David L. Robords was born in the town of Amsterdam, 

 Montgomery Co., N. Y., Oct. 24, 1799. He is eldest in a 

 family of eight sons and five daughters of Charles and Mary 

 Robords, the former a native of New Jersey, and settled in 

 Montgomery County prior to his marriage, where most of the 

 children wore born. He removed to Steuben County, and 

 settled in the town of Howard, now Avoca, in 1813, and took 

 up one hundred acres of timber land. At that time what is 

 now Avoca was almost an unbroken wilderness. The remain- 

 der of his life was spent clearing off this land, together with 

 fifty acres more which he had purchased. He died in 1830, 

 aged fifty-one. His wife survived him some thirty years, and 

 died at the age of eighty, in the year 1860. Yery many of their 

 children settled in the town of Avoca, and are farmers. Their 

 names are as follows : David L., Andrew, Ichabod, William, 

 George, John, Barney, Mrs. Artemus Dunton, Mrs. Wm. 

 Dunton, Mrs. Yestus Allen, Mrs. Edward Allen, and Mrs. 

 John Nipher, of whom only four are living. 



Mr. Robords resided at home until he was twenty-two 

 years of age, and being the eldest son assisted his father very 

 much in clearing off the forest and preparing his land for 

 cultivation. He never enjoyed the advantages of an educa- 

 tion from books ; but possessed of a large degree of native 

 talent which, brought in contact with necessary privation 

 and hardship in the early settlement of the town, is only 

 increased. 



In 1821 he settled on one hundred acres of land for him- 

 self. In 1822 he married Betsey, daughter of David Dun- 

 ton, of this town, and began lite in the log house. All of 

 the incidents common to the pioneer were the lot of this 

 couple ; yet with a will to accomplish whatever they under- 

 took, and make their beginning a success, Mr. and Mrs. 



Robords entered upon the future with willing hands but no 

 money. 



He is now in his eightieth year, and can trace his life back 

 through some sixty-six years as a resident of the neighbor- 

 hood where he now lives ; he remembers the continual war- 

 fare carried on with the wolf and other wild animals, in the 

 protection of domestic animals, in which, during his leisure 

 hours, he had pleasant pastime with his gun in hand, and he 

 relates the fact of killing as many as eight wolves in one day. 



A rehearsal of such thrilling incidents to the youth of to- 

 day fires the young heart with a love for the early days and 

 the pioneer life, in strange contrast with a beginning of a 

 business life in 1878. 



Mr. Robords has spent his life as a thrifty, enterprising 

 farmer, and in the same vicinity where his father first 

 settled. 



Always interested in local and national matters, he has 

 valued the right of suffrage as a boon of the American people, 

 and has been connected with the Whig party, and is now a 

 member of the Republican party. He is one of the old land- 

 marks that point to the early days, and very few, if any, have 

 been spared to live so long in the town as he, and contribute 

 as members of society to the general welfare of its citizens. 

 He is known for his sterling integrity in all business matters, 

 and for his broad and comprehensive view of the various 

 beliefs held by men of the times. His wife died Oct. 4, 1866, 

 at the age of sixty-three. 



Their children are seven sons and six daughters, viz. : 

 Charles, Mrs. Lyman Perry, Helen (died young), John, 

 Joshua, James, Mrs. Edward Allen, Racher (died young), 

 Cyrus, Aaron, Mrs. Alvin Wood, Marvin, and Mrs. Harvey 

 Fox. 



