; Mrs. Ralph Herren, home economics teacher in the Portage township school, and Miss Loretta Robbins, visiting nurse for the Goodfellows’ club, Carnegie-Illinois Steel company, Gary.
