Robey Farm

Six generations have now enjoyed living on the Robey farm in Jackson Township in Johnson County.  Benjamin Robey arrived here from Kentucky after the Civil War and in 1870 was married to Mary Ellen Campbell.  At the death of her father, John, the Campbell farm, purchased in 1857, was joined with the land Benjamin has acquired soon after his arrival.
In 1893, when he was twenty-one, their son, William A., was given an adjoining forty acres to which he steadily added.  He was married in 1901 to Nellie Victoria Phillips, whose great-grandfather, Moses Ferguson, a Revolutionary War veteran, was a very early settler in Jackson Township, having acquired land here in 1831.  W. A. was a progressive and respected farmer with many acres of bluegrass pasture and a fine herd of registered Hereford cattle.  W. A. and Nellie built the present farm home in 1910.  They had two sons:  Waldo, a pioneer aviator, who was killed in a mail plane crash in 1929; and Frank, who took over the farm operation in 1943.
Frank attended the University of Missouri and married Anna Marie Gudde shortly after her graduation from Central Missouri State in 1930.  They operated the farm as a dairy with a first class herd of production-tested Holsteins.  Frank always had the latest equipment and was anxious to try the current recommendations for improving pastures and enhancing soil conservation.  He was active in Extension and Farm Bureau and was a director of Warrensburg Production Credit Association.  Frank and Anna had two children, Bill and Fran.  Fran has earned her Bachelor's degree from St. Mary's and her Mater's from CMSU and currently teaches in the Holden Schools.  She married Carl Stumpff and they have two children, Jim and Carla.
After Frank's death in 1962, Anna remained active in Farm Bureau, Extension, community and church affairs and managed the farm until Bill returned in 1975.
After his graduation from the University of Missouri in 1955, Bill spent twenty years as an officer in the Air Force.  In 1965, he married Marion Holland of Hasbrouk Heights, New Jersey.  Marion has degrees from Marymount College, Arlington, Virginia, and Hunter College, New York City.  They have two children, John and Kate, who are kept busy with school and 4-H activities.
The current agricultural interest for the Robey  is a herd of registered Chianina and Angus cattle which they are trying to improve by using some of the best bulls in the country.  They also plan to reintroduce some native prairie grass in the near future.