Rix Robinson, Lowell, Kent County, Michigan


Copyright © 1997 by Mark von Destinon. This copy contributed for use in 
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	ABOUT THIS DOCUMENT

When I was growing up my maternal grandmother would occasionally mention 
"Uncle" Rix and talk about her Robinson cousins.  It was several years 
after her death that I started compiling all the records she had 
collected and began doing research on my own.  I kept running across 
references to Rix Robinson and the many stories about him.  Over the 
years I have collected many references, stories and news clippings about 
Rix Robinson and his influence upon the development of western Michigan.  
Since everyone in the now huge, extended family of Robinson descendants, 
as well as others, have such an interest in "Uncle" Rix, I thought to 
compile these stories of his deeds.

Rix Robinson has become to Western Michigan the same sort of legendary 
character that Paul Bunyan and Johnny Appleseed are to the settlement of 
the Midwest.  Rix is reported to have been a huge man, some say six foot 
five inches, and of stocky build.  He was a government agent, a fur 
trapper, a lawyer, a draft dodger, a state Senator, and always a friend 
to the Indians.  He kept his word in a day when a man's word was his 
bond.  And although apparently hard to rile, he had a temper which made 
him a formidable opponent.

As with any legendary character and it is hard to separate fact from 
fiction in the stories of his deeds.  I have cited all the sources of the 
stories here, but I will not attempt to vouch for their veracity.  "Uncle 
Rix has been dead for more than 120 years and  I am sure his deeds have 
grown in the re-telling.  I hope you will enjoy this collection of 
stories, memories and tales.  I have edited these accounts only to make 
them read easier and to insert comments where necessary.  They contain a 
lot of repetition and some inaccuracies, but thats why they are called 
stories.  Read them, enjoy them, and judge for your self.

Compiled and edited by:

Mark von Destinon
8022 E. Mi Casita
Tucson, AZ  85715-5114
vondesti@cochise.cc.az.us



	August 1, 1997


	Rix Robinson: A Brief Biography

>From "History of Ionia County, Michigan: Her People, Industries and 
Institutions," by Rev. E.E. Branch.  Vol. I. Indianapolis, Indiana: B.F. 
Bowen & Company, Inc., 1916.  Pages 461-462.

Rix Robinson, who succeeded Madame La Framboise as a trader near Lowell, 
was well known in the early days, and the "Robinson road," leading into 
Grand Rapids from Ionia, is named for him.  He was born in Richmond, 
Berkshire County, Massachusetts, August 29, 1789, and came to Michigan as 
a trader in 1821, as an agent for the American Fur Trading Company, which 
was really the John Jacob Astor Company.  He was married to his first 
wife at Mackinac in 1824.  Her name was Pe-ne-say (Flying Cloud), and she 
died in 1848.  Her father was a chief and cousin to Pontiac, the famous 
Ottawa chieftain, who planned the extermination of the whites, by making 
war on all their forts at the same time, and she was the mother of John 
R. Robinson, the only descendant of Rix Robinson.  John R. was well 
educated and became a very noted minister, and died a number of years ago 
near Mount Pleasant, Michigan.  John R.'s first wife was Lucy Withey, of 
Ada, Michigan.  They had two children, a son and a daughter, who are both 
gone and there is none left of that branch of the Robinson family.
The second wife of Rix Robinson was the granddaughter of Chief Sip-po-
qua, her Indian name was Se-ba-qua (River Woman), but she was called 
Nancy by her white friends.  After his business as a trader was gone, Mr. 
Robinson became a farmer at the mouth of the Thornapple River (So-wan-
que-sake), at one time being the owner of over three hundred acres of 
land.  He died there on January 13, 1873, and there is a splendid 
monument costing $675 erected at his grave, furnished and erected by the 
Old Settlers' Association of Grand River valley. 
Kee-wa-coo-sheum (Long Nose), who was principal chief of the Flat River 
(Quab-a-quash-a, meaning Winding Stream) Indians, was one of the chiefs 
who signed the treaty of 1821, at Chicago, by which the United States 
acquired possession of the large tract of land, and the Ottawas never 
forgave him for this act, and when an old man he finally met his death at 
the hands of Was-oge-naw, and was buried in the township of Plainfield 
near the grave of Wa-be-sis (White Swan), another victim of the hatred 
growing out of signing treaties.
Wa-be-sis was a half breed and chief of a band of Ottawas who made their 
homes in Kent and Montcalm counties.  It is said that he visited 
Washington, D.C., in 1836 and signed the treaty by which the government 
obtained possession of land, including Keene, Otisco and Orleans 
townships in Ionia county.  The Indians were very angry at all who took 
part in this and as a punishment to Wa-be-sis, he was restricted not to 
go beyond certain limits around Wabesis lake, on penalty of death.  
There, with his family, he lived for several years, until  in supposed 
safety, he visited a "green corn dance" held in Plainfield -- but he was 
killed with a club by Neo-ga-mah.  At Grand Rapids there were chief Noon 
Day and his son, Black Skin, and Old Rock.  These, it is said, controlled 
all the Indians in lower Grand River valley in 1830.  During the War of 
1812 they were allies of the British and it was the frequent boast of 
Black Skin that he applied the torch to Buffalo.  He died in 1868, very 
old.  Noon Day removed to Barry County in 1835-37, where he died about 
1840, one hundred years old.  The remnants of all the Grand River bands, 
except the Slates Indians and those at Peshimnecon, removed to Oceana 
County.

	___________________________________________________

A Comprehensive Sketch of the Life of
Hon. Rix Robinson; A Pioneer of Western Michigan
By George H. White of Grand Rapids, Historical Collections of the Pioneer
Society of the State of Michigan, Vol XI, 2nd Edition, Lansing, 1908, p. 
186


At the time that Rix Robinson settled upon the Grand River of the 
territory of Michigan sixty four years ago, there was not a neighbor 
towards the west (except, possibly, one Indian trader) nearer than the 
Mississippi River; nor to the north within two hundred miles; nor to the 
eastward within one hundred and twenty miles.  If there was no other 
reason for it than this.  But it would be proper that some attention 
should be given to the preservation of his memory, but when we add that 
it was largely  through his influence and efforts that the Indians of 
western Michigan entered into the treaty by which they sold their lands 
north of the Grand River to the government for a fair compensation; and 
that they and the White settlers lived together so peaceably that our 
early history presents none of the bloody scenes that disfigure the early 
history of Ohio,  Kentucky and Indiana; and the further facts of his 
participation in the early administration of affairs in the government of 
this state, and his prominence in the ranks of the then dominant party, 
placing within his reach the highest office in the gift of the people of 
this state call for a sketch of him.  So I have deemed it proper to lay 
before you  what I have learned of him mostly from his associates, 
friends, and relatives who survive him, and from a personal acquaintance 
with him of nearly twenty years.
Rix Robinson was the second son of Edward Robinson, born in Preston, 
Conn. and Eunice Robinson born at the same place.  His birthplace was at 
Richmond, Berkshire County, Mass., where his father carried on his trade 
of blacksmithing, and farming a very few acres of land.  Rix was born on 
the 28th day of August 1789, but at about the turn of the century his 
family moved to the fertile Genesee country into that part of the town of 
Scipio that is now the town of Venice, in Cayuga County, NY.  He was the 
third of thirteen children, the oldest a girl, being the only child of 
the first wife, the others being the children of the second wife.  He had 
eight brothers, all of whom attained stalwart manhood.

He had the advantages of an excellent common school and academic training 
at an academy in Cayuga County.  At the age of about nineteen years he 
began the study of law with the approval of his parents at Auburn, New 
York, in a law office of excellent repute, which he continued three 
years, and then was admitted to practice law in 1811, or possibly in 
1812.  Soon after this, and before he had entered upon his practice, the 
War of 1812 began.  His father  was a very bitter opponent of it, as were 
many from Connecticut and Massachusetts who considered it unnecessary and 
suicidal.

Samuel Phelps, a neighbor living half a mile away, had received 
appointment of a sutler to some of the troops then massed on the Canadian 
frontier, and not having enough capital, and needing a bright, energetic, 
and active assistant, proposed that Robinson go into partnership with him 
and furnish $1,000, a very large sum of money in those days. His father 
approved of it as a business venture, and furnished him the money, having 
to borrow a portion of it, his brother Lewis working out by the month 
afterwards to pay the borrowed portion.  Mr. Phelps stayed principally 
with the troops, and Rix made the purchases and saw to their 
transportation to the places needed.  While thus engaged, drafting took 
place, he as well as his elder brother Edward, being the holder of a 
prize number, to fill up the New York militia regiments.  His father's 
opposition to the war was so strong that he was determined that neither 
of his sons should go, and commanded them to keep out of the way of the 
officers sent to pick up the drafted persons, not a very hard job at that 
time.  Rix was up stairs at the residence of his sister, Mrs. Eunice 
Church, a few miles away from his father's house,  writing in a back room 
when the officers came to take him.  They were informed that he had not 
been there.  After waiting awhile and he not appearing, they went away 
without him, and no further effort to get him was made before the close 
of the war.  This was the only cause of his remaining in the west so 
long, for he had incurred a heavy fine in common with others, and many 
prosecutions were began in that region to recover, and his was one of the 
cases which they announced they would prosecute.  They went so far as to 
issue process which, because of his continued absence, they were unable 
to serve.
He and his partner continued their sutler business after the close of the 
war.  Without receiving its pay their regiment was ordered to Detroit.  
Nearly all of its members were largely indebted to them and they followed 
so as to be present at pay off time, and receive their dues.  They were 
twenty six days in getting their stock of supplies and themselves from 
Buffalo to Detroit.  Pay day did not arrive.  The regiment was ordered to 
Mackinac.  Phelps and Robinson followed on the brig Hunter, arriving 
there in November 1815.  They received the appointment of post sutlers, 
and remained until the troops were ordered to Green Bay, where they 
remained during the winter of 1816 and 1817, after which the troops were 
dispersed in detachments without receiving their back pay.  A part of  
them were ordered to Dubuque and apart to Mackinac; the partners 
separated, keeping with the largest detachments. The regiments time 
expired without being  paid and formally mustered out they were disbanded 
and returned to their homes, leaving the sutlers minus the ir goods and 
their pay.  Messrs. Phelps and Robinson found that all their profits for 
several years of labor, and a considerable portion of their capital were 
outstanding.
Mr. Robinson was much chagrined over this and was aware that process was 
out against him at home for the penalty of nonappearance to do military 
duty, a judgment which would absorb the balance of his means, and leave 
him indebted besides.  So with the firmness and determination that was a 
marked trait with him, he decided to go into the Indian trading business, 
and suggested it to Mr. Phelps, who agreed.  Both of them had fully 
investigated it at Mackinac and Green Bay through curiosity, and were 
well acquainted with the good and bad qualities of furs, their values and 
the best modes and places of marketing them.  They each selected a place 
to trade with the Indians, in, I think, Wisconsin, invested their cash 
and their goods in goods fitted for the Indian market and incurred 
considerable indebtedness.  In the spring they rendezvoused together at 
Mackinac, disposed of their furs, and paid their debts, and found that 
Mr. Robinson had made quite handsomely, considering the difficulties that 
surrounded him, and that Mr. Phelps had lost about an equal amount.  This 
result surprised them, and resulted in a dissolution, Mr. Phelps 
returning eastward.  Mr. Robinson took a portion of the money and some 
notes which proved to be worthless except one against a Mr. Douseman, but 
he found his capital insufficient to fully enable him to carry on the 
business without incurring a very large indebtedness, which he was loath 
to do.
John Jacob Astor had become acquainted with Mr. Robinson before this at 
Mackinac, and had observed him, his personal appearance, and his ways, 
and had been favorably impressed.  At this time Mr. Astor represented the 
American Fur Company, which was a New York corporation, consisting of 
himself and certain named associates, who had not put a cent into the 
concern, he furnishing its whole capital.  At this time he was engaged in 
having a large number of clerks brought in, principally from Montreal, 
and distributing them around to the different stations.  Those who showed 
no aptitude for the trade he would weed out and retain the others as 
apprentices  in the trade.  As subsequent events show it was a part also 
of his plan  to cover the whole country east of the Rocky Mountains, next 
to the northern boundary, which then was one of the principal sources of 
supply for the Hudson's Bay Company, with stations, and then secure the 
services of the independent traders, as employees, and compel the others 
to seek his employ  by putting one of his best men in the neighborhood of 
such trader, giving him unlimited supplies, with directions to overbid 
such with the Indians, each time, and compel him thereby to either leave 
because of lack of business or seek his employ.  But in 1818 he had not 
got developed this last portion of his plan.  At this time there was a 
point several hundred miles away, and very near to the St. Peter's River 
and to the Hudson Bay Company's post, that was essential to his plans to 
have to have occupied.  Thus far, each one who had been sent there had 
been intimidated and driven off without getting up any trade with the 
Indians there.  At this time his two real resident partners at the west 
were Ramsey Crooks, who was in New York cities most of the time as 
purchasing agent of the Mackinac depot of the company, and Robert Stuart, 
who managed the affairs at the west from Mackinac.

