John Morgan “Granpap” Robbins

John Morgan Robbins was born on July 13, 1877, in the hills of Menifee County, Kentucky, the son of George W. Robbins and Elizabeth Mullins. He grew up in the rugged country of eastern Kentucky, where life revolved around hard work, family ties, and the land itself. Those early years shaped the man he would become — steady, dependable, and rooted deep in his home place.

As a young man, John worked as a farm laborer, learning the rhythms of planting and harvest, livestock and weather. By the turn of the century, he was already living the life that would define him: working the soil and building a future in the same hills where he was raised.

On October 20, 1904, John married Izania Ellen “Zane” Hatton in Menifee County. Their marriage marked the beginning of a partnership that would carry them through decades of change. Together they built their home in the Leatherwood and Fagan communities, raising their children among neighbors who were often kin, friends, and fellow church members.

Census records over the years show John working wherever steady labor could be found — as a farm laborer, a sawmill worker, and later a general laborer. Like many men of his generation, he did what needed to be done to support his family, whether that meant working the land or taking on wage labor when times were tight.

During the Great Depression, John joined many other local men in working for the Works Progress Administration (WPA). A 1939 photograph places him among a large crew of Menifee County workers, a reminder that even in the nation’s hardest years, he stood shoulder to shoulder with his neighbors helping build roads and public works that would serve the community for years to come.

Land records from the 1930s show John and his wife connected to property along Hawkins Branch, further rooting the family in the familiar ground of Menifee County. Through every season of life — good years and lean ones — he remained tied to the same hills and hollows.

By the 1940s, as age began to slow him, John was still living in the Leatherwood area. Newspaper accounts even mention him as a neighbor in the community, showing he remained an active and known part of local life. By the time of the 1950 census, he was listed as unable to work, having given decades of labor to both farm and community.

John outlived his first wife, Zane, who passed away in 1954. In his later years he married again, but he remained closely connected to his children and extended family. His daughter Annie Wilson would later serve as the informant on his death certificate, speaking for him one last time.

John Morgan Robbins passed away on May 23, 1961, at Jane Cook Hospital in Frenchburg, Kentucky, at the age of 83. He was laid to rest in Fagan Cemetery, back in the soil of the county where he had been born, worked, loved, and lived his entire life.

Today, small keepsakes like his eyeglasses remind us that he was more than a name in a record. He was a husband, father, farmer, laborer, neighbor, and church member — a man whose life was woven into the land and people of Menifee County.

Granpap’s story is not one of grand headlines, but of something just as important: a life of steady work, quiet strength, and deep roots in home and family.