Harrison County Iowa Genealogy

HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY, IOWA, 1915
BIOGRAPHIES
Page 530
RICHARD ROBINSON

Now living retired at Minneapolis after a long career in the railroad and other forms of business service at Missouri Valley, this county, Richard ROBINSON is a native New Yorker and of a family whose various members have lived not without creditable distinctions in their respective spheres.

Richard ROBINSON was born at Argyle, New York, February 7, 1848, a son of George M. and Susanna (MCCOY) ROBINSON, natives of the same place and with the same birth-year, 1818. The grandparents, John and Elizabeth (QUA) ROBINSON, located in New York prior to the Revolution, settling on part of the original grant to the Duke of Argyle and including the site of the city of Whitehall. These good people had a most substantial line of descendants from their ten children. Five of their grandsons were at one time filling pulpits in the Presbyterian denomination. One of these, William J. ROBINSON, was at one time moderator of the church. Another, George Livingston ROBINSON, is an eminent divine and scholar, has for many years held a chair in McCormick Theological Seminary at Chicago and is one of the ablest archaeologists in the fields covered by ancient Biblical literature.

Mr. ROBINSON's maternal grandparents were Joseph and Elinor (TAYLOR) MCCOY, natives of New York. William MCCOY, father of Joseph, was a soldier in the Revolution, and in the same service was John TAYLOR, his wife's father. The MCCOYs were Scots who located in America in the early colonial period. The sword carried by William MCCOY in the war for independence is now the property of Joseph MCCOY ROBINSON of Omaha.

George M. ROBINSON, the father, was a merchant, and died in his native town in 1866 at the age of forty-six. His wife passed away the same year of typhus fever contracted while nursing her oldest son, Joseph M., who had returned home from the army with that malady. This son, as already mentioned, is a resident of Omaha, while another son, William J., lives in Chicago.

Richard ROBINSON was sixteen years of age when his parents died. With an education acquired in the public schools and academy of Argyle, he came west, locating in Farmington, Illinois, where he spent the next four years, teaching winter school, with farm work in the summers. About 1870 he was placed in charge of a box factory in Chicago, and four years later moved to Crystal Lake, Illinois, and became a manufacturer of boxes and other wooden containers for pickling and preserving works. He followed this business two years, at the end of which time, in 1878, he removed to Marshalltown, Iowa, where he became identified with the Chicago & Northwestern railroad service. Four years later the company transferred him to Missouri Valley, in the same state, where for twenty-two consecutive years he was an agent. When he had performed his last office for the railroad company, he retired to a farm in Pocahontas county, this state, lived there two years, and since then has made his home in Minneapolis.

Mr. ROBINSON was married in his native village back in New York state, June 16, 1875, to Miss Abbie M. COON. Her parents, both of Revolutionary stock, were Judge James S. and Jane (CLEGG) COON. The children of their union are: James S., George C., Marion H., Charles A., and William R., the latter of whom died in infancy. Those living are married, and there is one grandchild, Dorothy A., daughter of Daniel C. and Marion R. BENNETT, of Minneapolis.

Outside of his work in business and his domestic relations, Mr. ROBINSON has been a stanch Democrat, and while a resident of Missouri Valley served twelve years on the school board, four years as president. He is a Mason and for two years was master of Valley Lodge No. 232. He also is a member of Triune Chapter No. 81, Loyal Arch Masons.

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