Edmund Landis Hannah P. Robinson

Roland Ella Cox   Edmund M.   John Alice L. Cox Mr. Adams (?)

Nell

William W.   Louise Joseph Allyn

Josephine

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Hannah's Poems

• E.W. Robinson
• Dr. Edmund Landis (middle name unknown), born 19 Dec 1816, listed in 1850 Baltimore, Maryland census as follows: (Pg 384 ward 3) age 33, wife Hannah age 29, son Edmund R. age 4, son Roland age 2, Edmund (Sr) born in Penn, Hannah born in Rh. I. Apparently, John William is yet to come in 1850. The 1850 US census for Maryland lists no middle initial for this father, and lists a 4-year-old son as "Edm R.", but 2 obituaries of the younger Edmund, as well as that of Hannah (below) name the younger Edmund as "Edmund M." ("M" = Matthew) To confound things further, in 1887, Edmund M. named a son "Edmund R." and a picture of this son exists exists, identified on the back as "Edmund Robinson Landis".
  The 1885 Chicago city directory (microfilm P75-1459) contains 3 Landis listings :
  [1] Landis, Edmund M. physician 91 Fullerton Av house 175 Howe
  [2] Landis, John W., clk 2542 Cologne, house Hinsdale
  [3] Landis, Roland R. lawyer, 603 Opera House Bldg house Hinsdale
  The 1880 Chicago city directory (microfilm P72-1291) contains 3 Landis listings :
  [1] Landis, Edmund M. physician 80 Webster Av house 178 Howe
  [2] Landis, Hannah, wid. Edmund, house 167 Howe
  [3] Landis, Roland R. (Rickaby & Landis), 122 LaSalle house 167 Howe
  The 1878-79 Chicago directory (microfilm P72-1289) contains 2 Landis listings :
  [1] Landis, Edmund physician 260 S. Halsted house 167 Howe
  [2] Landis, Roland R. (Rickaby & Landis) 31 (age), 122 LaSalle house 167 Howe
  The 1875 Chicago city directory (microfilm P72-1286) contains 3 Landis listings :
  [1] Landis, Edmund M. physician 675 Larabee r. 167 Howe
  [2] Landis, John W., clk r. 167 Howe
  [3] Landis, Roland R. r. 167 Howe
  The 1870 Chicago directory (microfilm P72-1282) contains 3 Landis listings :
  [1] Landis, Edmund (E.M. Landis & Co.) and physician 126 N. Clark r. 768 Sedgwick
  [2] Landis, E.M. & Co. (Edmund M. and Edmund Landis) druggists, Clark se cor. Asylum Pl
  [3] Landis, Roland R. law student Hutchison & Luff r. 768 Sedgwick
  The 1865 Chicago directory (microfilm P72-1280) contains 2 Landis listings :
  [1] Landis, Edmund physician office 193 Clark r. 193 Hurlbut
  [2] Landis, Edmund M. ; clk 124 Clark bds same
  Edmund Sr. buried in Rosehill Cemetery, Chicago ; his son John, notes that Edmund Sr. died 7 May 1881. In 1964, Nell Landis wrote to Adele Landis stating "Dr Landis (our grandfather) was from Lancaster, Penn". The obituary of Edmund Sr is available, and in March 2002, David Schmucker, historian and genealogist for the Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society located records tracing the family of Edmund Landis family to 1717 Swiss immigrants.
• Hannah Potter Robinson was most likely born 16 June 1820 in Kingston, Rhode Island, though the Hazard book gives the date 1811 : see a discussion of these dates, and see 1850 census for Edmund above. Died of pneumonia 4 January 1901, in Chicago; Hannah's Cook County death certificate was obtained, but it does not reveal information on her parents. The 1900 census lists her as living with her second son Roland. Dates come from notes by her third son John.

  Much work has been done to reconstruct Hannah's childhood family, and in October of 2008, it appears certain that Hannah Potter Robinson was a great-grand-daughter of Gov. Wm. Robinson. Credit should be given to Vermont historian Doug Campbell for this suggestion. Hannah left to her descendents three items casting light on her life before marriage: [1] a high-quality photo album [2] a book of poems, and [3] a record of her birth in Kingston, Rhode Island

  [2] Carroll Flood, great-great-granddaughter of Hannah, owns a writing book dedicated "To Hannah P. Robinson presented by her brother E.W. Robinson". This book contains 36 handwritten poems dated 1842 and 1843, and a story attributed to "Willie" which was added about 1893. This writer (Tom L. McFarland in December 2003) suggests that the book was begun as Hannah prepared to move to Baltimore with her new husband, Edmund Landis, but includes memorials to Hannah's sister Sarah who died about 1843.

