Program

Hometown Heritage®

Subject

People, Site

Location

110 St.Elmo St, Windsor, NC 27983, USA

Lat/Long

36.000064405688, -76.949052531456

Grant Recipient

Chowan Discovery Group

Augustus Robbins was born on March 1^st, 1842, in Bertie County, North Carolina. He was said to have been raised in the Choanoac (Chowanoke) Native American community of Gates County, North Carolina. As a multiracial person of color, Robbins was also welcomed by the African American community.

By February 1862, the Union Navy controlled nearly all of the Chowan River. This, along with a strong record of Union victories, allowed the Robbins family to travel to Fort Monroe in Hampton, Virginia. Augustus, his brother Parker, and their cousin John Robbins enrolled in the Second Calvary U.S. Colored Troops in January 1864. Soon after, Augustus married Leah Cooper. The Robbins brothers were both promoted to Sergeant that month and shipped off to battle. In February 1864, Augustus suffered a back injury while in active duty when a bomb exploded and he was thrown from his horse. He testified about this injury in 1893 to receive pension benefits through the Pension Act of 1890. Augustus went on to participate battles including those at Suffolk, Virginia, Drury’s Bluff, and other skirmishes outside of Petersburg and Richmond to break Confederate lines until the end of the war. The Second Calvary was transferred to Texas in June 1865 to secure Confederate holdouts and abolish remaining enslavement. Augustus held the rank of Quartermaster Sergeant when he was mustered out of service on February 12, 1866.

Augustus then returned home to Bertie County and started a family. His son, John Robbins, was born in 1867. Augustus Robbins became a heavily involved political leader during the Reconstruction era. He was elected as a Bertie County Commissioner in 1868, when just a few years prior, people of color were barred from running for elective office. Robbins was also elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives in 1881. He was appointed postmaster of the town of Windsor in 1889 and proceeded to run for the Register of Deeds a few years later. Augustus Robbins presided over a local Republican convention in 1896 and was lauded for his “fairness and impartiality” (“Untitled,” 1896).

Along with his involvement in the political sphere, Robbins also worked as a carpenter, merchant, and mechanic. He received a construction contract to build a jail for Bertie County in 1898. Augustus also worked at a grocery store later in life.

Augustus Robbins went on to serve the community through the St. Elmo Baptist Church. He was said to have acquired land and helped found the church in 1887. He served as a secretary, deacon, and Sunday school superintendent at St. Elmo. Robbins passed away on July 10^th, 1928, and was buried in a plot in the front yard at the same church.

Sources:

Untitled. (1896, April 23). Windsor Ledger.