Allegany County MD Biography Augustine ROBINETTE, 1841-1919 File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Donald W. Nazelrod [donnie1@atlanticbb.net] ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/md/mdfiles.htm ************************************************ The following compilation contains three parts; a biography of Augustine Robinette, “Aunt Kate’s Cabin” by Augustine Robinette and Augustine Robinette’s Memoirs. Biography of Augustine Robinette. Augustine Robinette, who created these documents, was born 13 November 1841, on the Murley’s Branch, in eastern Allegany County, Maryland. He died 16 June 1919, at his home, 15 3rd Street, NE, Washington, D. C., and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery (Sec. S Div Site 4219). A brief notice of his death appeared in The Washington Post of that day (p. 16), and his obituary was published in The Washington Times on Wednesday, June 18. As Augustine reports in the second of these documents, he married on 24 December 1873, to Agnes E. Boole. Agnes was the daughter of Leonard H. and Nancy F. Boole, and was born in New York in December 1851 and died 9 January 1927, in Montgomery County, Maryland. She also is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Augustine was the son of Jasper Robinette and Jemima Wilson, who were married in Allegany County, by license of 7 March 1839. As Augustine writes in his first ‘memoir,’ Jemima was a young widow, having been married to Jarius W. Robinette on 24 June 1830. Jarius, the son of Capt. George Robinette (of Nathan) and Cassandra Burton Robinette, died ca. 1835, in a logging accident, leaving Jemima the mother of one living son, Jarius W. Robinette. Although Augustine makes no mention of it in his writing, Jasper appears to have been previously married, to Jemima’s first cousin, Maria North, the daughter of John North and Jemima’s aunt, Susanna Cheney North. Maria apparently died shortly after this marriage (for which a license was issued in Allegany County on 8 January 1838), and 14 months later Jasper married Jemima. Since there were no children of this marriage it is possible that Augustine would not have been aware of it. Having a half-brother, Jarius, by his mother’s first husband, he would of course have known of this marriage. Jasper was the son of Amos Robinette and his wife, Dorcas Wilson Robinette, and Jemima was the daughter of Asias Wilson and Mary Cheney Wilson. Whether Jasper and Jemima lived on their own after their marriage or lived in the cabin with Amos and Dorcas is not clear, but after Jemima’s death it does appear that Amos and Dorcas took Jasper’s two sons, John B. (born August 1840) and Augustine to raise. The son of her first marriage, Jairus Robinette, was raised by his maternal grandparents, Elias and Mary Wilson, who were the Wilson grandparents Augustine would write about taking him for rides in the first buggy in that area. Augustine’s father remarried after Jemima’s death, by Allegany County license of 15 April 1845, to Mary Wilson. When the 1850 federal census was taken for the Flintstone area, John B. and Augustine were enumerated in Jasper and Mary’s household, next to that of Amos and Dorcas. This would suggest that the boys were living with their father and stepmother, but the tone and content of these two ‘memoirs’ makes it sound as though their grandparents in fact raised them. In 1860, the federal census lists 18 year old Augustine, again living in his father’s household, but his brother, John B. Robinette, was enumerated next door, in the household of his grandparents, Amos and Dorcas Robinette. Augustine’s stepmother is not mentioned in either of the documents Augustine produced. When she died, however, Augustine was the only one of Jasper’s children to be mentioned in both her obituary in The Washington Post (28 June 1898, p. 3) and the one in The Cumberland Times, (27 June 1898). This would suggest that she may have held him in high regard. Augustine’s maternal grandfather, Asias Wilson, wrote his will in 1858 with a bequest of $150 for Augustine. When Asias’s will was probated in 1869, both he and his brother, John B. signed waivers of their bequests, having received their money from their grandfather before his death. This may have been where Augustine money got the money he used to leave Allegany County, and go to Iowa. As the ‘biography’ relates Augustine enlisted in the Union army while in Iowa, and later was transferred to Co. I, 3rd Regiment, Potomac Home Brigade. Images of the diary he kept while in the service can be viewed at the Washington County, Iowa, GenWeb Internet site. The ‘biography’ briefly covers this period of Augustine’s life, as well as his life after his return to Allegany County and his move to Chester City, Pennsylvania. Agnes’ parents lived in Chester, where her father, a shipbuilder, was the superintendent of John Roach’s shipyards, and was a fairly prominent member of the community there. On 29 June 1874, the New York Times reported that the Pennsylvania Military Academy (now Widener University) had conferred the (honorary) degree of Doctor of Physical Arts on Capt. L. H. Boole, of the John Roach & Co. Shipyards. Boole does not appear to have used the Doctor title during his lifetime, but his family applied it to him after his death. Augustine was frequently styled as ‘Prof. A. Robinette,’ in articles in the local newspaper, and as his biography reports was a teacher in the Chester City schools, principal of Chester High School and Superintendent of City Schools. At the end of the 1877/1878 school term there appears to have been some question of the individual school board member’s authority overriding the authority of the superintendent, and Augustine’s services were terminated at the end of that school year. However, in early 1879, the Chester City Board of