It occurred to Mr. Astor that Robinson, who was then a large, powerful 
young man of about 30 years of age, over six feet tall, of splendid 
physical presence, apparently a courageous person, somewhat acquainted 
with the Indian language and habits, and a little acquainted with Indian 
trading and much so with men, a well informed young man, might succeed in 
holding the post, and resist their attempts to drive him way..  Acting on 
this he made an offer to Mr. Robinson to go and stay through the season 
of 1818 and 1819, for a given sum, and as his own capital was 
insufficient, Mr. Robinson gladly accepted it.
He was fitted out and the stock and himself transported to the given 
point by the employees of the company, and then he was left to remain 
there without any companion until the employees should come,  the 
following June, to take him and the results of his winter's trading to 
the grand rendezvous of the American Fur Company at Mackinac.
The same course was pursued toward him that had been toward his 
predecessors.  His post was a dreary one; no Indians visited it, although 
passing often in sight of it on their way to the Hudson Bay company 
posts.  As the winter advanced their hostility toward him increased.  It 
was evident to his mind that he and they would ere long be in collision, 
and he could hope for no aid from the equally hostile posts of the Hudson 
Bay company.  It was becoming very monotonous to him; his only 
occupations were to hunt, for he was a remarkably fine marksman, and 
successful hunter, and passionately fond of the sport until but a short 
time before his death; to study the Indians as they passed by, noticing 
the least act and inferring its cause; and to read Shakespeare and the 
very few other books he had.
Towards the close of winter he received unexpectedly a white guest; my 
recollection is that he stated that he was an army officer, who came on 
some mission among the Indians and there heard of and visited him.  He 
was indeed gladly welcomed, for his presence broke the monotony that was 
becoming almost insupportable.
At this time, to all appearance, the mission of Mr. Robinson was a 
failure and would be fruitless.  He had made every possible endeavor to 
secure the trade or even the presence of the Indians in his log house, 
that his knowledge of Indian character suggested to him as having any 
possible effect on the boycott that he was suffering.  The old chief of 
the tribe was particularly active in demonstrations, such as brandishing 
his tomahawk, etc., and took it upon himself to frequently pass very near 
to the door of the post, on his way to the other traders, indulging in 
insults and threats, also shaking a package of furs at him, as much as to 
say, "Don't you wish I would sell these to you?  I am going to take them 
to the Hudson's Bay company's trader and sell them."  Mr. Robinson didn't 
seem to notice it, but waited silently,  he saw a collision with them, 
such as his predecessors had encountered.  He had made up his mind that 
there was some way of outwitting the Hudson Bay company's people with 
these Indians, for he saw that they were at the bottom of it.  He 
resolved to study the Indian character as thoroughly as he could, to 
solve the problem.  One of the first things that he  noticed was, that 
the bundle, which seemed to be of superb fur, was arranged  to display 
that fact, and each time seemed to be of the same size; it seemed to him 
also that each time the furs were too fine to be often got, and he soon 
concluded that it was the same package every time and not an accidental 
display of temper, but solely to insult and annoy him, and drive him 
away.  He inferred that if they failed in that, they would make more 
aggressive efforts to rid themselves of him.  He had also concluded that 
the climax was about at hand; that he should meet it boldly and 
aggressively; personal fear did not trouble him at all.  Mr. Robinson 
told this writer, and Mr. John F. Godfrey, that his study of the Indian 
character had resulted in two rules to govern his intercourse with them, 
which he had pursued undeviatingly.  The first was never to take an 
insult from an Indian without chastisement, but not to administer 
chastisement until he had proceeded so far as to be beyond retreat or 
retraction, for then the administration of proper chastisement would not 
cause a feeling or desire of revenge, or provoke the interference of his 
friends.

Before the departure of Robinsons guest, the chief accompanied by a 
number of his tribe, entered the log shanty whose threshold they had not 
before crossed.  Mr. Robinson had, as all indian traders in those days 
had, some firewater for sale, but this was kept in a strong log addition, 
whose hewn plank door (fastened together with wooden pins without any 
iron whatever) was closed and fastened. The chief seated himself upon a 
heavy three-legged stool, and the following exchange occurred:  "Got any 
whiskey?"  "Yes."  "I want some."  Rix, looking around for furs, "Where 
are your furs, your pelts?"  "Haven't any."  "Well, I keep whiskey to 
sell, not to give away."  "I help myself when they are not willing to 
give it freely."  Upon saying this, the chief jumped up, seized the stool 
and threw it against the door with such force as to break it open and 
started toward it.  He had hardly got three steps before Mr. Robinson 
struck him with his fist under the ear.  He fell senseless into the 
fireplace where the logs were burning, Robinson putting his foot on the 
chief's head.  His guest caught his arm saying, "Hold!  Robinson! Hold!  
He has got enough."  Robinson then dragged the body to the door, telling 
his followers to take him away or he would kill him; they took him away.  
His guest, fearing  revenge, advised him not to go any more into the 
woods hunting.  During the winter Robinson had hunted a good deal, 
thereby adding to his larder, and the furs, skins and pelts of the 
company.  He thought it over and concluded that the true course for him 
was to go with his rifle into the woods, where he could see an Indian as 
quickly as an Indian could see him, and to shoot him down if he showed 
the least sign of an attempt at revenge.  He said that had he seen the 
Indian in the woods he would probably have shot him down at sight.  The 
next three days he went with his rifle into the woods to hunt, expecting 
not game but an Indian, and then gave it up.
Some four or five days after that, he was sitting near the fire with his 
rifle over his knees, priming it, when hearing a slight noise he looked 
up and saw this chief peeping from one side into the door toward him.  
Robinson arose, walked to the door, the chief not retreating, and said:  
"You here?"  "Yes."  "Come to fight?"  "No."  "Want to fight?"  "No."  
Chief: "You want to fight?"  "Yes, if you come to fight, don't you want 
to fight?"  "No, made fool of myself the other day, want to make all up 
with you."  "Well, you have concluded to make it up, have you?"  "Yes."  
"Well, here is a pipe of tobacco."  They sat down together, smoked it and 
talked the matter over.  From that time the chief and his tribe were his 
fast friends, and the Hudson Bay company got no more furs from that 
quarter.  The chief himself brought him more fur than any other three 
Indians, as he was a great hunter and trapper.  If any of the tribe came 
around a little full and was boisterous a look from him to the chief 
resulted in such Indian being seized by the chief and carried outside.  
This illustrates not only his general knowledge of human nature but his 
special knowledge of the Indian character.
The business of the post resulted so well that when his furs, skins and 
peltries were carried into Mackinac, they were received with great 
surprise.  Mr. Astor was not there.  Mr. Stuart sought to keep him in 
their employ, but Mr. Robinson had resolved to be his own master.
His white guest had some acquaintance with the tobacco trade among the 
Indians as carried on at that time from St. Louis, and had filled Mr. 
Robinson with a desire to enter into that lucrative trade.  Mr. Robinson 
drew all of his funds out, went to St. Louis and bought a quantity of 
tobacco and some supplies and went into business again as an independent 
Indian trader, and pursued it among them during the season of 1819.  The 
profit he made selling tobacco to the Indians increased his capital to a 
point sufficient to enable him to again start in business on his own 
account as an Indian trader.  In looking around for a location, he 
decided that a post on the Calumet river, in what is now South Chicago, 
would be the most desirable and advantageous, so he commenced there in 
the autumn.   His winter's business was so good that he found himself 
able to establish another station on the Illinois River, about twenty-
five miles from its mouth, in 1820, and also one in Wisconsin, at or near 
where Milwaukee now stands.  
In the years 1819 and 1820 St. Louis was the point at which he disposed 
of his furs, and purchased his goods and supplies.  The journey to and 
from that place in his canoes and barges was long, slow, tedious,  had 
many portages and was very monotonous.  But in 1821 his position changed; 
he was no longer a mere Indian trader, but became a limited partner in 
the American Fur Company, Ramsey Crooks and Robert Stuart being, so far 
as I can learn, the only full partners of Mr. Astor therein.  Mr. Astor 
was at Mackinac, and from there sent to Mr. Robinson a request to meet 
him at Mackinac, and then offered him the chance to go to the Grand, 
Kalamazoo, and Muskegon rivers, making his headquarters on the Grand.  At 
this time the British government was paying to the Indians of Michigan an 
annuity (if it may be so termed) and making resents, at a certain time, 
at Malden, in Canada, thereby keeping their good will, and, to some 
extent, securing their furs, etc.
The American Fur Company had for some years a small station near the 
mouth of the So-wan-que-sake (meaning forked stream, that is the 
Thornapple) river, where it empties into the O-wash-te-nong (Grand) 
river.  The literal meaning of the name is, "far in the interior;" that 
is literally, "far off land river."  The post was near where Ada is, and, 
for some time after her husband's death, had been managed quite ably by 
Madame La Framboise, a French half-breed, in the interest of the American 
Fur Co., but she had concluded to retire from the business.