  There have been others named "Hannah Robinson", including a famous and beautiful "Hannah Robinson", granddaughter of colonial Rhode Island Deputy Governor Wm. Robinson through his first wife, Martha Potter, and her son Rowland (see Hazard book, footnote below).

• John William Landis, born June 1854 in Maryland [1], married to Alice E. Cox on 4 Jan 1877, died 21 Feb 1921 "at the age of 67 yrs 1 month 7 days", buried in Rosehill Cemetery, Chicago. This death date conflicts slightly with a death notice. Late in life, lived on 3rd Avenue in Hinsdale, Illinois [2] Family from Baltimore, owned lumber yard on Troup St. : the 1895 Chicago city directory lists "Landis, John W. lumber 22nd nw cor S. Morgan h. Hinsdale". The 1900 census lists him living with wife Alice (born June 1860 in Illinois), daughter Louise (born 1881 in Illinois), and son William ( born Oct 1887 in Illinois) with Swedish servant. Member of Handcock Post of GAR in Illinois. John William Landis was a member of the Christian Science Church. John William Landis left a short diary during a trip the the east coast in 1887.
• Alice Louise Cox (mother), born 1857 in Sandwich, Illinois (DeKalb County). Married to John Wm. Landis on 4 Jan 1877. Dorathy (Landis) M^cFarland (in 2000) recalls driving in Alice's electric car in Chicago when she was 5 years old, and claims Alice was a hat designer at Marshall Fields, and lived a somewhat high-society life, vibrant and healthy in 1918, but developing a foot problem which led to an early death. Alice's marriage to John William Landis gave rise to most families in this genealogy. Adele Landis (in 1964) thought that Alice might have first married a Mr. Adams, but the Illinois marriage records (recently put on line) show no such Cox-Adams marriage. The obituary of Ella (Cox) Landis claims that she was a sister to "Alice Landis Adams", which implies that Alice married Mr. Adams after her marriage to John W. Landis. Also, the Delavan cemetery lists her name as "Alice L. Adams", dying on 27 March 1924. Alice's sister Maria married Walter G. Adams in 1869, and the couple had 3 children, Lydia, Vinnie, and Albert. In February 2000, Jeanne (Landis) Illian somewhat contradicted this account, claiming that the Marshall Field's hat designer was Nell Landis, not Alice Cox; both apparently lived in Chicago. Jeanne also claims that a principal cause of Alice's divorce was an affair she had with one of her husband's brothers. The question is "which brother".
• Ella Cox, born 2 Apr 1856, married Roland R. Landis, brother to her sister Alice's first husband (!), one child Nell but no grandchildren. Buried in Rosehill Cemetery, Chicago
• Edmund M. Landis was born 4 Oct 1846 in Maryland (also see [2]), died 14 Dec 1902. His middle name (Matthew) is probably in honor of his maternal grandfather. His death notice mentions a "widow and 2 daughters". He was a prominent Chicago doctor (see Chicago city directory listings with his father, above) residing [2] at 1115 N. Clark with wife Alma (born 1855 in Ohio [2]), a daughter Ida (born Oct 1885 in Illinois [2]), son Edmund Robinson (born Sept 1887 in Illinois [2]), and 2 European-born servants. On 20 Feb 1981, Wm Kona (an archivist with Rush Medical College) writes "...the graduation date of Dr. Edmund Matthew Landis. It is 1875." Edmund M. Landis is buried in Rosehill Cemetery, Chicago. Also see wife Alma below.
• Alma (Moore) Landis, [maiden name via Mormon website] listed in 1880 Illinois census (reel T9-0197, page 107D) as age 27 years, wife of Edmund M. Landis, born in Ohio. No children listed in 1880 [1] ; in 1900, Alma and husband Edmund M. listed as living with daughter Ida (born Oct 1885 in Illinois) and son Edmund R. (born Sept 1887 in Illinois), and two 26-year-old european-born people (servants?). Husband Edmund died in 1902, and in the 1910 US census, Alma is listed as having given birth to 5 children, of whom two survive in 1910, and she is listed as living with 22-year-old son Edmund R. (but not Ida) at 939 Evanston Avenue (possibly rented) ; the son Edmund R. listed his trade as "advertising", and business as "newspapers". This raises doubts about the claim of 2 surviving daughters in Edmund M. Landis' obituary. Alma's parents both came from Ohio [2]. Roland and Hannah could not be located in the 1880 Illinois census. Alma's obituary gives her death date as 15 Oct 1926, and mentions her late husband and son, but not her daughter Ida ; the easiest interpretation is that Ida died between her record in the 1910 census and Alma's death in 1926, but other interpretations are possible. Rosehill Cemetery in Chicago lists Alma as buried in Sect. 118, lot 51, sublot 5, grave 1
• William Walter Landis, born 22 Oct 1888, married 20 Nov 1911 to Adele Mary Nenno, died 18 Sept 1952 in Milwaukee. Wife (Adele Nenno) died 3 Oct 1980 in Illinois. Two daughters, (Dorathy and Jeanne). William Walter Landis left a diary as a 13-year-old.
• Mr. Adams: Adele Landis (in 1964) believed that Alice Cox married a Mr. Adams before she married John Wm Landis, with no children before their divorce. However, no earlier (or later) marriage is on file, as noted above. Alice Cox married John Landis in 1877 at age 20, and was still called "Alice Landis" in 1904 at her father's funeral, but at her sister Ella's death in 1912 she was called "Alice Landis Adams". Alice's sister Maria married a Walter G. Adams in 1869 and bore three children; Alice is not mentioned in Walter's obituary, and it is thus likely that Alice assumed the name of one of Walter Adams' 6 brothers.
• Louise, born 1884, married to Joseph Allyn, buried as "Louise L. Allyn" on 19 Feb 1964 in the Allyn plot Delavan, Wis. Louise had a daughter Josephine, born 1910, who married Samuel Young Ramage and moved to Oil City, Penn, where she had 3 children named Diane, Ruth, and Sandra. Josephine divorced, and may have re-married, but apparently had no more children. Dororthy (Landis) M^cFarland says (in 2000) that she lived at the Allyn house in Delevan about 1928, and says Josephine and her mother Louise liked parties.
• Roland Landis was born 26 Oct 1850 in Baltimore, Maryland; married his sister-in-law Ella Cox, became a lawyer with the firm Rickaby & Landis at 122 LaSalle in Chicago. Chicago city directories of 1890 and 1895 list him living in Hinsdale. Died 5 Sept 1903 in Chicago ; buried in Rosehill Cemetery, Chicago.
• Nell, born March 1882 from 1900 census ; unmarried, lived in L.A., died 19 Apr 1968, buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills, Mausoleum (=Niche) G61090 (Columbarium of Remembrance) under the label "Nelle, age 85"; provided input to this genealogy through correspondence with Adele Landis. Nell left no children

