Robinson, W. B.

BIOGRAPHIES
1905 PAST and PRESENT OF GREENE COUNTY ILLINOIS

Chicago: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co.


Page 408

JUDGE W. B. ROBINSON is proprietor of the Hawthorn Hill stock farm and is, moreover, not only a business man of marked energy and enterprise, but also a leading citizen of his community, exerting a strong and beneficial influence in public life. He was born in West Virginia, his birth occurring near Wheeling, in Mason county, on the 16th of August, 1834. His father, Gregory Baylor Robinson, was born in Virginia, and was there reared, after which he married Louisa B. Hill, also a native of that state. Removing to West Virginia he resided for some years in Mason county, there acting as overseer of a plantation on the Ohio river. In 1837 he removed westward to Illinois, settling in Greene county upon a tract of land which he purchased in Kane township. He was a carpenter and joiner by trade and was thus identified with building interests for several years. He died in 1843 at the age of fifty-one years.

Judge Robinson accompanied his parents to Greene county during his boyhood days and was reared here on the home farm. He acquired his preliminary education in the public schools and supplemented his early mental training by one year's study in Shurtleff College. He afterward went into a store at Old Kane, where he engaged in clerking for eight years. He was then appointed deputy sheriff, serving in that capacity for a year, and in 1861 he located on the farm where he now resides. This he began to cultivate and develop, and as the years have passed he has added many improvements to the property, making it one of the best farms of his district. He has since added to and remodeled the house and now has a large two-story residence, in the rear of which are good outbuildings, such as are necessary for the shelter of grain and stock. He has likewise planted an orchard, has fenced his farm, and today the Hawthorn Hill stock farm bears an excellent reputation because of the splendid condition in which it is found in every department. In connection with the raising of grain he has also engaged in the raising, feeding and fattening of stock for the market and has met with good success in this work. The Hawthorn Hill stock farm is famed for the high grade of cattle, horses and hogs raised thereon, and its annual shipments are large, bringing to the owner an excellent financial return. The farm comprises three hundred and twenty acres of land, which is free from all encumbrances, and thus Judge Robinson may well be classed among the substantial agriculturists of his community.

Judge Robinson was married at Carrollton, in 1859, to Miss Mary Burruss, who was born and reared in Greene county and is a daughter of D. N. Burruss, formerly of Kentucky. There are nine children of this marriage, of whom eight are yet living, but the first born, Louisa B., became the wife of Harry P. Van Arsdale and died in 1903. The living children are: Ada, the wife of Coleman Duncan, of Carrollton, Illinois; Nettie, who for several years has engaged successfully in teaching school in Greene county; Fannie, the wife of Clair Sharron, of Minneapolis, Minnesota; Richard B., a carpenter and joiner of Carrollton; Georgiana, the wife of Frank Burruss, a farmer living near Miami, Missouri; Lee R., a young man at home; Maria, who is engaged in teaching music; and Fred W., who completes the family.

Politically Judge Robinson has been a life-long Democrat, giving his allegiance to the party since casting his first presidential vote for James Buchanan in 1856. He has voted every four years since that time in support of the standard bearers of the party. He was elected as supervisor of Linder township and served for three years, during which time he was chairman of the board. He also served for one year as county commissioner and has been a member of the school board, doing effective service in behalf of the cause of education in his home family. He is a stockholder and was one of the reorganizers of the Greene County Fair Association. He and his wife and all of their children are members of the Carrollton Baptist church. He was formerly a member of the Masonic lodge at Greenfield, but is now demitted. His residence in Greene county covers sixty-seven years, and he is one of the few surviving early settlers. He has intimate knowledge of the history of the county from the days of its early development to the period of its present progress and prosperity, and he has always borne his full part in matters of citizenship. He is honored and esteemed by all who know him, and no history of Greene county would be complete without mention of Judge Robinson.


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