School Directors had 1000 copies printed of a booklet that Augustine had written, titled A History of the Educational Institutions of Chester City, PA, together with reports of the public schools for 1877 and 1878. Augustine appears to have moved to adjoining Berks County, Pennsylvania, to continue his teaching career. His family was enumerated there in the 1880 federal census. Augustine and Agnes, and their children Carolie, Rosalie, and six month old Leonard H. Robinette were residing at 41 N. Third Street, in Reading. While in Berks County, Augustine had another book printed, by Benjamin F. Owen, a Reading printer. The Practical Gauger was a 57 page book that included tables and diagrams, and was a technical book, more in line with the one written by his father-in-law, L. H. Boole, The Shipwright’s Handbook and Draughtsman’s Guide. Sometime after 1887, when their youngest son was born in Pennsylvania, the Robinettes moved to Washington, D. C. The actual date is unclear. In 1890, A. Robinette was recorded in the city directory for Washington, D. C., living at 712 5th Street, NW, working as a clerk; in 1891 Augustine Robinette was living at 19 Grant Place, NW, working in the Census Office. A 1902 newspaper story about Augustine’s son, Fred, says that he had lived in Washington for eight years, or since 1894. Augustine’s obituary also states that he had lived in Washington for 25 years (or since 1894) and that he had been at the Pension Office for 20 years. It is possible that Augustine came to Washington and worked for a few years before his family joined him there. By September 1906, the Robinettes were living in their last home at 15 Third Street, NE. On 26 September of that year, an article ran in The Washington Post (p. 9) about complaints that H. W. Selah, of 17 Third Street, had made to the commissioners about the barking dog belonging to Fred G. Robinette at 15 Third Street, resulting in a “night made hideous.” Captain Daly of the 9th Police Precinct investigated the matter, and Robinette promised to keep his dog inside at night. Although Augustine had left his home county shortly after the war, he appears to have remained in contact with his family. He was remembered in his father’s 1892 will, and as stated previously, he merited mention in both of his stepmother’s obituaries, in 1898. On 15 August 1908, the Cumberland Evening Times reported, in it’s “Personal and Social” column, that “Mr. And Mrs. Augustine Robinette of Washington D. C.” were visiting “friends in this city and county.” (p. 8) In April 1903, Augustine’s ten-year old niece, Mary Olive Robinette, joined his household. Mary was the daughter of Augustine’s half-brother, Addison Robinette, who although he is not mentioned in his mother’s obituary, did survive her. Addison’s wife, Morenda Robinette, died in 1902, leaving Addison with a new baby and three other children under 8 years old. Overwhelmed, Addison placed Mary in Augustine’s care. His daughter Rosalie was still living at home and could help Agnes with the young child. Mary Olive attended Central High School in Washington, where she met James Clark Edgerton, whom she would marry in 1918, with the ceremony being performed at her uncle’s home at 15 Third Street, NE. Lieutenant Edgerton was one of the aviation pioneers who piloted airmail from Washington, D. C. to New York. After Augustine’s death Agnes continued to live at 15 Third Street, NE, with some of her children. When the 1920 federal census was taken, on 6 January, 68 year-old Agnes’ household included not only her two unmarried sons, Leonard and Howard, but also son Fred and his wife, Lillian, and their three children, and Augustine’s niece, Mary Olive Edgerton and her husband, James, and their young daughter, Muriel. In July 1921, Agnes applied for a permit to erect a cement block garage at the rear of 15 Third Street, NE, to cost $750, and at least one son, Howard, continued to live in the house until after his mother’s death. Agnes appears to have left her Washington home before her death, and resided with her daughter Rosalie, in Montgomery County, Maryland. The certificate for the 9 January 1927 death of Agnes Boole Robinette was filed in that county. Augustine and Agnes Boole Robinette’s children were: 1. Carolie Claribel Robinette, b. November 1874, Chester County, Pennsylvania, d. 1 May 1919, at National Homeopathic Hospital, Washington, D. C., private funeral services at Wright’s Chapel on 2 May, 1919; m. Alle Nelson Dobson, 24 September 1903, Washington, D. C. Alle, the son of Dr. Hervi A. and Josie M. Dobson, was born ca. 1874, in the District of Columbia. Issue: Eleanor Robinette, b. 17 March 1904, Maryland, d. 6 February 1994, Brookline, Massachusetts, attended the University of Wisconsin, m. 22 December 1951, in Massachusetts to Leslie John Kewer, b. 21 January 1891, d. 13 October 1966; Henry Leonard Robinette, b. ca. 14 February 1904, in Maryland, d. 7 October 1911, Kensington, Maryland, aged 5 years, 7 months and 23 days. 2. Rosalie A. Robinette, b. April 1876, Chester County, Pennsylvania, d. 24 March 1952, at her home, 3041 Sedgewick Street, NE. Like her sister, Carolie, Rosalie was a schoolteacher in the District of Columbia schools, but Rosalie never married. 3. Leonard H. Boole Robinette, b. Nov. 1879, Chester County, Pennsylvania, d. 23 July 1957, Bedford, Massachusetts. Leonard began working at the Woodward and Lothrop Store when he was 12 years old, and retired after 57 years service in 1949. He had served as executive secretary to four Woodward and Lothrop presidents. Leonard, who never married, appears to have lived with his sister Carolie’s daughter, Eleanor Dobson Kewer, before his death. 