Sources of the above information include:

1. Oral and written accounts by Nell Landis and Adele M. Landis, written down by Tom McFarland about 1964. Nell was a daughter of Roland Landis, granddaughter of Edmund Landis (Sr.) and Hannah Potter Robinson. Nell and Adele kept in touch. The name "Landis" has a long history.
2. 1880 US census ; 1900 US census ; 1910 US census
3. Birth and death dates from Rosehill Cemetery in Chicago
4. (* references in above text) the book Recollections of Olden times; Rowland Robinson and his unfortunate daughter, by Thomas R. Hazard, 1879 reprinted 1998. The book is interesting, but there are some details are undependable.
5. Mormon records
   
6. Potter Genealogy via Penny Krogstrand: Full name of the published genealogy is, "Genealogies of the Potter Families and Their Descendants in America to the Present Generation, with Historical and Biographical Sketches" Edited by Charles Edward Potter and copyright 1888 . Penny is a granddaughter of Arthur Platt Potter.
7. the book House of Robinson (1995), by genealogist Paul Bunnell, prepared in consultation with William Champlin Robinson 3rd of Massachusetts, who holds original family records from the 18th and 19th century.
8. There is a Robinson Genealogical Society, through professional genealogist Paul Bunnell, email "BunnellLoyalist@aol.com"