Mr. Robinson accepted the offer and at once closed up his post near the 
mouth of the Illinois river, and came over to the mouth of the Grand 
River, now Grand Haven, and established a post, although prior to that he 
had taken possession of the one at Ada.  He selected a lovely site on the 
bank of the river at a point from which he could readily penetrate into 
the remote interior parts of the lower peninsula by means of the Grand 
River and its numerous long tributaries, navigable for the canoe and the 
Mackinac boats, as his permanent home.  He had become so completely 
weaned from civilized life as to have no desire to return to it.  He 
married according to the Indian customs, Pee-miss-a-quot-o-quay (Flying 
Cloud Woman), the daughter of the principal chief of the Pere Marquette 
Indians, in September of 1821.  By her he had one child, now the Rev. 
John Robinson, an exemplary Methodist missionary among the Ottawa and 
Chippewa Indians of the state.
She died; he married again (the white man's way) another Indian woman who 
had been educated in the mission school at Mackinac.  Her name was Se-be-
quay (River Woman); the ceremony was performed by Rev. Leonard Slater, 
the Baptist Missionary at Thomas Station.  She was a sister of Na-bun-na-
ge-zhick ("half day" or "part of the day") and the granddaughter of Na-
nom-ma-daw-ba, the head chief of the Grand River Indians at the mouth.  
By her he had no children.
He established other posts at Flat River, at Muskegon and up the 
Kalamazoo a few miles from its mouth.  His firmness and decision, his 
absolute fairness of dealing, his knowledge of their character, and his 
remarkable knowledge of their language, his acquaintance with their 
traditions, customs and unwritten laws, his truthfulness, and his taking 
to himself an Indian wife, resulted in giving him a very great influence 
among his people.
Many stories illustrating these traits are told of him.   I will select 
and relate two or three.
Nim-min-did, a large, powerful, finely built Indian bully well known on 
the lower Grand River from its mouth to Flat River, who thoroughly hated 
the white man, in 1823, conspired with some other Indians, having a like 
hatred, to thrash Mr. Robinson and drive him from the river, through 
fear.  His conduct on two or three occasions when he came to the Ada 
trading post was such as to satisfy Mr. Robinson that he meant to give 
him trouble, when a good opportunity arose, so he was particularly 
guarded in his intercourse with that Indian.  On the return of the 
Indians from one of their great hunts Mr. Robinson was much gratified by 
their encamping near his post, until he discovered that Nim-min-did was 
with them and they had a bottle or two of whiskey.  He surmised that now 
his time of trial had come.  He went into his storeroom, cleared an open 
space, and placed an armful of finely cut rather long maple sticks on the 
fire.  In a little time a lot of squaws and young and old Indians crowded 
in the room, followed by Nim-min-did, who began jostling the other 
Indians.  Robinson stepped forward to Nim-min-did and ordered him to 
leave; hardly were the words of refusal out of his mouth before Mr. 
Robinson caught and threw him into the fire, taking him completely by 
surprise.  The squaws shrieked, the old man ejaculated, "Ugh! ugh!" and 
the young Indians laughed at the discomfited bully, to whom but a moment 
before they were ready to bow down.  Nim-min-did rolled off the fire, 
howling with pain, and ran to the woods a few rods away.  In those few 
minutes he had lost his standing and became an outcast.  Nothing was seen 
or heard of him for a number of years, when on one occasion, as Mr. 
Robinson was in his canoe, being paddled along near Battle Point, on the 
lower Grand River, a tall Indian stood on the Point and beckoned to them 
to come ashore.  On landing, the Indian rushed up to Mr. Robinson with 
apparent gladness and friendliness -- it was Nim-min-did.  After a  talk 
with him, in which he stated that he had gone away a good many days 
journey, and had been a good Indian ever since, they separated, and none 
of them ever saw or heard of him after that.

A year or two after that his agent at Grand Haven, told him that one of 
the Indians there, who was large and reputed to be quite strong and ugly, 
was in the habit of coming into the store room, and without leave to do 
so, or paying for it, helping himself to whiskey.  The next time Mr. 
Robinson was there he inquired into it.  But a day or two elapsed before 
the Indian came in and, as usual, proceeded to help himself to the 
whiskey.  Mr. Robinson said, "What do you want?"  Reply, "Whiskey."  
"Well, if you pay for it you can have it."  "I will have it, pay or no 
pay," and the Indian started toward the barrel.  Mr. Robinson planted a 
heavy blow between his eyes, knocking him down and then kicking him out.  
Several days after a young friendly Indian came to him and told him to 
look out, for this Indian was bad and had just carefully hid a knife in 
his breech cloth and was coming to talk with him.  Soon the Indian came 
in and wanted him to go out with him and talk it over.  The Indian 
started to go out behind him.  Robinson said, "Go ahead."  When they got 
off one side, Robinson said, "When we talk this over you may get mad, 
have you got a knife about you?"  "Oh, no," he replied, he had no knife, 
he would not get mad.  Robinson said, "I must search you."  The Indian 
had so adroitly secreted the knife that Robinson did not discover it, but 
the young Indian stepped up and pulled it out from his breech cloth 
behind.  The Indian appeared dumfounded at being detected.  Robinson 
said, "You have brought me out here into the bushes by the river to 
murder and throw me into the river, have you?"  "No, no!"  Robinson was 
enraged, jumped onto him, threw him into the river and held his head 
underwater; he became insensible, the bubbles gurgled up through the 
water, he was drowning him.  Some squaws seeing them go toward the bushes 
of the river bank, had surmised the truth and hurried forward, as was 
their usual way to prevent, if possible, any collision.  Just then they 
got there and begged so hard of Robinson not to kill him, as he might do, 
under Indian law, that he passed the seemingly lifeless body to them and 
walked away.  They resuscitated him.  Robinson did not see him for more 
than a year, then he came to him and asked his pardon.  After a time he 
entered his employ and was one of his best and most trusted men for many 
years.
When Michigan became a state in 1836, Mr. Robinson and all other Indian 
traders foresaw that the business of Indian trading must soon close, and 
he resolved to turn his attention to farming and his mercantile and land 
matters at Grand Haven, and go out of the business except what little 
might come to Ada station.  He had now become very wealthy, and was 
looked up to and highly respected by the few white settlers that had come 
in within the few preceding years.  In 1834 Mr. Astor had sold out the 
business and property of the American Fur Company to Ramsay Crooks and a 
party of eastern men.  This required the final settling up of the 
business at all posts and with all special partners; so in 1835, 1836 and 
1837, Mr. Robinson settled up the affairs of the different posts in his 
charge and his accounts with the company, closing out the Kalamazoo post 
in 1837, the Grand Haven and Ada posts in 1836, and the other minor posts 
in 1835, to the satisfaction of both the company and himself.
In 1831 the legislative council by an act approved March 2, had set off 
sixteen of the present twenty-four government townships of Kent County, 
and established as a county by the name of Kent.  In 1834 the council 
organized the whole county as a township to bear the name of Kent, to 
take effect on the first Monday of April 1834; they had already attached 
this and other territory to Kalamazoo for judicial purposes, etc., 
October 1, 1830, and at the first election, held the first Monday of 
April 1834, Mr. Robinson was elected supervisor of the township of Kent, 
which had then an area of 576 square miles, and as such attended the 
sessions of the board of supervisors of Kalamazoo County in the years 
1834 and 1835.
The land where the city of Grand Haven now is, was surveyed by the 
government in 1832, and was opened up to preemption claims.  It was here 
that Mr. Robinson had his post for eleven years, and he preempted the 
tract on which it was situated, for he had faith that a city would grow 
up there when the country was settled.  Mr. Robert Stuart had the same 
faith and purchased a half interest in it, and then sent the Rev. William 
M. Ferry, the father of Ex. U.S. Senator T.W. Ferry, to go there as his 
agent.  The Grand Haven company was organized, composed of Mr. Robinson, 
owning one half, and Mr. Stuart, with Mr. Ferry and Ferry's brother-in-
law, Capt. N.H. White, owning the other half interest in the land, who 
platted the land and named it Grand Haven.  Mr. Robinson had become the 
head of the firm (located at Grand Haven in 1835) of Robinson, White & 
Williams, as he was painfully reminded when he had to pay upwards of 
$30,000 of its indebtedness out of his own pocket.
Thus we see Mr. Robinson at the time of the foundation of this State, an 
ex-Indian trader, engaged in making a large, beautiful farm of several 
hundred acres, a large landholder, the part proprietor of a village, the 
head of a large mercantile establishment, and the official head of a new 
township whose destiny to become a rich, thriving, populous country was 
even then to be foreseen.

Mr. Robinson had as early as 1835 entered with all of his energy into the 
matter of emigration to western Michigan, and had procured the emigration 
of six of his brothers, with their families, in all forty-two persons, 
from Cayuga County, NY, in 1835, coming in one vessel from Detroit, the 
schooner St. Joseph.  They located and became farmers at different points 
between the mouth of the Grand River and Flat River, on of its 
tributaries.  This was the cause of a large emigration from that portion 
of western New York, during the next two years.
Mr. Robinson was largely instrumental in securing the making of the 
treaty of Washington with the Indians in 1836 accompanying them to 
Washington for that purpose.  By that treaty more than one half of the 
area of the lower peninsula was ceded by the Indians to the general 
government, for a full, fair consideration.  It  reserved special tracts 
to a number of different persons, including 640 acres to the Indian 
family of Mr. Robinson.  The land is now partly covered by the city of 
Grand Rapids; it was appraised and its value given them, the government 
keeping the land.  According to Mr. Everett, the amount was $23,040 or $3 
an acre.
In connection with his going to Washington with the Indian chiefs, who 
declined to go without Mr. Robinson, who went at the solicitation of the 
government, on its expense, I will note here the following anecdote.  He 
took charge of the transportation of the chiefs who filled two stage 
coaches full.  They stopped at a tavern in the interior of Indiana; he 
stepped up to the landlord and said, "I want so many good dinners for 
these Indians."  They were seated and just helped when the stages again 
drove up and the drivers announced themselves as ready to go and would 
not wait, s they were carrying U.S. Mail.  Mr. Robinson saw no help for 
it, and counted out the silver at 25 cents a head, the highest price then 
paid for a meal at a tavern, many charging as low as half that amount.  
The landlord said, "You must double that sir."  "That is not fair, we 
have not even had enough to eat, and that is the highest price usually 
charged for such."  "Fifty cents is my price sir, it is no fault of mine 
that the stages will not wait, the food was ready."  It was paid.  On 
their way back when nearing the same place he would not for a whole day 
let them eat; the chiefs complained of hunger; his only reply was, 
"tighten your belts."  A short time before arriving at the tavern, he got 
up beside first one driver and then the other.  The chink of silver could 
have been heard.  They arrived there.  He ordered as before, adding that 
his Indians were very hungry.  He didn't seem to recognize the landlord 
or the place.  The landlord smiled, as much to say, I will make another 
good haul.  The food was set before them.  Robinson said, "Loosen your 
belts."  It disappeared in a minute; they called for more, the girls 
brought it, the landlord rushed distracted to the door, but no stages 
were driving up, nor were there any signs of any; more food was the call; 
all that was cooked was brought up, then the cold meats and everything 
eatable were brought and eaten up; finally their appetites were 
satisfied, but the famine in that house was awful.  Mr. Robinson stepped 
up to the landlord and counted out one half dollar a head.  "That will 
not pay me one quarter of the cost of the raw material."  "I can't help 
it sir; you set your own price when we were here before, and that is it; 
and look here friend, it would be well not to play tricks on travelers?"  
"Well, sir, you shan't go until you pay me my charges."  "Sir, don't you 
know that at a word from me, you and every man about here would be killed 
in ten minutes?  It will not look well for you to attack them or attempt 
to keep them."  The coachmen were called and were quickly on hand.  The 
whole secret of the matter was, Mr. Robinson had penetrated the 
innkeeper's secret and overbid him with the drivers. 
  	At the formation of the state he was appointed one of the first 
board of commissioners of internal improvements, who were to expend the 
five million dollar loan, which the state had made for the formation of a 
grand railroad system, a grand canal system, and a grand system of river 
improvements, and, for several years gave almost his entire personal 
attention and services to the performance of its duties.
Col. Andrew T. McReynolds, then (1836 to 1848) a resident of Detroit 
(which was then virtually Michigan) and, at that time, one of the most 
prominent of her business men, and a large factor in the politics of the 
state, describes the standing and the personal appearance of Mr. Robinson 
thus: "I knew Rix Robinson from 1834, long before he went into the 
senate.  He was a man of good judgement, and quiet pleasant, social ways, 
and not at all dissipated; his habits were most excellent.  His principal 
associates in Detroit were John Norvall, Lucius Lyon, Tom Sheldon, U.S. 
Senator Palmer's father, Judge Witherell, Judge Wilkins, and such men of 
standing always.  He was a man of imposing form and stature, dressed 
neatly, always attracted  attention on the streets more than any other 
man in Detroit, by his size, his general appearance, and a certain 
massiveness of head and face.  People stopped as he passed along to look 
at him.  He was a very positive, determined man; it was difficult to move 
his convictions.  He was a man of sterling integrity; his word was as 
good as his bond."