4. Fred Garfield Robinette, b. July 1881, Berks County, Pennsylvania, d. 16 January 1935, at his residence, Lanham, Maryland. Fred m. 30 June 1908, in Washington, D. C., to Lillian Hoover, daughter of Dickerson N. and Annie Hoover, b. ca. 1883 in the District of Columbia, d. 5 July 1956, Lanham, Maryland, bur. Fort Lincoln Cemetery. Lillian was a sister of FBI director, J. Edgar Hoover, and her son Fred was for a time associated with that organization. Issue: Dorothy H., b. 30 June 1910, District of Columbia; Marjorie Anne, b. 2 March 1914, District of Columbia, Fred G. Robinette, Jr., b. 11 October 1919, District of Columbia 5. Howard A. Robinette, b. June 1883, probably Berks County, Pennsylvania, d. 1 February 1949, Prince Georges County, Maryland. Howard m. sometime after 1920 to Sadie F., who d. 3 December 1960, Kenwood, Prince Georges County, Maryland, bur. Cedar Hill Cemetery, Suitland, Maryland. Howard was a stamp dealer in the District of Columbia, for more than 25 years “The Washington Philatelist,” a feature in The Washington Post, noted his passing in its column of 13 February 1949, by saying his death would be “a severe loss to all philatelists, not only in the Washington area, but throughout the country, for Mr. Robinette was one of the leading dealers in the philatelic world.” 6. Donald J. Robinette, b. January 1887, probably Berks County, Pennsylvania, d. 11 July 1946, Butte, Montana, bur. Mt. Moriah Cemetery, m. 9 August 1913, in Butte, Montana, to Grace Livingston Hubbard, who was b. ca 1887, in New York, and d. 28 December 1961. Issue: Leonard S., 1914, Montana, d. 22 July 1930, Butte, Montana; Russell A., b. 17 May 1917, Montana, d. October 1984, Grants Pass, Josephine County, Oregon; Shirley F., b. ca. December 1919, Montana As he approached old age, Augustine decided to take up his pen again and try to tell his story. The first of these documents, which appears to have been named “Aunt Kate’s Cabin” by family members after Augustine wrote it, was written at the time of his seventy-third birthday, in 1914, and the copy that has been preserved is typed on small sheets of paper, about 5” x 7”. This appears to be the original manuscript as it contains corrections and additions in pencil. Certain phrases, i. e. “stands before you today” suggests that this may have been written as a speech or oral presentation which Augustine gave to a gathering on the occasion of his birthday. The term Aunt Kate’s Cabin, refers to Augustine’s unmarried sister, Catherine Robinette, who lived on in the log house that Amos Robinette built, after her parents died. When Augustine would have taken his children there to stay, it would have been to “Aunt Kate’s Cabin” that they were going. This document has been transcribed as closely as possible to the original layout, with the exception that penciled in additions have been typed in the place that Augustine inserted them. The second of these documents, “A. R. Biography” appears to be written in pencil on small sheets of lined paper, sized about 3” x 4”, for the small ringed notebooks that men used to carry in their coat pockets. Written around 1 August 1916, when Augustine was approaching his seventy-fifth birthday, the document seems to express some disappointment or dissatisfaction with his career. One wonders why he did not continue the story after his residence in Chester, and why that part of the tale was so briefly told. This document has been transcribed with page number in parenthesis preceding the material from that page of the manuscript. After Augustine’s death, his son, Leonard saved these and other documents and clippings, pictures, etc., in a large scrapbook, which after his death passed to his niece, Eleanor Dobson Kewer. When Eleanor died, a niece on the Dobson side of the family inherited her personal papers. That niece, Carolie Dixon, kindly provided me with images of these documents. Carolie has also provided images of Augustine’s Civil War diary to the Washington County, Iowa, GenWeb Internet site, where they have been placed on-line. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Aunt Kate’s Log Cabin In the year 1798 a boy of eighteen began the erection of a log house or cabin 24’ by 30’ feet, half a mile from the village of Flintstone, Md. The location was at the foot of a hill where the building was partially protected from the north- west winds and was within 30 yards of a perennial spring of cold limestone water. Long afterward a brick milkhouse was built over this spring where milk and butter are still kept cold and sweet at all times summer and winter. Having his home on the farm of his uncle, work upon his house was done by this boy during the intervals of farm work, hence the house began in 1798 was not completed until early in 1800. There were two room son the first floor and one above were (sic) you could stand erect if immediately under the comb of the roof. A crude stairway led up to this room where there was ample room for two beds though one was liable to strike ones head against the rafters. Between the top log and the roof where was a space where fresh air at all times and snow in the winter time gently sifted in on the sleeper. During the year 1800 this boy of 20 years married a lass of 16 and with a scant supply of house-hold effects began house-keeping in his new home while farming with his uncle. In the winter of 1810-11, after the birth of his second son he began preparations fro doubling the size of his house by cutting down the trees, hewing the logs and drag- ging them through the snow to his house. This improvement added two large rooms to his home, one on each floor, and a cellar the full size of the addition, and was completed in 1812. All hauling at this time was done with sleds and mostly in the winter time when there was snow on the ground. The first wagon was brought into the neighborhood about the year 1823. It was owned by a Mr. Cromwell, was a great curiosity and the country people came from far and near