Robie Ranch, like many historical farmsteads, has an array of buildings that mark different stages of development to its current date. The farmstead is a remaining section of one of the earliest land grants in Ada County. The oldest building construction is estimated at the time of its inception (circa 1868), but many agree it could be as late as the late 19th century, marking this farmstead as one of the last remaining intact farmsteads from the mid 19th century era in this area.
The Robie Ranch was the namesake of Captain Albert Hugh, aka A.H. Robie. He and partner, Alexander Rossi, owned the farmstead. Robie lived on site as the primary care-taker so Rossi rightly nicknamed the property the “Robie Ranch”.
A.H. Robie died in 1878 and the property began a series of new owners. Among them are several significant historical figures, including: John Lemp and John Gary. Most of the owners of Robie Ranch are now buried in Pioneer Cemetery in Boise, Idaho.
Capt Albert Hugh “A.H.” Robie-(namesake for Robie Creek)
-By 1862 he was a business partner with Alexander Rossi, they were primarily in the lumber industry.
-Rossi called the property/farm the “Robie Ranch” as Robie was the primary on-site caretaker.
-Son of a New York Physician, Robie moved to the Western US sometime before 1860.
-He moved to Walla Walla, WA, joined the military, and fought the Indian Wars.
-1860 married Martha Craig in Walla Walla, WA. Martha was the daughter of another famous Idahoian/Frontiersman of which there are many monuments erected. Col. William Craig was an employee of Hudson’s Bay Company and also a veteran of the Indian Wars. He was one of (if not “the) first permanent white man to settle in Idaho. He married, Isabel aka Pah-Tis-Sah, a Nez Peirce Indian. Robie’s wife and children later show up in the Umatilla Oregon Native American Reservation after his untimely death.
-26 July 1878- Albert dies in Boise, Idaho after an Indian skirmish in Baker City, OR area.
Alexander Rossi (namesake for Rossi Street in Boise)
-Born in Bavaria 10 March 1828 (one of the first Jewish Americans in the area) moved to the US when he was 18, lived three years in the Eastern US and then moving to California during the 1849 Gold Rush.
– A veteran of the Indian Wars.
-Rossi started the first Assay office in Boise, and later donated the land which the current US Government office is now located. (Note: this is no longer used as such, it is the home of SHPO).
-1870, Rossi receives a Land Grant for additional acreage at Dry Creek.
-1872 He married Adaline Seaman (namesake for Seaman’s Gulch, which Seaman I am not sure). Daughter of J.W. Seaman, another important frontiersman and sometimes Boise resident.
-He served several terms as an Ada County Commissioner.
-His funeral in Feb 1906, had an amazing attendance. The Lewiston Evening Teller stated,…” the cortege that accompanied the remains to the burial ground was one of the longest ever seen in Boise.”
For more historical information on the property, see https://tinyurl.com/y5ego2bx