An enumeration of the offices he held, no one of which was solicited by 
him, for the office sought him, will give convincing proof of the 
estimation in which he was held in the early days of the state.
He was township assessor of Ada in 1838, and supervisor of Ada in 1841.  
When the supervisor system was restored in 1844, he was again supervisor 
of Ada.  He was commissioner to build a state road from Ionia county seat 
to Grand Rapids in 1840.  In 1836-7 he was appointed and confirmed by the 
senate one of the commissioners of internal improvements of the state of 
Michigan.  He was state senator from the 5th district in the eleventh 
legislature, and from the 7th district in the twelfth, thirteenth and 
fourteenth legislatures.  In 1844-5 he was associate justice of the 
circuit court for the county of Kent; was one of the commissioners for 
improvement of the rapids in Grand River in 184-, and member of the 
convention that formed the state constitution in 1850.  The nomination to 
the office of governor of the state, with a certainty of election, was in 
his power while the democratic party was in the zenith of its power in 
this state.  He declined to allow his name to be used, solely because of 
the fact that his wife was an Indian (for whom he had the tenderest 
affection) and would be unable and unwilling to perform the social duties 
that were then required of the governor's wife.  She was by no means an 
uneducated woman and was an excellent housekeeper, but not fitted to 
shine in social life.  She would not even use the English language in 
ordinary conversation, although well acquainted with it.  She was proud 
of her Indian blood and ancestry, and hardly deemed the generality of 
white blood up to its level.
Mr. Robinson was possessed of cultivated tastes, read a good deal and 
kept himself well posted on the topics of the day.  He was a quiet man, 
reserved, but not shy; not given to talking much about himself, and was a 
very careful, conscientious, truthful man in making statements.  His 
insight into human nature was quite extraordinary.  He had great love of 
his home, his family and his kin, and was always the Red man's friend, to 
whom they went in difficulty for counsel and advice.
He had a quiet humor, was a good story teller, when with intimate 
friends; had a very retentive, ready memory, was energetic and 
sympathetic.  He took up the wrongs of the Indians always, and had them 
redressed, as in the case of the trial and conviction of Miller for the 
murder, in 1842, of the squaw, Ne-ga.  In the detection and arrest of the 
fugitive sheriff, Hon. T.D. Gilbert won for himself laurels and evinced 
considerable skill as a detective, as seemingly he had no starting clue.
His kicking Sim Johnson, one of U.S. President James Buchanan's trusted 
political friends, through the streets of Grand Rapids, for not returning 
2,000 silver dollars lent him to enable his wildcat bank to make a good 
show to the bank commissioner who was inspecting its pecuniary condition, 
was done in midday, in the most public part of the city.  Johnson was 
nearly as tall and well formed a man as Mr. Robinson.  The ridicule it 
excited drove Johnson away.
Mr. Robinson was always very hospitable and generous, often aided his 
friends with his name, to such an extent that at the time of his death, 
although possessing yet a large property, it was found too not very much 
exceed his liabilities.  He became president of the Old Settlers' 
Association of Kent, Ionia and Ottawa counties three years before his 
death and held that position when he died.
He was a man of temperate habits. Until a couple of years before his 
death, he was not in the habit of attending divine service, save on 
funeral occasions.  The complete reformation that religion had produced 
upon his son, the Rev. John R. Robinson, in elevating him from a drunken, 
dissolute half-breed, a source of constant trouble and anxiety to his 
father, to a sober, grave, considerate, kind son, a good citizen, a 
humble follower of the cross, an outspoken disciple, a clergyman working 
with zeal among his race, and one whose private life had become 
unblemished, caused Rix to turn his attention to religion, and to ask to 
be baptized.  The last two or three years of his life he was a follower 
of the cross, and  had confidence as to his future life beyond this 
world.
His intellect was strong and clear; it was only the physical body that 
was worn out and ceased to be the wrap of the soul January 13, 1875.  No 
monument marks the place where this remarkable man's remains repose, on 
the crest of a hill at Ada, overlooking the river he so loved, and the 
home of more than fifty years of his life.
	Ed. Note: a monument has since been erected.
	___________________________________________________

	Rix Robinson Trading Post
	Excerpt from the Kalamazoo Gazette, Sunday, Jan. 27, 1957,
	"Museum Opens 20th Century Rix Robinson Trading Post."

Rix Robinsons Trading Post has been out of business since 1837.  Rix 
Robinson was the operator of one of the first trading posts located in 
what is now Kalamazoo.  According to the records, he was a New Yorker who 
arrived in these parts by way of Detroit.  About 1816 he began setting up 
a string of trading posts to deal with the Indians.  He set up shop on 
the banks of the Kalamazoo River back in 1824, about where the  Patterson 
street bridge is.  He built a thriving fur trading business working there 
in the fall, winter and spring and moving up to Mackinac Island in the 
summer.

	___________________________________________________


In his 1836 journal, John M. Gordon wrote of Robinson, whom he had met at 
an Indian powwow, "He is a man cast in the mold of a giant: well-framed, 
active and erect as a hunter..." 
(Michigan History, Dec 1959, pp 457-458, in J. Seigal,  A Snug Little 
Place: Memories of Ada, Michigan 1821-1930,  pub. by Ada Historical 
Society, 1993

	___________________________________________________


You May Fire when Ready, Ladies
Excerpt from The Grand Rapids Press, Oct. 4, 1970, by Donna H.

In 1849 Rix Robinson, a pioneer of the Grand River Valley serving in the 
Michigan State Senate, let loose from committee the first Senate document 
to endorse a woman suffrage amendment to the state constitution.  The 
constitutional convention meeting the next year snubbed the idea, but did 
decide women could control property they owned before marriage.
	___________________________________________________

One chief who went to Washington with Robinson was Wabesis, the "white 
swan."  Never forgiven for selling his tribe's hunting grounds, he was 
banished to a lake in Kent County which bears his name today.
	Seigal, Jane, A Snug Little Place: Memories of Ada, Michigan 1821-
1930, pub. by Ada Historical Society, 1993.

	___________________________________________________

Rix Robinson: Sojourner or Settler
Seigal, Jane, A Snug Little Place: Memories of Ada, Michigan 1821-1930, 
pub. by Ada Historical Society, 1993.

Charles C. Chapman, in "A History of Kent County" (1881), describes 
Robinson as a "sojourner, not a settler" -- and in this way he was most 
like the Indians.  "Being a person without rights, and at the sufferance 
of the Indians, he can scarcely be called for many years a settler, but 
rather a sojourner....He identified himself with the Indians for purposes 
of trade" (Michigan History, Dec 1959, p 487).

Robinson did more than identify with the Indians; he earned their trust 
and friendship.  He married two Indian women, the first in 1821.  Pee-
miss-a-quot-o-quay, or "Flying Cloud Woman," was an Ottawa chief's 
daughter and a lineal descendant of the great chief Pontiac.  The 
marriage lasted the minimum of "100 moons," after which time Robinson's 
Indian wife left.  His second wife was also an Ottawa, named Se-be-quay, 
or Sippy Quay "River Woman," and was with him until he died in 1875.  
Robinson was rumored to have two "squaw wives" simultaneously, and there 
were some who said five Indian women lived with Robinson at one time.  
According to Indian custom, and to promote negotiations with different 
tribes, Robinson lived a certain number of moons with each wife.  Some 
also said Robinson had a home and a white wife in Grand Rapids, and 
another up north.  But with all these alleged unions, Robinson had only 
one child -- a son, named John.
The Indians also gave Robinson an Ottawa name, "Wabesha," meaning a 
marten, an animal renowned among the Indians for both its valuable fur 
and its courage.  But perhaps the most important evidence of Robinson's 
relationship with the Indians was the manner in which he lived his life 
after the Washington Treaty.  Robinson returned to the station at the 
Grand and Thornapple Rivers and chose to stay living among the Indians.  
And he remained a negotiator for them throughout his life.
In 1834, Robinson closed his last trading post, one mile down the Grand 
River from the mouth of the Thornapple.  He then began an impressive 
career of public service, which included membership in the Constitutional 
Convention of Michigan of 1850, a circuit court judgeship, and a State 
Senatorial seat.  He was an important figure in revising the state 
constitution and was an advocate of woman suffrage.  Popular myth has it 
that Robinson would have been governor, but for his shy Indian wife and 
the intolerance of white society.  By 1862, Robinson retired from public 
life; he is listed in township records of that year as "running a general 
store." 
On January 13, 1875, Rix Robinson died of "dropsy," most likely 
congestive heart failure, at this home at 7185 Headley in Ada.  It is 
unclear where he was buried; some say down on the flats, the river bottom 
land he loved, while others say he is buried in Ada Cemetery.  A monument 
to Robinson in the cemetery -- land which Robinson sold to the Ada 
Township Board of Health -- bears the following inscription:  "Brave, 
Honest, Patriotic, A Loving Husband and Father, A Friend of the Indians, 
Their Negotiator with the Government, and a Peace Maker, Indian Trader on 
Grand River, 18221; Supervisor Township of Kent, 1834; Supervisor 
Township of Ada, 1840; associate Judge of Circuit Court for Kent County, 
1844; State Senator, 1854; State Commissioner of Internal Improvements, 
1846; Member of State Constitutional Convention, 1850."
	___________________________________________________

Rix Robinson was said to be 6 foot 6 inches tall. 

Ed Niles, born in 1907:  "My dad said Rix was a big, tall man." 

Mrs. Josephine Burt, who came to Ada in 1854 at age three, recalled:
 "He was a big man, with a curly beard and curly white hair."
	Seigal, Jane, A Snug Little Place: Memories of Ada, Michigan 1821-
1930, pub. by Ada Historical Society, 1993. pp. 20.