to see it. In 1823, after the death of his uncle, the owner of the farm, the entire property come into the possess- ion of this enterprising, hardworking farmer. In the year 1824 the great national road was built through Flintstone. The right of way was 66 feet in width and the roadbed was 32 feet wide and consisted of broken limestone about eight inches in thickness with no steam roller to make it solid and smooth. The road extended from Baltimore, Maryland to Wheeling, Virginia, and was for many years the main avenue of wagon travel from the east to the great west beyond the Ohio River. Between 1824 and 1830 a log barn 90 feet by 30 feet was erected by this farmer and his four boys. To put up a barn of this size at that time with the limited facilities at hand seemed to be an intermi- nable job. It was a bank barn, hence a stone wall about seven feet in height had to be built, the stone for which was hauled a distance of about two miles. The bank on the upper side was high enough to admit the driving of loaded sleds and wagons in on the second floor or the floor above where the horses and cattle were stabled. The barn was located on a slight table land about half way to the top of a hill where there was no water, and the water of a spring at the head of a hol- low about one quarter mile away was conveyed to the barn in pipes made of wooden logs bored from end to end with a three inch auger. This farmer without any booklearning whatever was the engineer who located this pipeline and it was a great success. He took two pieces of wood about six feet long and after planing the edges straight nailed them together making a trough and taking a position on the other side of the hollow from the pipeline he lay this trough on the top of two stakes driven into the ground so that when looking across it one end was at the spring and the other at the barn yard. Then he told the boy with the stakes where to set then and the line was located accurately. Water poured in the spring end of his trough ran toward the barn end so that he was sure of the fall. In the year 1831 a log school house was built at Flintstone and the young children of the farmer were given a chance to learn to read, write and cipher. The first teachers were foreigners, tramps who came up the National Road having received some school training in the “Old Country.” The second son of the farmer born in 1810 taught school here in 1833-4 although he had not attended any kind of school more than two years. Teachers taught only one pupil at a time – the classification idea came some time after. This second son of the farmer was married to a young widow in 1839 when he was 29 years of age. In 1843 his wife, mother of two sons died. The second of these two sons whose mother passed away leaving him a baby 1½ years old to be taken care of by his grand mother, the former lass of 16 years, and his grandfather, the farmer of 20 stands before you. Born in the year 1841 in this 41 year old log house, 73 years ago today, he has had a checkered career, as a farmer, teacher, volunteer soldier and government clerk. All five of my grandfathers sons were farmers and it never occured(sic) to them that some of their children might be capable of another calling. To adopt another profession or business at that time seemed like taking the ground from beneath their feet. No attempt was made to unravel the future, to direct energies into any other channel as the rapid development of the time demanded. My earliest recollection is of being cared for and watched by a colored woman named Jane. Two slaves, Jane and Beck were left my grandfather by his uncle. A little cabin was built for them at the upper end of the house and for years the cooking for the family was done there. Jane was a good cook and performed that role until after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued in 1863, the year that grandfather died at the age of 83. He died a few days after the receipt of a letter from his grandson, then in the Union Army at Brownsville, Texas. When the letter was shown him he made an attempt to clap his hands to show his gladness. He always had a peculiar love for the two grandchildren who were so early in life left motherless, and is often the case, the boys failed to appreciate that affection. The farm life of a boy from four to twelve years of age was not without interest and sometimes with excite- ment. For instance, when the youngest son of my grand- father, born in 1825 was married, I was four years old and when I looked down the road from the porch as I saw others doing, and noticed people coming on horseback as fast as their horses could run, I was excited and never forgot it. They were running for the bottle. I was a little older when I was permitted to go with my two aunts on horseback to Chaneys, about four miles away, for plums. I rode on the horse with my Aunt Rose, sitting behind her. We had two large baskets full of plums. We walked to another Chaneys shortly after this where there was a pack of hounds that almost frightened me to death, when they came out at us as fast as they could run and yelping like mad. They were not at all dangerous, they did’nt (sic) bite, but I did not want to go there again. Though I was carefully watched I managed to have some severe accidents, as for instance, when at about two and a half years of age, I pulled a tin cup of boiling water off the bureau on my arm, or when about four I fell off my grandfather’s dog which I was riding and struck my head on a frying pan and making the blood fly, or later when about six I threw a stone striking my brother John on the head. This last incident m(a)y not have been an accident for my father was about to chastise me for it and I ran to my grandmother who took me upstairs and locked the door so that he could not get to me. Throwing