Robbins, Jerome John, 1841-1921.

Physician from Matherton, Michigan who served as medical steward and assistant surgeon with the Second Michigan Infantry during the Civil War.

Jerome J. Robbins was born on August 28, 1841 in Jefferson County, New York to John A. and Lorinda (Wales) Robbins; his mother died in 1845. In 1855 he moved to Michigan with his father and stepmother, who purchased land in Sumner Township, Gratiot County. From the ages of eleven to seventeen Robbins did not attend school in order to help on his father's farm. In winter 1859 he attended school at Matherton, Ionia County, and the next fall he studied at the Collegiate Institute at Leoni, Jackson County.

Along with several classmates, in April 1861 Robbins enlisted in the Second Michigan Infantry for three years of service. He mustered into Company I on May 25, 1861. Robbins began as a private in the hospital dispensary, later becoming a hospital steward. He was promoted to Assistant Surgeon on March 11, 1865.

When the Union Hospital at Savage Station fell into rebel hands on June 29, 1862, Robbins refused to leave his patients. He was taken prisoner and spent the next six months at Camp Parole in Annapolis, Maryland. After his release in December, 1862, he rejoined the Second Michigan for the march across Kentucky and Tennessee. During 1863 winter quarters in Tennessee, Robbins received a one month furlough which he spent in Michigan. Robbins re-enlisted, and mustered on January 1, 1864 at Blain's Cross, Tennessee. He was honorably discharged at DeLaney House, D.C., on July 28, 1865.

Following his discharge, Robbins returned to Michigan where he married Harriet (Hattie) S. Farnum, on September 3, 1865 (a variant spelling of Harriet's name is "Farman"). Having begun his study of medicine during the last two years of the war, Robbins entered the medical department at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in the fall term of 1865. He received his diploma as a Doctor of Medicine on March 27, 1867, and moved to Hubbardson in Ionia County, where he built a successful medical practice, adding a drug business in 1880. Due to ill health Robbins gave up his medical practice in 1886, and in 1887 he purchased land, and turned to lumbering and farming in Ferris Township, Montcalm County, Michigan.

He and Hattie had three children: Ford P., Myrtle and Mabel. Jerome J. Robbins died in 1921.