	___________________________________________________

	Early settlers in Grand Haven had varied backgrounds
	by Judy Morganthall, Grand Haven Tribune, Friday, November 2, 1984

First Pioneer, Madeline La Framboise
The first pioneer of the Grand River valley was a shrewd trader and a 
bold adventurer who was highly esteemed by both whites and Indians. 
Historians have said it will surprise many to learn a "lady" was the 
first pioneer of the valley but add she was a woman of no ordinary force 
of character.  Madam Madeline La Framboise was the granddaughter of one 
of the most powerful chiefs of the Lake Superior Region and her mother a 
French woman.  Famed for her beauty and spirit, she had been educated in 
a convent at Montreal.
In 1796 she married Joseph La Framboise, a French trader with the 
American Fur Company who had full charge of the Indian trade in western 
Michigan.  After their marriage they spent their winters at Mackinac and 
left in the spring for their travels south on the east shore of Lake 
Michigan.  They traded with the Indians until they reached the Grand 
River.  They left Mackinac in 1809 for their usual posts on the Grand 
River in two oats with a crew of six men in each.  They were blown ashore 
about halfway between Muskegon and Grand Haven and ran into a party of 
Indians.  One demanded whiskey from Joseph and was refused.  One 
historian says that the Indian then stabbed La Framboise to death, but 
another relates that while La Framboise was kneeling in a tent at night 
saying his prayers, he was killed by the Indian.  Madam La Framboise 
could not summon help and by the time the Pottawatomies arrived, it was 
too late.  At dawn she assumed the burden of her sorrow.  Near the mouth 
of the Grand River, probably at the present site of Grand Haven, she 
buried him, according to one historian.  Another source said she buried 
her husband's remains on Mackinac Island.
In the course of that winter the Indians captured the murderer of  her 
husband and brought him to her post on Crockery Creek.  She gave an 
eloquent speech about her husband's piety and good deeds.  She told the 
Indians to forgive the captive and leave him to the Great Spirit. But the 
Indians banished him from their tribe and he was an outcast.  Some say 
the next season, the body of the murderer of her husband was found.  
Hardened by constantly coping with frontier life, and perhaps because of 
the touch of Indian blood in her veins, she was not daunted but proceeded 
to their usual place and took up the work of her husband until she turned 
over her post to Rix Robinson.
Madam La Framboise became very wealthy.  She was considered a woman of 
commanding form, agreeable manners, and excellent deportment.  She became 
a successful agent for the government but her advanced age and the 
growing interest of the fur company demanded her removal.  She lived at 
Mackinac until 1845 when she died, where one historian claims she and her 
husband lie buried side by side.  Their only daughter married Captain 
Pierce, a brother of former U.S. President Franklin Pierce.  She is also 
buried on the island in the same crypt with her mother.  The old chimney 
of Madam La Framboise's hut and the excavations in which her canoes were 
hidden are the oldest relics of pioneer life in the Grand River valley.  
The post was located in the town of Lowell.

Fur Trader, Rix Robinson
Rix Robinson, who was the best known fur trader on the Grand River, 
became one of the first pioneers in the settlement of Ottawa County.  
Born in Richmond, Mass. on Aug. 28, 1789, he was the third of 13 
children.  His father was a blacksmith.  When he was 19, he began to 
study law.  He was within three months of completing studies which would 
admit him to practice at the bar when the War of 1812 broke out.  He was 
drafted, but his father was opposed to war, so Rix failed to appear.  
When the Army authorities searched for him, he could not be found.  He 
remained quietly in an upstairs room.  Historians say that draft dodging 
in that day was common.

Rix left Buffalo and went to Detroit where he went into the business of 
providing supplies to United States troops along the frontier.  After two 
years of experience in profit and loss he went to St. Louis where he 
invested his proceeds in tobacco.  He began trading with the Indians and 
established trading posts in Calumet, Ill., near the head of Lake 
Michigan, on the Illinois River, and at Milwaukee.  His ability with the 
Indians was recognized by John Jacob Astor, who hired him to take over 
the American Fur Trading Company posts in western Michigan.  The 20 posts 
included the ones in Lowell and Grand Haven.
Robinson was the successor to Madam La Framboise as an agent of the 
American Fur Company.  Mackinac became the central depot of the American 
Fur Company for the lakes.  Supplies were purchased and sales were made 
at the island, as the most convenient market to reach.  The arrival and 
departure of Robinson's fleet to and from the Grand River once a year was 
a grand event to break the monotony of frontier life along the valley 
from 1821 to 1834.
Robinson's influence had much to do with the pacification of the Indians 
and their devotions to peaceful occupations.  In September 1821 Robinson 
married Flying Cloud Woman, daughter of the principal chief of the Pere 
Marquette Indians.  Their son, Robinson's only child, was born near Duck 
Lake between Muskegon and White River on March 5, 1826.  He was sent to 
schools at Mackinac at an early age and later became a missionary among 
the Indians by the Methodist Conference.  After his first wife died in 
1848, Robinson married another Indian princess, River Woman, who was 
reportedly the granddaughter of the head chief of the Grand River 
Indians.  Some sources said two wives were sisters and both were 
intelligent and educated women.
In 1821 Robinson was said to be the first white man to set foot on the 
territory that is now Kent County.  He broke through the trackless forest 
to the junction of the Thornapple and Grand Rivers.  His marriage to 
River Woman resulted in her grandfather bestowing upon Robinson the Great 
Bayou and reserving it in the interests of Robinson.  Robinson 
accumulated more ground until he owned 721 acres of the choicest farming 
land in Kent County.  His original homestead acreage comes to the Village 
of Ada and was nothing short of a pioneer palace.  Robinson became so 
proficient in the use of several Indian languages that he established a 
reputation that he could talk better than the Indians himself.
Robinson's company and the Hudson Fur Trading Company became competitors, 
which often led to serious trouble.  During a fight with an Indian chief 
over some whiskey, Robinson struck him and he fell into the fireplace.  
Robinson dragged the burned and bruised Indian to the door and threw him 
out.  After the incident, Robinson was warned not to hunt or he would be 
killed.  Robinson continued to hunt as usual and one evening the Indian 
chief appeared in the doorway.  Instead of fighting, the Indian chief and 
Robinson settled their differences and sat down together to smoke a pipe.  
They became friends and Robinson got all of their fur business.
In 1832 Grand Haven was still the headquarters for the 20 Trading posts 
of the American Fur Company with Robinson as the sole manager.  Robinson 
had a store, a warehouse with a boat dock, and a dwelling house with four 
rooms occupied by Robinson and his wife at the foot of what is now 
Washington Street.  Until the fall of 1834, Grand Haven included Indians, 
traders and French voyageurs called Denvins.
Robinson retired from Fur Trading in 1837.  He had been elected 
supervisor from Ada Township in 1834, followed by road commissioner and a 
state senator.  In 1844 and 1845 he was an associate circuit justice in 
Kent County and was a delegate to the convention which formulated the 
constitution in 1850.  Robinson turned down the Democratic nomination for 
governor of Michigan, he said because of his Indian wife.  He feared his 
wife would not be acceptable in the society attendant to that high 
office.
Robinson died at the age of 85 at his home in Ada.  His remains repose on 
the crest of a hill at Ada overlooking the river he so loved.  He was 
considered a rugged giant of a fellow and a fabulous hunter.  He had a 
kindly, well-adjusted personality, a shrewd business mind, and a finely 
developed social sense.  A resolute quiet man, he shied away from 
civilized company until his later years.  Until his death, he was known 
throughout western Michigan as the friend of the Indians.
	___________________________________________________

"...the great influence he had with the Indians, exerted always in the 
interest of peace between the Indians and the Whites, went far to 
establish good feeling and fair dealing between them at that early day."
Winsor, Zenas G., Early Settlements in Ottawa County, Michigan Historical 
Collection, 9:236, Lansing, MI.  1886.  Reprinted in Michigan History, 
Dec 1959.
	___________________________________________________


	Rix Robinson loomed large among the state's frontier people
	The State Journal, Sunday, April 15, 1979, Lansing, Michigan by Dan 
Hager

Like Saul in the Old Testament, who stood head and shoulders above most 
of the people and was their overwhelming choice to be their ruler, a 
figure in early Lansing had a similarly imposing stature.  But he 
declined to be governor out of deference to his Indian wife.  His name 
was Rix Robinson and he spent most of his Michigan career farther down 
the Grand River -- at Ada and Grand Haven.  But he also got into politics 
and served four terms in the state legislature during the transition 
period when the capital was transferred from Detroit to Lansing.  He 
retired after the 1849 term.
In an era when few men reached six feet in height, Robinson towered well 
over that figure.  And he had well-proportioned, hard-muscled bulk to go 
with his height.  It came in handy on the Michigan frontier.  He arrived 
on it almost by accident.  He was reading law in a small town in western 
New York with the intention of becoming a respectable attorney there, 
when the War of 1812 broke out.  It was an unpopular war in many 
quarters, especially in the western settlements, and Robinson's father 
refused to let his sons participate.  When the conscripting officers came 
around to draft young men into the military, the father made sure his 
sons were hard to find.  The safest place was still farther west, and son 
Rix made his way there.  He latched on with a civilian supplier to 
American troops and landed finally at Fort Mackinac on Mackinac Island.  
It was a tough way to make a living.  A provisioner had to buy his own 
supplies, then sell them to troops who weren't getting paid, and then try 
to collect from them after the war.
Robinson was successful in securing a payment, and by then had such a 
taste for western isolation that he stayed around the western Great 
Lakes.  He trapped from Green Bay around Lake Michigan and into the 
Mississippi Valley.  In 1818 he came to the attention of John Jacob Astor 
of the American Fur Co., who was trying to break the strangle hold 
clamped on the regional fur trade by the Hudson's Bay Co.  Robinson was 
assigned to a northern outpost at which all previous traders had failed 
in face of competition of a nearby Hudson's Bay Co. trading post.  
Robinson bided his time, reading Shakespeare and analyzing the Indian 
character.  He decided the keys to success in dealing with the natives 
were never to show fear and to take appropriate action in the face of 
sufficient provocation.
One Chief taunted him, pointedly waving his furs on the way to the 
competing post.  But Robinson saw that, every time, they were the same 
furs, and he remained impassive.  The Indian was goaded into more rash 
action, and finally one day he broke into Robinson's storeroom after 
goods that he wasn't about to pay for.  Robinson laid him out in the 
fireplace with one punch.  No revenge was forthcoming.  Instead the 
Indian appeared a couple of days later and smoked a pipe of peace.  
Thereafter he and others brought all their furs to Robinson.
With that success, Robinson declined Astor's offer of permanent 
employment and struck out on his own, setting up trading posts at Grand 
Haven and Ada.  He built a reputation among the Indians of being a square 
shooter.  He still met occasional tests of his mettle.   Once in his Ada 
store, an Indian about as large as he was made a point of expressing his 
dislike of white men and indicated he would drive Robinson from the area.   
In anticipation of the showdown, Robinson kept a roaring fire in his 
outpost.  Then the Indian came in one day and began jostling the other 
Indians trading there.  Robinson ordered him to leave.  The Indian 
refused. Robinson threw him into the fire.  They met a few years later 
far down the Grand.  The Indian was friendly and apologized for his 
earlier conduct. 
At Grand Haven another potential customer showed particular treachery.  
He had been helping himself to merchandise without paying when Robinson 
was not around.  One day when Robinson was, he threw the Indian out.  A 
few days later the Indian returned, ostensibly to talk, but with a knife 
hidden on him.  When Robinson discovered it, he threw his adversary in 
the river and held him under until relenting at the pleas of some women.  
The Indian later went to work for Robinson and became one of his most 
trusted employees.