stones was not pro- hibited. It was a pastime. An incident that gave me extreme pleasure was when first permitted to ride a horse from where my father was ploughing to water at the foot of the hill; when I was allowed to ride on a load of hay to Cumberland for the first time, at about seven years of age. When my grandfather Wilson took me home with him in his buggy which was the first and only buggy in the whole neighborhood for some years. At this time, my eagerness to go to places and to see all new things was so persistent that I was a nuisance. At six years I was sent to school for about four months in the winter time to Mr. Yantz, an English foreigner. He taught by calling the pupils up to his desk one at a time. With him I learned the A B Cs and to read some. The second winter my teacher was named Bogan, another tramp. With him I began to write, using a quill pen.He was a beautiful penman and would write a sentence on the top line of my copybook which I could neither write nor imitate, and when I would take my book to him and say the copy was too hard for me he would make a copy of straight lines or pot hooks and hangers. Now and then I would get a copy of capitals or small script letters and the figures. Later my father bought me a copy of Pike’s arithmetic in which the measures of value were pounds, shillings and pence. About this time 1848-49 the Mexican War was con- cluded and the accounts in our paper with the spread eagle illustrations were of thrilling interest to me. I remember very vividly how greatly I enjoyed reading of the hard fights and victories of Generals Taylor and Scott and how I gloried in the prowess of our American soldiers as compared with the Mexicans. The next winter 1850-51 my teacher was Simeon Eastman who had taught two or three years in another school in our neighborhood, and was said to be very cross and believed to have eyes in the back of his head, and saw all that was going on in the room all the time. He announced his rules at the beginning of the terms and enforced obedience to them with a hickory stick. He struck me on the head with it one day and made me see stars and there was a sore spot for some time, but I did’nt dare mention it at home for fear of another dressing. I had only laughed at the prancks (sic) of another boy beside me. During the winter of 1851-52 I was a pupil of C. F. Diehl, a Pennsylvania Dutchman from Bedford County. Mr. Diehl was a young man of 22 or 23 years, full of energy and vim. He had at this time an ordinary common school education. He aimed to make school interesting to all the pupils in which case discipline would take care of itself. The transformation from Eastman to Diehl was inconcievable (sic). From a school so quiet you could almost hear a pin drop to one where noise and confusion seemed to be the rule and where the teacher was the noisiest of all, was not much short of a revolution. Patrons of the school shook their heads and said this would never do. But in a short time they found that the children were interested in their lessons, that they had learned a great many things that their parents did not know, that they were being drilled in spelling, reading, writing, Geography, History and the elements of arithmetic to an astonishing degree. To the farming community around, it was something of a revolution and when Diehl proposed to teach a summer school of ten weeks in April May and June he was supported unanimously. During the two years 1851-53 that Diehl taught in the neighborhood I was one of his pupils. He moved to Illinois in 1853 when I was eleven years old. Under him I had studied all the common English branches and Latin grammar, simple translations in a Latin reader and Davies’ Elementary Algebra. My brain was crowded with facts – of spelling, history, arithmetic, geography, English grammar, etc. the greater part of which I still retain. It was an education not short of remarkable for the time and place. Such an education would now be a good foundation for a professional career. In the next four years during which our school was taught by young men, former pupils of Mr. Diehl, for terms of about five months each year. I attended but only succeeded in broadening out the knowledge acquired through Mr. Diehl. I dropped Latin and Algebra because the teachers were not competent to teach them. During all this time I worked on the farm between school terms. I have done about every kind of farm work from plowing, planting, cutting, hauling, thrashing grain, etc. to driving and milking the cows and churning butter. My earliest recollection of cutting wheat, oats and rye was with the sickle. You caught as many stalks of grain as you could in your left hand and cut them off with the sickle held in the right hand. This hand-full was then thrown on the ground and other handfuls were thrown on it until there was enough for a sheaf. Another person bound it into a sheaf with a small wisp of the grain itself. My first work in the harvest field was gathering sheaves, a work that was always done by the boys. At this time most of the fields were covered with stumps and all were surrounded with worn fences. Every year of two a new patch was cleared for potato ground as the best potatoes were grown in new ground. The gardens were plowed about the first of May or earlier after being covered with manure, after which the gardening was done by the women. From the garden we had peas, beans, early potatoes, onions, cabbage, lettuce, tomatoes, muskmelons – in later years called cantaloupes, currants, raspberries and blackberries. The last two grew without cultivation in the fence corners and various places on the farm. Black raspberries for pie were a staple delicacy in harvest time. The land was well adapted to raising wheat and for many years the wheat crop was about the only one that was sold. It