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Killing of Dick Robbins

Michael has a BA in History & American Studies and an MSc in American History from the University of Edinburgh. He comes from a proud military family and has spent most of his career as an educator in the Middle East and Asia. His passion is travel, and he seizes any opportunity to share his experiences in the most immersive way possible, whether at sea or on the land.

Brown County, Texas

    About 1858, Dick and Aaron Robbins and John Jones were out hunting deer about three miles east of Regency in Hanna Valley on the Colorado. This territory is now in Mills but was then a part of Brown County. They discovered and followed an Indian trail to a point about seven miles north and a little west of Regency, where they ran on three warriors. In the fight that followed, Dick Robbins was killed almost instantly and John Jones wounded in the breast with an arrow. This forced Aaron Robbins and John Jones to retreat, leaving the dead body of Dick Robbins on the ground. The Indians took his buckskin breeches and then later killed a work steer of Ichabod Adams, who lived near the present location of the city of Brownswood. After eating a part of this animal, they left the buckskin breeches of Dick Robbins and then departed for the wild northwest. Mr. Robbins was buried where he was killed and John Jones recovered.

    Ref.: Author interviewed Harve Adams, and others who were living in Brown County about this time or shortly afterwards.

The above story is from the book, The West Texas Frontier, by Joseph Carroll McConnell.

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