>From the beginning Robinson learned the Indian tongues and conversed with 
them in their own language.  His wife was the daughter of a chief from 
the western Michigan area.  Like her husband, she became bilingual, too.  
But according to a contemporary historian, she didn't really care for 
English and used it as little as possible.  Her feeling extended also to 
the English-speakers to a large degree.  Wrote the historian, "She was 
proud of her Indian blood and ancestry and hardly deemed the generality 
of white blood up to its level."
As Robinson prospered, he became involved in politics after his adopted 
territory became a state.  After several positions on the local level, he 
was elected to the state legislature in 1845, when the capital was still 
Detroit.  He made an impact there, partly for his reputation for 
integrity, partly for the quiet manner in which he dealt with people, and 
partly for his physical appearance.  Wrote a contemporary Detroit 
businessman, "He was a man of imposing form and stature, dressed neatly, 
always attracted attention on the streets more than any other man in 
Detroit, by his size, his general appearance, and a certain massiveness 
of head and face.  People stopped as he passed along to look at him."  He 
likely made a similar impact around the new Lansing capital, where he 
stayed during the three month legislative sessions during 1848 and 1849.
He was prominent enough statewide that backers pushed him to run for 
governor.  He realized the unfavorable pressure that such a position 
would put on his wife, so he squelched the move.  He returned to his Ada 
home but continued to have and influence in civic and business affairs.  
He also continued to become physical under suitable provocation.  On one 
occasion a wheeler-dealer with high political connections betrayed 
Robinson's trust in a business transaction.  Wrote a contemporary, 
"(Robinson) kicked Sim Johnson, one of (Pres. James) Buchanan's trusted 
political friends, through the streets of Grand Rapids.

	___________________________________________________

 
When Montague was Young 
Excerpt from The Grand Rapids Press, 9 Jul. 1967, Part II

The oldest historical spot in the White Lake region is where Scenic Drive 
winds around the southern shore of Duck Lake.  Near the highway, where it 
dips down almost to the sandy beach of Lake Michigan, stood the first 
building erected by the white man in all this region.  Its exact location 
was east of the old road and close to the south side of the mouth of Duck 
Lake, overlooking Lake Michigan.  It was occupied by the famous trader, 
Rix Robinson, who later founded Grand Haven.  Here his son, John 
Robinson, was born in 1826.  John was always under the impression that 
the cabin had been built by Joseph La Framboise, at one time Western 
Michigan's agent for the John Jacob Astor Fur Co.  The Duck Lake Post, 
probably built between 1790 and 1809, was one of 20 trading stations 
established by Astor.

	___________________________________________________

	Did Michigan Have a John Smith - Pocahontas Tale?
	by Dan Hager, The Grand Rapids Press, July 14, 1968

The paleface prisoner is being terribly abused by the Indians, to the 
point that it looks as though they're going to kill him.  But suddenly, 
at the last minute, an Indian maiden dashes forth to the rescue, and 
saves his life.  It sounds like the John Smith - Pocahontas story, except 
that this time it happened in Michigan.  And it has a better ending.  
After the rescue, they get married, and live happily ever after.  It's a 
story said to have happened to Rix Robinson, pioneer West Michigan fur 
trader, first Yankee to settle in the Grand River valley wilderness back 
in 1821, and the man whose name is still carried on the East Grand Rapids 
road that was once part of the trail from Grand Raids to his post near 
Ada.  According to the story, he'd incurred the wrath of a band of 
Indians.  After punishing and mistreating him, they threw him into the 
river to drown.  At that point the Indian girl jumped in after him and 
dragged him out only half alive.  She brought him back to her wigwam and 
nursed him back to health.  And shortly thereafter he married her.
Unfortunately, the story may be as fictitious as the John Smith - 
Pocahontas tale is widely thought to be -- though Robinson did in fact 
have an Indian wife.  But most historical accounts of Robinson's life 
don't mention such a romantic background for his marriage to the woman, 
as they probably would if the version were true.  Besides that, it seems 
inconsistent with the known facts of the rest of his life.  What's known 
for sure about Robinson's life is this:
He was masterful in his control of the Indians and smoothed the way for 
later peaceful settlement by whites.  He was smart and highly educated, 
trained as a lawyer.  He came to Detroit and Mackinac Island during the 
Was of 1812 as a provisioner to American troops.  He became fascinated by 
the raw wilderness of the Northwest Territory and stayed on as a 
Shakespeare reading hunter, trapper,  trader,  woodsman and became one of 
America's  most successful fur traders.  He was strong and tough.  He was 
a towering six and a half footer who knew how to use his fists, and when.  
He was a square shooter who built a reputation for integrity and fair 
dealing, with whites and Indians alike.  He was an intelligent student  
of the Indians.  From his studies and his insights he figured out how 
best to handle them, and became an acknowledged master of white-Indian 
relations.  He influenced history.  He was the first Yankee the tribes of 
West Michigan encountered, and his positive influence set a unique 
pattern in the area's later development: in contrast to the bloodshed of 
white-Indian collisions on other frontiers, West Michigan enjoyed peace.  
It was mainly due to the presence and influence of Robinson, trusted 
friend and counselor of the Indian.  And he had courage.  It was no easy 
job to be a solitary white man in the midst of a hostile wilderness and 
perhaps equally hostile Indians.
His difficult early wilderness life was filled with life and death 
situations that would have made Matt Dillon run for his script.  But 
Robinson wrote his own script and he did it so well that he survived the 
many tests of his courage and became a major figure of Michigan history, 
a man respected by all who knew him and one who could have been governor 
of the state but who declined the position out of consideration for his 
Indian wife.  

His mastery of the Indians was due to several factors.  One was his 
integrity and fairness in trading with them, right from the start.  
Having an Indian wife helped too, as did knowing the Indian customs and 
speaking their languages as well as they did themselves.  But besides 
these, Robinson's study of the Indian mind and character gave him two 
rules to follow in dealing with any Indians, familiar or unfamiliar.  
First was to never show any fear, no matter how many there might be and 
how menacing.  And second, never take an insult from an Indian without 
punishing him.  Following these rules gave Robinson control over all the 
Indians he encountered and gained their respect.  It also provided enough 
tense situations to fill a TV series.  His first big test came  in 1818 
when John Jacob Astor of the American Fur Co. gave Robinson the 
assignment of cracking the Hudson's Bay Co.'s trading monopoly at a 
particular remote spot, a place where Astor's previous traders had given 
up or been driven off by intimidating Indians.  Robinson went out there 
for a lonely and perhaps dangerous winter.  At first the Indians ignored 
him and his efforts to trade with them.  He passed the time reading 
Shakespeare and analyzing the Indian mind.  Gradually though, under 
instigation of the Hudson's Bay people, the Indians began getting 
hostile.  Especially one chief was active, waving his tomahawk as he 
passed by, and ostentatiously displaying expensive furs as he pointedly 
headed for the Hudson's Bay post while yelling insults and threats.  
Robinson saw through the plot -- every time the chief was carrying the 
same furs.  So he ignored the provocations, thereby baiting the Indian 
into more excessive action.  It came soon, when the chief and a few 
followers came into Robinson's cabin for the first time.  The chief 
demanded free whiskey.  Denied it, he picked up a stool and smashed away 
the door into the storeroom where it was locked up.  He started for it 
but never made it.  With one punch Robinson knocked him senseless into 
the fireplace.  Robinson dragged him out from the burning logs and 
ordered the followers to get him out of the building or he would kill 
him.  They did and quickly.  Robinson was warned of revenge but he met 
that threat head-on too.  The next three days he pointedly went out into 
the woods for hunting.  The revenge never came.  A few days later the 
chief peeked in at the door.  But he came not to fight.  Instead he told 
Robinson he'd made a fool of himself and wanted to make it up.  They 
smoked a pipe of peace and became friends.
The rest of the winter the tribe brought their furs to Robinson and cut 
out the Hudson's Bay post completely.  The chief himself was a 
magnificent trapper, equal to any three others, and supplied Robinson 
with immense quantities of furs.  Robinson returned to Mackinac in June 
of 1819 the sensation of the American Fur Co.  Robinson's guideline in 
handling Indian hostility was to deal out punishment for the provocation.  
But he also made sure first that the threatening Indian had overstepped 
to the point of no retreat.  Then the punishment he inflicted would less 
likely provoke either a desire for revenge or interference from any 
cohorts.  
This policy worked again in 1823, two years after his post was 
established at the junction of the Grand and the Thornapple, near Ada.  
An Indian, as tall and powerful as Robinson, hated white men and vowed to 
drive Robinson out by beating him up and scaring him away.  A few minor 
incidents alerted Robinson to the forthcoming showdown.  He was ready for 
it.  It came when the Indian entered his storeroom, crowded with other 
Indians and began jostling them.  Robinson ordered him to leave.  The 
refusal was only half out of his mouth when Robinson, moving like a cat, 
grabbed him and threw him into the specially prepared, roaring fire.  The 
Indian, shrieking with pain, ran outside and disappeared from the 
territory, his status destroyed.  The threat dissolved.  Robinson saw him 
once more, a few years later, near Grand Haven.  There was no revenge on 
his mind.  Instead he was friendly and explained to Robinson how he had 
been a good Indian ever since the earlier incident.
Robinson could control the Indians where other whites couldn't.  A couple 
of years after the Ada incident, Robinson's agent at his Grand Haven post 
could not stop a big, strong, ugly Indian there from helping himself to 
whiskey.  The Indian tried it again the next time Robinson was on the 
premises himself.  Robinson refused it to him and the Indian started for 
the barrel anyway.  Robinson laid him out on the floor with one punch and 
kicked him out.  A couple of days later Robinson was warned that this 
Indian was coming to talk to him and had a knife hidden.  The Indian came 
and Robinson asked for the knife.  The Indian denied having one.  
Robinson searched him but it was so skillfully hidden he did not find it.  
The Indian who had warned Robinson originally stepped up and showed him 
where the knife had been hidden.  Enraged, Robinson accused his enemy of 
attempting to murder him.  The Indian protested but Robinson jumped on 
him, grappled him into the river, and held him under to drown him, which 
he was allowed under Indian law to do.  He relented at the last minute to 
the pleas of some squaws and handed the limp form over to them.  The 
Indian recovered and came some time later to Robinson to ask pardon for 
his behavior.  Later he went to work for Robinson and became one of his 
most loyal and trusted employees.

An indication of Robinson's stature among both whites and Indians came in 
1836, when the Indians agreed to cede their last remaining lands in the 
lower peninsula to the U.S. government.  However, the chiefs refused to 
go to Washington to sign the treaty without Robinson accompanying them.  
Robinson went at government expense.  Robinson had a skill in handling 
any man, as an incident on that trip demonstrates.  At a dinner stop on 
the stagecoach run in Indiana the chiefs and Robinson were still on their 
first course when the stage clattered up, the drivers hollering that they 
couldn't wait any longer because the mails the stage was carrying had to 
go through.  The Innkeeper had Robinson in a tight spot, and charged 
double the going price for each dinner, despite the fact his customers 
had barely touched their food.  Robinson disputed the price, but finally 
paid it.  He saw through the collusion between the innkeeper and the 
drivers though, and decided to teach the innkeeper a lesson.  On the 
return trip from Washington, he refused to let the chiefs eat for a day 
before the same dinner stop.  They grumbled, and he told them to tighten 
their belts.  Shortly before pulling into the Inn, Robinson climbed up 
beside the drivers and jangled the silver in his belt.  Then at the stop 
Robinson acted as though he didn't recognize the innkeeper and ordered 
dinners for the chiefs as he'd done before.  The famished Indians 
devoured the meal set before them, and more and more.  The nervous owner 
awaited the arrival of the stage but it didn't come.  The chiefs quit 
eating only when there was no food left in the place.  Robinson settled 
the bill by paying the same price that was charged him the trip before.  
The innkeeper countered that it wouldn't nearly cover the cost of the 
meal.  Robinson informed him that it wasn't his problem the man had set 
his own price when they were there before; and wouldn't it be a good idea 
to stop trying to cheat travelers?  The keeper still fumed and insisted 
they not leave until all his costs were covered.  But Robinson had the 
last word.  Leaning close he confided how at just one word from himself 
every man in the inn would be massacred in ten minutes, therefore it 
would not be a good idea to try to stop them from leaving.  A signal 
brought the stagecoach around immediately and Robinson and the Chiefs 
resumed their journey to Grand Rapids.
	___________________________________________________

	Memorials of the Grand River Valley
	By Franklin Everett, A.M.; 1878, reprinted 1984 by Grand Rapids 
Historical Society, Grand Rapids, MI, p. 36.