was hauled during the winter to a mill owned and operation by John Folke, three miles from Cumberland and on the Baltimore pike. About the year 1853 there was a heavy crop of wheat of which 900 bushels were for sale. Mr. Folke had taken a partner named Neri Smith and they were doing business under the name Folke and Smith. The wheat was taken to the mill where it was receipted for as usual, but when they decided to sell it they found that Smith had suddenly become bankrupt and upon looking at their receipts they found they were all signed Neri Smith. Then it dawned upon my father and uncle who each with my grandfather owned one third of the wheat, that they were about to be swindled out of their entire crop. Suit was brought against Mr. Folke for the recovery of the money, some $1,300.00, but all the receipts having been signed Neri Smith, the suit was lost with the lawyer’s fees besides, amounting in all to some $1,800.00. Men with any business training would never have been caught in any such trap, but these unsuspecting farmers were not business men. Not only was the value of the wheat and lawyer’s fees lost but the labor of plowing, sowing, planting, harvesting, garnering, threshing, cleaning and hauling a distance of 9 miles to the mill, was done without any compensation, making probably a total loss of $2500.00 a terrible blow to these hard working farmers, but a blow that taught them a valuable lesson. A flock of geese was kept on the farm from which the feathers for pillows and feather beds were procured. The geese were derived of their feathers once a year in May. A flock of sheep sheared in May furnished the wool from which homespun clothes were made. The wool was washed and afterwards made into rolls by a carding machine in the neighborhood then spun into yarn by one of the women of the family who did nothing else for weeks at a time. Cloth was made by a hand loom and stockings were knit by the women in the winter evenings while sitting around the fire. The last crop of flax and the only one that I remember was garnered about the year 1848 when I was attending my first year of school at the age of six. After being thoroughly dried this flax was broken in a flax break then swingled to free it from the outside covering or bark leaving the inner fiber in long very fine threads. This was put on a distaff of a spinning wheel and spun into threads then woven on the hand loom into cloth for towels and linen clothes. My father had two pairs of trousers made from this crop of flax. Until I was about 10 years of age I went bear (sic) footed from April until November. A pair of shoes made over a straight last by a shoemaker named Keifer was the first I remember having. The fractional currency at this time was the cent of solid copper an inch in diameter and an eighth of a inch thick, the fip, 6¼ cents, the levy, 12 ½ cents, the quarter and half dollar. The fips and levies had been so long in circulation the lettering was worn off. Sugar, the golden New Orleans soggy kind was a fip a pound. This kind of sugar and maple sugar were the only kinds to be had. I was about eight years old when the store keeper at Flintstone (James Wilson, Uncle Charlie’s Father) received a hogshead of brown New Orleans sugar and gave me some to eat. A year or two afterwards I was sent on horse back with a jog to the store at Gilpintown for New Orleans molasses. I had’nt come more than one third of the way home when the stopper came out of the jug and the molasses began to foam out at the top over my clothes and down the sides of the horse. When I arrived home the jug was still full of molasses while streaks of treacle decorated my clothes and the horses side. The younger people were inclined to make fun of me but my grandmother told them they ought to have known better than to send the boy after New Orleans molasses on such a hot day. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Memoirs by Augustine Robinette (1) A. R. Biography In October 1859 I opened a school in a small school house half a mile from Murleys Branch Road about three miles from Flintstone. I had an average of about 15 pupils and received about twelve dollars per month for five months. (2) My board at my Uncle Billy Robinette’s not costing more than two dollars for the whole time. With the money thus obtained I paid for tuition, board and books at Rainsburg, Pa. Seminary for eleven weeks of the summer of 1860. My studies were English Grammar, Mental and Written Arithmetic, Geography (outline (3) maps) Algebra, Latin Logic. The pupils in this school were mostly teachers and would be teachers, the majority of whom paying their own expenses. In the winter of 1860-61, I taught school on Murleys Branch in the old log school house about 200 yards south of the Big Spring. With an average of about 20 pupils I received about $18 per month. (4) In both of these schools there were so many different grades it was a difficult problem to classify them. I went again to Rainsburg in the summer of 1861, but the excitement caused by the breaking out of the War was so intense that I didn’t stay till the end of the term. In April 1862, with a ticket to Chicago (5) and about twenty-five dollars in gold I went to Washington, Iowa, where a friend, D. H. Lashley lived. I was a green country boy and had no plan as to my future. I lived there with Lashly working for him part of the time enough to pay my board until the call of the president for 500,000 volunteers was issued when on August 11, I enlisted in Co. C, 19th Iowa (6) Infantry commanded by Capt. T. H. Stanton who thirty-tow years afterward was paymaster general of the regular army. We rendezvoused at Keokuk, were put through a little squad and company drill and soon after the ten companies had arrived we were sent down the river to St. Louis, (From this place and time my