His mother (Jemima Lewis Robey***) afterward married Phillip Moore on December 10, 1782. They traveled on horseback to Pennsylvania and settled near Harrisburg and in 1797 came to Ohio, locating in Nile Township. William was supposed to have been between 3 and 5 years old at the second marriage of his mother. Phillip Moore, his parents, and his new family all moved to Pennsylvania along with other family members.

When William was 20 years of age, he removed with his stepfather’s family from Uniontown, Pennsylvania to Portsmouth, Ohio (then called Alexandria). Here he followed the occupation of keelboatman, taking pork to New Orleans via the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. On one of these trips (which took about a year's time), he bought a pony and went to see and visit Daniel Boone. He also farmed, his farm being in the Spring Valley township. Before marriage he had lived at the Phillip Moore old stone house, known as the "Cradle of Methodism" on account of it being the first meeting house of the Methodists in Ohio.

Phillip Moore House

He was married to Mary "Polly" Collins (daughter of Judge John Collins and Elizabeth Daugherty) on 9 Oct 1807 in Portsmouth, Scioto, OH. Mary "Polly" Collins was born on 25 May 1788 in or near Washington City, VA. She died on 29 Oct 1869 in or near Austin, Travis, TX. She was buried in Merrilltown, Travis, TX. She is buried in the Bratton Cemetery.

William Robey II served Capt. Benjamin Kendall in Ohio during the War of 1812 as an Ensign of 1st Regiment of Militia of County of Adams (from which Scioto County, Ohio was formed in 1801), according to his original commission signed by Gen. Arthur St. Clair, Gov. of the Territory of the U.S., N. W. of the Ohio. His 1809 Commission states that he was elected 2nd Lieut. of a troop of horses attached to 1st Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 2nd Division of Militia in Ohio.

William Robey came to Chicago, when it was just a "frog pond," deciding to stay, but he was stricken with one of his terrific headaches and decided to return to Ohio, to settle up his debts "before he died." Later when they did leave Ohio, he would not stop at Chicago, because he knew it was destined to become a large city, and he liked to fish and hunt. His son Levi, who had just married, brought his wife, mother, sisters and brothers to Illinois in 1834 via the boat "Argus" and settled for a few months near Hennepen, Illinois.

The father came later by horseback across country and joined them there. They raised a crop of corn, sold it; and bought a team of oxen and started north to the Blackhawk country (in the fall of 1834, two years after the Blackhawk wars. Near Kellog Grove, they met a band of Indians, which so frightened the oxen that one broke away and ran all the way back to Dixon. There were many bones at Kellogs Grove, where they stayed--the remains of butchering by some other pioneers. The Robeys stayed one night at friends in Oneso and went on to Monroe, but returned to a spot near the present town of Winslow, a promotion settlement called Ransomberg, raised crops and ran Brewster's Ferry across the Pecatonica River for a year or so until 1836, living in Brewster's house nearby. Afterward, William Robey made a claim in Buckeye Township, what is now Cedarville, Illinois (it was then Jo Davies’s County, 40 miles east of Galena).

His sons Levi and John and daughter Cynthia Graves remained on farms near the ferry. Here he lived until April of 1847 among friends, one being John Adams, the father of Jane Adams of Hull House, but trouble with claim jumpers and an influx of Penn. Germans into the vicinity caused him to leave for another new country -- Texas. Of southern blood, he wrote to a friend that this country was too cold for thin people. Levi, the son who had married Almira Wait and whose mother-in-law, Lydia Kendall Wait, had followed her to Ill., decided that in all fairness he should not accompany his father to Texas. Because “Lev” did not go, neither would William Waddall. Cynthia, who married Hubbard Graves, stayed, too, but John who had married Mariah Wait, sister of Almira Wait, decided to go.

The family left by covered wagon with Levi's two oldest children and Mary Graves running after them and riding a little way them and at last waving until the wagon was out of sight. Although many trips were planned, none of these loved ones ever saw each other again, except when John C visited Illinois and once when Levi's son William visited his Uncle John who had returned to Ohio to live.

They crossed the Mississippi River and proceeded southward into the new territory. William arrived at Brushy Creek, Williamson County, Texas, on August 18, 1847. He bought land on Pilot Knob, Travis County, Texas, 1852. After that he moved to Cypress. The trip south proved very disastrous to the Robeys. The whole family, except one, grew sick when they arrived. The daughter who was 17 years old (Mary Robey) died as they reached there around September 1, 1847; also the son who was 27 (Thomas Lewis) on October 2, 1847 and John C's baby girl (Mary Lydia) on Dec. 2, 1847. The horses all died within a year of the heat, and they had to use oxen again. William Robey, in 1870, in a letter written to his nephew, William Moore of Portsmouth, OH, wrote that his son Asbury and Elizabeth narrowly escaped the "same complaint.” His son Asbury and his brother-in-law Beardsley went to California in the "Gold Rush." Asbury also went to war for the South and John C. helped the South by making gunpowder while Levi's son, Cyrus, went for the North. The family, separated and sorrowful wrote many, many letters back and forth which "the old man saved" and Cynthia turned melancholy, grieving for her people. After the war, robbers and murders were plentiful in Texas, and the Indians rampant along the Red River. In the letter mentioned above, William described Texas at this time as being "infested with thieves and robbers, more particularly since the late war. Nearly all the good horses are stolen and men are killed…" The crops were poor, but William killed deer and buffalo and went fishing to his heart's content. At the age of 80, he could slip off a horse and shoot instantly and with true aim to kill a deer or squirrel. He remained active to the end. The day that he fell and hurt his head against the fireplace, he had walked a mile. He had a marvelous memory and the grandchildren and great-grandchildren heard many a tale of pioneer days. His wife preceded him after a long and painful illness. William was the last frontiersman in the family. Ann Marshall Wiley wrote, "I've often wondered what her thoughts were as she trailed along with her husband from state to state with the few of her twelve children that remained after being reared in comparative luxury in the Judge’s home. Although his son Levi was a good shot, as were others in my family, William Robey II was the last frontiersman in my family."

The Simmons Brothers of Round Rock, marble dealers, erected a stone to the Robeys in this cemetery in 1885 in Travis County, Texas.

*Thomas L. Robey was born near Portsmouth O. on Aug. 14, 1821. He died in Williamson Co. Texas in October 1847.

**Mary J. Robey was born near Portsmouth O. on June 4, 1831. She died in Williamson Co. Texas in September 1847.