Henry J. Robinson

ROBINSON, MONTGOMERY, JACK, ALDRIDGE, TYLER

Posted By: Chuck and Joy Hanson (email)
Date: 12/13/2006 at 22:49:01

Henry J. Robinson, a prominent business man of Bentonsport and an old resident of Vernon, died suddenly on last Sunday morning. His health had been failing him for some years past and of late he has seldom ventured to come over to the store of which he was the head. He was a woolen mill artisan and worked in woolen mills up to some eighteen years ago. His last employment in that capacity was for Meek Brothers of Bonaparte.

About 19 or 20 years ago, Joseph Montgomery and H.J. Robinson purchased the store of G.W. Jack in Bentonsport and operated until the death of the senior partner in 1890 or ’91. After the demise of Mr. Montgomery, Mr. Robinson and Mrs. Montgomery, the widow of Mr. Montgomery, carried on the business under the old firm name of Montgomery & Robinson until a few years later. The business then reverted to the junior member of the firm and his wife, which has been operated ever since very successfully under the firm name of H.J. Robinson & Co. Some two years since, Mrs. Robinson died, and now he follows; so that the last one of both the firms, Montgomery & Robinson and of H.J. Robinson & Co., has gone to his reward.

H.J. Robinson was 74 years old at his last birthday. He was born in Yorkshire, England, and came to this country when just a stripling. He settled in Philadelphia, Pa., and worked there for some years after which he came west in 1856, and settled at Vernon, Iowa. He made a trip south before he settled in Vernon, and visited and worked in New Orleans and other southern cities before the civil war and saw the workings of slavery.

The funeral was held in Vernon on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 1903, under the auspices of Des Moines Valley lodge I.O.O.F., of Bentonsport of which he was an old and valued member.

He leaves three sons, Albert of Colorado, George and Henry M. of Bentonsport and three daughters, Mrs. Hattie Aldridge of Oskaloosa and Mrs. Henry Tyler and Miss Gertie Robinson of Vernon. Albert, who is in the employ of a railroad company in Colorado, could not get off to attend the funeral. All of the rest of the children were in attendance at the funeral ceremonies.

From the Mason Scrapbook owned by H.K. Redhead