movements were the same as those of the 19th Iowa as written by J. I. Dungan, up to the date of the battle of Sterling Farm, La. Sept. 7-9 (7) 1863, I was with with (sic) the regiment at the battle of Prairie Grove, the raid to Van Buren, in the trenches of Vicksburg, the capture of Yazoo City, at Port Hudson, New Orleans, Margangia and Sterling farm – from Sept. ’62 to Sept. 29, 1863. The regiment in this battle numbered about 300 men. I escaped from the rebs but Dungan was captured. His account of the capture and treatment afterward is given in the copy of his book in my (8) desk. We who escaped were sent to New Orleans and in October the remnants of the reigment from hospital, convalescent camp, etc (?) formed up and we were put aboard a boat (the General Banks) and sent down the river on our way to Brownsville, Texas. On the afternoon of the fourth day out, after a very tempestuous voyage we landed at Point Isabel which is about twenty-five miles from Brownsville. Marching over the battle fields of (9) Palo Alto and Resaca De La Palma fought by Gen. Taylor in the Mexican War we reached Brownsville in the afternoon of the second day. There we were quartered in warehouses during the winter of 1863-64 and were moved out of town, into tents in the spring. Company C was without commissioned officers until late in the winter and when the paymaster came in November and December a soldier had to be selected to write up the pay roll and (10) I was chosen by the regimental commander (sic) Lt. Col. John Bruce to perform this duty. Shortly afterward I was promoted from private to 3d sergt. of our company. In April, with a squad of ten mounted men – men of our regiment mounted on horses of the first Texas cav. – under my command I was ordered to go down the river to its mouth and return the same way following the river bank and make a report to the (11) commanding general as to the passage of cattle from Mexico to the rebels. I performed this duty and failed to discover any signs indicating passage of cattle. I never knew why I was sent on this scout instead of a sergt. of the 1st Texas Cav. About the first of June an order of the Secretary of War was received by the officer inn command of our regiment, Lt. Col. Bruce, discharging me from Co. C, 19th Iowa Inf. in order that I might accept a (12) a (sic) commission as Second Lt. Of Co. I, 3d P. H. B. Md. Inf. and on June 9, 1864 I left the regt. and traveled all the way to Baltimore, Md. to join the 3d Md. I arrived in Balto. July 7, and joined the regiment there July 14. The next day we went by train to Washington and from there we marched to Snickers Gap, Va. In a few days we marched back to Washington, to Frederick, to Harpers Ferry, to Frederick and again to Harpers Ferry and up on (13) Maryland Heights. While camped on the Heights my brother John appeared in camp one day and said he had a horse and buggy at the foot of the mountain (Sandy Hook) and had come to take me home to see the folks. I tried to get the captain and the colonel to give me leave to go home but both said they had no authority to grant leave, I had been with the regiment since the 14th of July but had not been mustered into the U. S. service, so I concluded to go without leave. (14) At Sharpsburg where we stopped for the night I was arrested by a U. S. detective, who went with me to the provost marshal at Hagerstown. This officer after hearing my story and examining my discharge certificate from Co. C. of the 19th Iowa decided that I was a civilian and could go where I pleased. My grandmother was the first to greet me at home, the others being out in the fields gathering peaches. I stayed at home only three or four days and then (15) returned to the regiment by the way of Cumberland and the B.&.O. R.R. I found them on Bolivar Heights west of Harpers Ferry. Soon afterward I was mustered into the U. S. service again, as 2nd Lt. Co. I, 3d P. H. B. MD Inf. My father was at this time a member of the Constitutional Convention of Md. and was at Annapilis (sic). He had visited me (16) when the regiment was at Frederick. From Bolivar Heights marched to Winchester Va. and after the battle of Cedar Creek we guarded 1500 prisoners from Winchester to Harpers Ferry. We were stationed at Duffields and Kearneysville between Harpers Ferry and Martinsburg on the B.&O. R.R. for a short time and then were sent by train to Clarksburg, W. Va., from which place we marched to Buckhannon, 28 miles south where we stayed as a garrison during (17) the winter of 1864-65. The officers of the regiment were on duty there only about once in two weeks and for amusement they organized a dancing class under the direction of a dancing master belonging to the 1st W.Va. Cavalry. We met once a week in a room of the hotel and at Christmas we had a soiree and danced with some young ladies of the town after which we had a banquet with songs and speeches. Col. Gilpin resigned (18) about 1st of Feb. and Major Rizer became Lt. Col. and afterward Col. In April I was detailed with 30 men to go to Cumberland, Md., where we were instructed by Gen. Kelley to guard a passenger train on the B.