Robert Peebles Nevin, Sr

The mother for this person is WRONG on Geni, and a correct new record should be created for whoever his mother was.

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Biography. Robert Nevin was born in 1820. He was the son of John Nevin and Martha McCracken. He was baptized 11 April 1820 at Shippensburg.[1] He passed away in 1908. [2]

Robert was "born on his father's farm near Upper Strasburg, franklin County, in 1820; the day was July the thirty-first. He graduated at Jefferson College in 1842. After leaving college he went into business in Pittsburgh, but retired in a few years to give himself to literary work. He wrote for the Atlantic Monthly, the Knickerbocker Magazine and Lippincott's. With his nephew, he founded the Evening Leader of Pittsburgh, and later the Pittsburgh Times." [3]

"He was a man of fine talent. He wrote well in prose and verse. His books are not yet forgotten--his "Tales of a Traveler," his "Black Robes" and "Les Trois Rois." As a journalist he ranked very high, standing with the dozen men, East and West, who led the public thought of his day. He was also a musician of fine and high culture. One of his songs, "Our Nominee," was extremely popular during the campaign of Polk for the Presidency. Two of his poems, Ethelbert set to music: "Sleeping and Dreaming," which appears in the "Songs from Vineacre" series, and "the Boys of Sewickley Valley," composed at the close of the Spanish-American War, the words having been written in honor of the Sewickley soldiers who fell in the Civil War."[4]

He married Elizabeth Duncan Oliphant 9 January 1851 in Allegheny City, Pennslyvania. They were the parents of eight children: Jane Duncan; Walter Irwin; Hughes Oliphant; Maurice Williamson; Ethelbert Woodbridge; Robert Peebles; and Elizabeth Duncan (Lilly). Their son, Ethelbert, became a well-known composer.

In his last will and testament, which was probated 7 July 1908, he left a trust for his grandchildren Paul and Dorothy Nevin to be managed by his sons Robert and Hughes Nevin. He also named the same sons, along with his daughter, Elizabeth Nevin Standish, and his son Arthur Nevin. He named sons Robert and Hughes as trustees of the estate.[5]

Obituary:[6]

Robert P. Nevin Dead.

"Robert Peebles Nevin, aged 88, the Nestor of Pittsburg Journalism, died Sunday morning at his home, Vine Acre, Edgewood. Mr. Nevin was a son of John Nevin, of Shippensburg, and was born July 31, 1820, in this town."

"Mr. Nevin was a contributor to the Atlantic, Knickerbocker, Lippincott's and other magazines. His most important work, "Black Robes; or Sketches of Missions," and "Ministers in the Wilderness and on the Border," appeared in 1872. Mrs. Nevin was one of the first men to engage in the refining of petroleum. Lewis Patterson, a clerk in Nevin's drug store, told him of a queer-smelling oil that had been taken from the ground at Tarentum. Mr. Nevin formed the idea that this oil would make an illuminant and he subsequently obtained a supply of petroleum and first invested in a three-barrel still and contracted for three barrels of oil per week. This was sold for 60 cents per gallon, and these three barrels at that time seemed liable to overstock the market."

"In 1870, with a desire to make a place in the journalistic world for his nephew, the late Colonel John I Nevin, he purchased an interest in the Sunday "Leader," and in 1880 he founded the Pittsburgh "Times." He retired from newspaper work a number of years ago. He was the father of Ethelbert Nevin, the famous composer." Sources

   ↑ Pennsylvania Town and Church Records.

   ↑ Find a Grave Memorial for Robert Peebles Nevin.

   ↑ The Life of Ethelbert Nevin: From His Letters and His Wife's Memories, By Vance Thompson, 1913, page 8.

   ↑ The Life of Ethelbert Nevin: From His Letters and His Wife's Memories, By Vance Thompson, 1913, page 8.

   ↑ Pennsylvania Wills and Probate Records, Allegheny, Will Packets, Vol. 095.

   ↑ The Shippensburg Chronicle, Shippensburg, PA, 2 July 1908, page 3.