Rix Robinson, the first Indian Trader on the Grand River, resided at Ada, 
and his brother Edward one mile below, in his log house, from necessity 
larger than usual, to accommodate his large family of 15 - his "baker's 
dozen," as he used to say.  Still, they often had to entertain the 
traveler bound to Grand Rapids.  The bedroom of the weary traveler was 
the roof or garret part of the house, with good beds, eight or ten, 
arranged under the eaves, access to which was under the ridgepole; it 
being high enough there for a man to sand upright.  There were always two 
in a bed, and the beds were taken as the parties retired; say, a man and 
his wife first, then two boys or girls, and so on.  This is mentioned as 
the usual manner at stopping places.  At first it would seem a little 
embarrassing to women and modest men.  But use soon overcomes that 
feeling; and always in those times all seemed disposed to behave civilly, 
and to act the part of a true gentleman; occasion their kind entertainers 
the least possible trouble, and still reward them liberally for their 
fare, as was right they should, as their food had come all the way from 
Buffalo or Cleveland.

	___________________________________________________

	The Obituary of Rix Robinson

THE LATEST
Funeral Obsequies at Ada of the Venerable Pioneer, Rix Robinson.
Imposing Ceremonies - A Large Number of Friends and Relatives Present
Obituary
Funeral Obsequies of Hon. Rix Robinson, at Ada
Special Dispatch to the Grand Rapids Eagle

Ada, Mich., Jan.13, 1875 -- 
The funeral obsequies of the late Hon. Rix Robinson were of the most 
solemn and impressive kind.  The attendance was large and impressive 
kind.  The attendance was large, and the Methodist Church was crowded to 
overflowing.  The Old Settlers' Society of Kent County, of which deceased 
was President, was represented by about forty members.  Leading citizens 
of Grand Haven were present and the Rix Robinson Fire Company of that 
place were attendants.  The sermon was preached by the Rev. Mr. Whitman 
of Alaska.  An eloquent tribute was paid by Hon. T.B. Church, who alluded 
to the public services of deceased as Judge of the County, Commissioner 
of Public Works and Member of the State Legislature.  Mr. Edward P. 
Ferry, of Grand Haven followed with an appropriate attestation of the 
honesty and true friendship  of "Uncle Rix."  Many of the pioneers of 
Ada, Cascade and Vergennes were present and the occasion was one of great 
solemnity.

	___________________________________________________

	The Obituary of Mrs. Rix Robinson

Daily Morning Times, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 
Thursday, April 6, 1876. vol. 6, no. 303
Mrs. Rix Robinson

The relict of the late Hon. Rix Robinson died at Ada, April 3d.  Mrs. 
Robinson was, on her mother's side of Indian descent, the grand daughter 
of one of the great Chiefs of the Ottawa tribe -- the original lords of 
this country.  She had, previous to her marriage to Mr. R., been an 
inmate of the family of the Rev. Leonard Slater, the Baptist missionary 
at the Rapids of Grand River.
Mrs. R. was a woman of considerable mental ability, and of very great 
power of will, and manifested in some exigencies of her frontier life 
remarkable courage and determination.  Yet, in the ordinary course of 
domestic affairs, she appeared to all a kind and hospitable matron, and 
was the object of respect from the white and of love from the red 
residents of this valley.  No children had ever been bon to her, John R. 
being the son of Mr. Robinson's first wife.  She is to be buried at Ada 
this morning; but with a view, as we are informed, to a removal of her 
remains hereafter in an ancient cemetery of the Ottawa Indians.
	___________________________________________________


	The Robinson Influence On Development

Grand Haven	From Newspaper article, source and date unknown
In 1834 Rix Robinson provided a bark canoe and a crew of Indians to the 
Rev. William Montague Ferry to allow him to return to Mackinac Island 
after his exploration of the Grand River from Jackson, Michigan to Grand 
Haven.  Later Ferry and his brother-in-law Nathan White returned to Grand 
Haven and organized the first Grand Haven Company with Robinson, Ferry, 
White and Robert Stuart as equal partners to buy lands and erect mills.  
Ferry built a home on Water street across from Rix Robinson's trading 
post.  On May 2, 1835 the original plat of the Village of Grand Haven was 
dedicated by Rix Robinson as proprietor.
	--------------------------------
 
The Grand River Valley	 from Memorials of the Grand River Valley, by 
Franklin Everett, A.M.; 1878,
The Indian Traders might be passed by, if it were  not for the fact that 
they both became citizens, and were foremost in developing the region, 
when the white man took possession.  These traders were Rix Robinson and 
Louis Campau (p. 1).  Robinson and Campau are considered as pioneers; not 
merely as Indian Traders, but as settlers, and workers for the settlement 
and development of the Grand River region(p. 2).  
	--------------------------------

Ada, in Kent County	Seigal, Jane, A Snug Little Place: Memories of 
Ada, MI, pub. Ada Historical Society, 1993.
In 1853 the Detroit and Milwaukee Railroad came to town, built a depot, 
and bought land for its tracks from Rix Robinson (p. 28).  Ada had a 
second covered bridge over the Grand River.  It was built in 1848 but by 
1851 the condition of the bridge was poor so Rix Robinson and others 
formed the Ada bridge committee and raised funds for a new bridge (p. 
59).  In the late 1950's, in order to build a new bridge over the Grand, 
"Land that was the site of the Ottawa and Potawatomi camps, Ada's first 
tavern, and Rix Robinson's first home, was literally picked up and moved" 
(p.62).

Robinson Township	from: A History of Ottawa and Muskegon Counties, 
published in 1882
This township derives its name from its being first occupied by the 
brothers of Rix Robinson, the early Indian trader.  In 1835 six brothers 
of Rix came in the vessel St. Joseph from Detroit to Grand Haven.  They 
were Nathan, Edward, Rodney, Lucas, John and Ira, and the last four 
settled in Robinson Township.  The six brothers and their families 
numbered forty-two souls. {Other brothers moved inland near Ada and 
Lowell.  John and Ira settled in Robinson Township , Luke and Rodney 
settled on the edge of Allendale Township}.  They tried lumbering but did 
not find it remunerative as the demand was not great, and they erected 
too expensive mills.  In his first winter Ira cut with an ax and put into 
the river 996 logs for the Grand Haven Company at fifty cents a log.  The 
Company did not buy them and they lay for several years in the river and 
were finally sold for a barrel of flour and two barrels of pork.  The 
settlement of the town was slow, and it was not organized until 1856, the 
first meeting being at the house of Ira Robinson, at which eighteen 
voters were present.  The first officers included E.G. Robinson, Clerk; 
and A. Robinson, as one of four Justices. 
	 From the Chronicle, Grand Haven, Jan 23, year unknown, assume 
1930's. By Ray Fisher
Six brothers of the famous fur trader, Rix Robinson, first white man to 
live in Grand Haven, settled the territory of which Robinson Township was 
composed.  Robinson, mecca for many hunters and fishermen from west 
Michigan cities, was established as an independent township Jan. 8, 1856.  
The territory was settled by the six Robinsons and their families, 42 in 
all.  They came around the Lakes to Grand Haven in 1835 on the schooner 
St. Joseph, following their illustrious brother, who came to Grand Haven 
in 1823. The six brothers were Nathan, Edward, Rodney, Lucas, John and 
Ira.  Rodney and Lucas moved to Flat River after about three years.
	___________________________________________________

Grand River Trade Routes
Big Valley Settled 140 Years Ago
	By Ray Fisher ( newspaper article, date and paper unknown, possibly 
about 1961, Grand Haven)

This is the 140th anniversary of the arrival at the Grand Haven of a man 
who helped pioneer the development of the Grand River Valley.  Settlement 
of Grand Haven in Ottawa County started with the arrival in 1821 of Rix 
Robinson, a native of Auburn, NY.  He was the first permanent white 
settler in what now is Ottawa County.  The area which Robinson developed 
has been in the public eye in recent months as the site of the proposed 
establishment of a four-year college on Grand River in Allendale 
Township. Although the college is being established to serve an multi-
county area, the Grand Valley country in the early years included only 
three counties Ottawa, Kent and Ionia.
Historians credit the Rev. William M. Ferry family, the Whites and the 
Stuarts with establishing Grand Haven.  As settlers  they were 13 years 
behind Robinson.  Rix, whose brothers organized Robinson township east of 
here, set up an Indian trading post at the mouth of the Grand,  now 
inside Grand Haven.  Robinson was a giant of man, "From the day of his 
arrival at Grand Haven," a historical paper says, "until his death, which 
occurred at Ada in Kent County in 1875, he was not only very closely 
identified with the development of Ottawa County, but with the entire 
valley."  His control of the Indian tribes, historians say, helped pave 
the way for early settlers.  
Few white men had ever visited the territory before Robinson.  A Catholic 
priest, Gabriel Richards, visited the Grand River Indians in 1799.  In 
1832, the Rev. Isaac McCoy established the Indian government mission on 
the Grand River.  Richard Godfrey came to Grand River in 1822.  Hiram 
Jenisen located at Jenison in 1833 and the first white chid born in Grand 
Rapids was a daughter of Mr. Godfrey.
A Historical paper tells of the start of the development of the valley:  
"On April 30, 1833, a party of 63 men, women and children -- Z.G. Winsor, 
later to become a prominent businessman in Grand Haven then 18 years, 
among them -- left New York state for the Grand River Valley in the then 
territory of Michigan, reaching what is now the city of Ionia, May 23, 
1833.  This was the nucleus and starting point of the settlement of the 
valley, from the mouth of the river up to within a few miles of Jackson.  
The Grand River at that time was a wilderness, with few white 
inhabitants.  Rix Robinson's trading posts were located at the mouth of 
the Thornapple River and at Grand Haven.
"Mr. Winsor was in the employ of Robinson and related that Grand Haven, 
being the headquarters, had been made quite respectable in buildings. We 
had a store, a warehouse with old dock, and dwelling house, with four 
rooms, occupied by Mr. Robinson and wife (a half-breed woman).  Great 
advantages accrued to the traders who had Indian wives, the Indians 
regarding them as relatives.  The Indians, as a rule, were honorable and 
honest The French voyagers, or Denvins, as they were called, were a 
necessity of the times and business at that early period.  Their packs 
would often exceed 140 pounds and they would carry them 20 to 40 miles in 
a day.
The arrival at the mouth of the Grand on Nov. 23, 1834 of Rev. Ferry and 
his family accompanied by C. Baverny and family to settle permanently, 
proved the beginning of an important epoch in the history of Grand Haven 
and Ottawa County.  "Grand Haven was the gateway by which the early 
pioneers who located along the banks of this river, entered the country.  
Spring Lake was the enterprise of the Whites who were brothers-in-law of 
Ferry.  Crockery had as its founders the Hathaways who were employed by 
the Grand Haven Lumber Company in 1836.  Dr. Timothy Eastman, one of the 
Pioneers of Polkton and the father of Eastmanville, was one of the early 
companions of Mr. Ferry at Grand Haven, and his lifelong friend
Allendale, the site of the new college, was first organized March 15, 
1849, and the township consisted of its present area and all of that 
territory of which Blendon and Zeeland townships were afterwards 
composed.  In 1850 the vote for governor in all that territory was only 
36.  In 1851, Zeeland was formed as a township and in 1854, Blendon.