&O. R.R. from Cumb’d to Sleepy Creek. We took a train at Cumb’d at 9 o’clock a.m. in which we were assigned one car, and left the car at Sleepy Creek, where we stayed until (19) about 3 p. m. when the train from Balto. arrived, when we again boarded the car and returned to Cumb’d. Early in May the regiment under the command of Col. H. L. Rizer arrived in Cumb’d on the way to Baltimore and we joined them. We camped on the outskirts of Balto. until the 29th of May when we were discharged (20) from the service of the U. S. and were once more private citizens permitted to go where we pleased – a very pleasant and agreeable sensation. Very few, if any of us, realized (the) tremendous importance of the work we had accomplished – the incalculable debt that was due for that accomplishment from the American people. Our lives had been voluntarily offered (21) for the principle of the Union of the States – the crushing forever of the principle of Secession. The price paid had been enormous. Probably seven hundred thousand Americans had lost their lives. But had the sacrifice been twice as great the results would have justified it. I had been promoted to 1st Lt. of Co. I about six weeks (22) before discharge and when the account with the U. S. was settled I was paid about $900 (nine hundred dollars)- a larger sum than I had ever handled before. I bought a Waltham watch for forty-two dollars and went home to the farm at Flintstone, Md. The watch, I still carry (August 1st 1916) and it (23) seems to be a better watch than when it was bought fifty-one years ago. I worked on the farm during the summer of 1865, helping with the harvest, taking care of the grain and fruit. In the Fall, I went to Pittsburg to the much advertised Iron City Commercial College. Here I learned bookkeeping as it was then taught but I never put the (24) knowledge to any use, so that the time was thrown away. Looking back upon my movements at that time I am convinced that had I taken up the study of law or medicine in 1865, or had I gone into business of some kind I would have been successful. My father never advised me. He probably preferred to have me stay on the farm. At any rate this was a vital (25) period of my career. I should have looked ahead and determined upon a definite course. A drifting policy though not always a failure does not give promise of certain success as the adoption of a definite line of action faithfully followed. I went to Balto. with my diploma from the I. C. C. College thinking I could find a place there as bookkeeper but I was doomed to failure. I was not (26) prepared to accept a place at the very bottom and work myself up, and no other place was open to me and I returned home and in the winter of 1868-9 I taught school there. I worked on the farm during the summer and in the winter of 1860-70 I attended the State Normal School in Balto., graduating there in the spring of 1870, after an attendance of about 8 (eight) months. Thus I literally fell into the profession of teaching in (27) (In the summer of 1870, with Miss Annie W. Macbeth as my asst. I taught a Normal School at Grantsville in what is now Garrett County, Md. We had twenty pupils nearly all of whom had taught country schools the winter before. This school had the sanction and moral support of the school commissioners and examiners of Allegany County. It was continued ten weeks and deemed a success.) (28) public schools. At this time such places were in most cases the football of politicians. A new school house was being built near Flintstone which was to be ready for the school about January 1871 and I had been chosen as the teacher and while this school was being made ready I taught a school in the Odd Fellows Hall at Lonaconing. I began teaching with D. Perrin as my assistance Jan. 1871, in (29) the new school house half a mile from Flintstone. In the summer of 1871 I taught a Normal School in the new school house at Flintstone. This school lasted ten weeks and was attended by teachers and others who expected to teach and a few of the more advanced pupils in the neighborhood. This was a very successful school, some of the pupils (30) afterward becoming very good teachers. In the winter of 1871-72 I again taught at Flintstone having as my asst. Miss Agnes E. Boole of New York City who was the niece of the Co. Supt. Of schools (or Examiner) George G. McKay. Miss Boole brought an entirely new element into the school. She taught the primary grades and her methods of teaching and management were a revelation to (31) the neighborhood. Her school was her own making. She had a free hand with no interference from me. The school governed itself and the discipline was perfect and withal the children feared her and at the same time loved her intensely. In every trouble they had her sympathy in every difficulty they were sure of her help. She was interested in the welfare of each child and showed it. The incurrence of her displeasure was their severest punishment. (32) This school was a great success and when the patrons and children heard that Miss Boole could not come the next year that of 1872-3 the disappointment was very great. We had an average attendance of about 65 pupils, some of whom came over mud roads distances of one to four miles. Miss Boole and I were both complimented by the Examiner, Mr. McKay, (33) upon the success of the school. During the winter of 1872-3 I again taught at Flintstone with an asstant (sic) of inferior ability and on the whole the school was inferior to the previous one. The following winter of 1873-4 I was principal of a school in Cumberland. Here I was a failure. The discipline and (34) management of such a large school with all grades and from all classes of a community like Cumb’d was beyond me. But I was now fully committed to the business of teaching and I saw no way out of it. Looking back to that time now, I think I would then have done the wise thing if I (35) had begun the study of law and put off my marriage until I saw success ahead in the law. I married Miss Agnes E. Boole Dec. 24, 1873 while I was teaching in Cumb’d. In the fall of 1874 I was elected principal of the high school in Chester Pa. where my wife’s father was Supt. of the shipyard of John Roach & Son. I worked hard to make this school a success and (36) partially succeeded, so that in he fall of 1875, I was elected Supt. of schools of the City of Chester besides being principal of the high school. While Supt. I wrote a history of the Chester schools and send exhibits to the Centennial Exhibition in Phila.