Rix Robinson had the distinction of being the "proprietor" of the 
original plat at the city of Grand Haven.  The plat contained 340 lots 
and only extended east to fourth street.  Robinson's name appeared on the 
plat as proprietor, and it was filed April 14, 1835 at Kalamazoo.  
Robinson offered one lot to each of the first four Protestant 
denominations that would build respectable houses of worship within 10 
years, one lot for a public academy or seminary, one lot for a 
courthouse, and one lot for a jail if built within 10 years.  The old 
Cemetery, now Central Park, also appeared on this plat.
Robinson Township derives its name from the Robinson family.  Six 
brothers of Rix came by boat from Detroit to Grand Haven in 1835.  Rodney 
and Lucas moved on to Flat River.  The others (with the exception of 
Nathan), Edward, John and Ira settled in Robinson.  The brothers tried 
lumbering but failed as there was no market.  Settlement of the township 
was slow and it was not organized until 1856.
	___________________________________________________

Rix Robinson, The Founder of Ada 
Seigal, Jane.  A Snug Little Place:  Memories of Ada,  Michigan 
1821-1930,  pub. Ada Historical Society, 1993.  p. 21-25

The most influential person in the making and shaping of Ada, indeed of 
the entire western portion of Michigan, was born on August 28, 1792, in 
Richmond, Massachusetts.  Rix Robinson was three months shy of his 
graduation from law school when the War of 1812 began.  To dodge the 
draft, Robinson fled to the Michigan territory.  He arrived in West 
Michigan in 1820, and as a representative of the American Fur Company, 
established a trading post at Grand Haven.  In 1821, Robinson returned 
upriver, establishing another post, or station, where the Tomba-Signe, or 
"river with the forked stream" (the Thornapple) emptied into the 
Owashtenong (the Grand).  During his career as a trader, Robinson 
operated twenty stations from St. Joseph north to Traverse City.
Rix Robinson was the first person of European descent -- i.e., a 
nonnative and the first permanent settler of Kent County.  Robinson went 
on to become the liaison between the whites and the Indians and earned a 
reputation as a friend to the Indians -- even though he was instrumental 
in the cession of Indian lands north of the Grand River.
This landmark event in the history of Michigan, the cession of all 
northern lands, including both lower and upper peninsula territory, was 
an immense loss to the Indians.  The area was huge, ripe for settlement, 
and rich in natural resources.  And it was Rix Robinson who helped the 
federal government in Washington take this land away from the Indians.  
How could this be?  How could Robinson the man who persuaded the Indians 
to give up their lands, be construed as a friend of the native people?
The answer lies in Robinson's character and in the inevitability of 
events.  By 1836, the fur trade was failing and giving way to 
agriculture.  The territorial and federal government wanted Indian lands 
for settlement, and government agents knew Robinson had influence -- the 
influence that comes with a bill of $48,000 (the estimated claim) owed by 
the Indians to Robinson's trading business.  William Brewster, and agent 
of the American Fur Company, communicated the government's wishes in a 
letter to Ramsay Crooks, head of the Company; Robinson was to travel with 
a group of chiefs to Washington for the purpose of signing a treaty. 
"...Having the Indians well trained in what they are to ask the 
Government before they arrive in Washington... and urge them to make up 
their minds fully to sell their country as the Government will have it  
wrote Brewster (letter dated Feb 23,1836 in the American Fur Company 
papers).
In February of 1836, Robinson traveled with six Grand River Chiefs to 
Washington.  The Chiefs agreed to the "Washington Treaty," and in 
addition to the $48,000 claim, requested an allotment of land for 
Robinson and his family -- directly against the policy of the War 
Department and Commissioner School craft.  The Indians insisted, and 
Robinson resisted, but he finally accepted a payment of $23,040 in lieu 
of the land.  The final agreement, and the Indians' insistence upon its 
inclusion in the treat, is testimony to their high regard for him 
(Michigan History, Dec 1959, pp 457-458).
	___________________________________________________

Family Memories in a Letter:

	August 24, 1921

Dear Cousin Rebecca (Richmond):

Your letter just received with account if your Omena Camp poetry and 
'clipping' about Rix Robinson.  All very interesting.  I remember, as a 
boy, I went out to Thornapple when Rix Robinson lived there.  I think I 
went on the back of a horse clinging to Father, a trail or path showing 
the way.  
I remember squaws examining the texture of my jacket and not paying any 
attention to me, not that I was stuck on myself - but thought of it 
afterwards, as if I was something to hang clothes on.  I was very young 
and wish I could remember more about it. 
We climbed a ladder up to what we would call the garret and slept on the 
barn floor with buffalo robes and blankets.  There was an Indian, a 
Scotchman and an Irishman beside father and myself on the floor.  I 
remember father speaking of it later.  
Rix Robinson was very tall, six foot five or six.  He and his two 
brothers were up to our house once.  Rix R. six foot six, two brothers, 
one six foot seven one a little less.  Father six foot three and one half 
inches.  Mother said it was like a troupe of elephants coming in.  I am 
six foot one and a half, they tell me I am very straight.  
Am well but eyes weak, I am resting them all I can, just glance over one 
daily paper and read my letters,  I enjoyed very much the Rix Robinson 
article.  We had in those days in America a splendid, vigorous high 
minded race: character told more than money.
When I see these dancers here (they dance every evening) I can't think 
very much of a fine future for this country and they represent what's 
called the respectable element from all over the U.S.
The America that I fought for, and the Americans, have departed, only a 
few straglers (sic) left and they'll soon go.
Cousin Fred Church

	Copy of  letter on file at Grand Rapids Public Library

ed. note: It would be interesting to know the relationship of the author 
and the recipient of this letter to Rix Robinson.   At this time no 
family relationship has been established.  However, Rix did have a sister 
Eunice who married a Richard Church.  They did not have a son named Fred, 
but he may have been a grandson.


	___________________________________________________


	Rix Robinson - Fur Trader

By Mrs. Mary F. Robinson, Grand Raids, Mich.
Copied by Mrs. Edna Robinson, Oct. 1964

Rix Robinson was born in Massachusetts, August 28, 1792.  His father's 
name was Edward Robinson and his mother's name was Eunice Rix, hence he 
bore his mother's maiden name.  He was tall, had a dignified manner and 
was well educated and agreeable.  In 1814, then a young man of 21 years 
of age, he left his home where refinement and education had smoothed a 
way to a life free from toil and privation, for a trial of frontier life.  
He was in school at the time and was within three months of graduation 
from the law department, which would have admitted him to practice at the 
bar.
At this time something happened, which was entirely personal in nature; 
he determined to abandon the brilliant prospect  as a lawyer, and launch 
out upon the uncertainties of what might be developed in the west.
He was twenty-six days en route from Buffalo to Detroit, where he entered 
into partnership with a Mr. Phelps.  They were to do business as sutlers 
to the United States troops stationed there, supplying the troops with 
provisions as they went from post to post along the frontier.  They also 
traded with the Indians.  His father had given him a $1,000 in specie, 
which he exchanged for bank bills at an advance of $80, with which amount 
he went to New York and made his purchases as his investment in the 
company's business.
After two years of varied experiences in profit and loss (mostly loss), 
he closed his partnership venture, by taking old notes amounting to 
$2,500, only one of which was any value at all, against a well known 
operation at Mackinac, Michael Donsman, in addition he took $100 in 
specie as his share of the Company's assets.  With this and what he 
received on the Donsman note, he went to St. Louis and invested in 
tobacco, from which he realized enough capital to enable him to make a 
small beginning in trading with the Indians.  This enterprise was quite a 
success, so he established a trading post at the Calumet in Illinois, 
near the head of Lake Michigan, among the Potawatomies and Kickapoos in 
1817, on the Illinois River 25 miles above its mouth in 1819, at 
Milwaukee in 1820 and at the junction of Grand and Thornapple Rivers in 
1821.  During these years the yearly journey was made to and from St. 
Louis by canoe and barge, following water courses and across the land as 
was the manner of the Indians in their travels, a slow and tedious 
process to obtain his supplies of merchandise and to carry back the 
results in furs and pelts.
When Mackinac became the central depot of the American Fur Company for 
the Great Lakes, he found it much more convenient to patronize that 
market, as it could be reached by coasting along the shores of Lake 
Michigan, with what were called bateaux.  This style of craft soon went 
out of service.  The voyages of these bateaux along the lake to and from 
Mackinac, carrying the heavy freightage of this commerce of the lakes, 
was the great event of each year, only not just to the trader, but to the 
many tribes of Indians that then peopled the entire Northwest.  These 
boats were light and long in proportion to the breadth, and wider in the 
middle than at the ends.  They were rigged with wide spreading sails, to 
catch favoring winds.  Sometimes the oar had to be used for propulsion, 
and each boat would be manned by a crew of from eight to twelve 
voyageurs, generally French Canadians, and one principal who acted as 
steersman, captain and general supervisor of his craft and men.
We can imagine from 10 to 30 of these bateaux starting out some bright 
morning on their return to those distant posts in what are now Illinois, 
Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota, up the Mississippi and Missouri to the 
hunting grounds of the Indians, the Stars and Stripes streaming out from 
each flag on the stern, oars manned by stalwart men who kept even strokes 
to the song sung by the leader, and all joining in the answering chorus.  
All this was not soon forgotten by those who witnessed the sight.
During all this time Rix Robinson seldom had a companion other than the 
Indians, except a trader or a prospector.  Neighbors, we might almost 
say, they had none; to the north none nearer than Mackinac, to the West 
the lonely Lake, to the East two families in Kent County, to the south 30 
miles off, one family.  The arrival and departure of Rix Robinson's fleet 
of  bateaux to and from Grand River, once a year, was the event to break 
the monotony of frontier life along the valley from 1821 to 1834.

In 1821 Rix Robinson was the first known white man to locate in Western 
Michigan.  One of his most important posts was at the junction of the 
Grand and Thornapple Rivers, where the Village of Ada now stands. At that 
time there was not even a spot marked in the wilderness where Grand 
Rapids now stands; and where Ada is, was a favorite place for the Indians 
to hold their annual corn feasts and pow-wows.  Lowell was another place.
In Ada he built his little cabin home among the Indians, and established 
friendly relations which were never broken.  In September 1821, on one of 
his northern trips, he married an Indian woman, the daughter of an Ottawa 
Chieftain.  This marriage was not for life, but for a number of moons (I 
think 100 or more), according to the custom among the tribe.  A son was 
born to them March 5, 1825, at a point between Muskegon and White River, 
known then as Duck Lake.  He was named John Rix Robinson, after his 
father and his Uncle John.  When he was 6 or 7 years old, his father and 
mother were divorced in accordance with the Indian law.  He was then 
placed in the family of the Lasley's at Mackinac, where he remained until 
ten or twelve years old, when his father brought him to Ada.  Before this 
he had attended the Mission School, and had made good progress.  He was 
kept in school here until he had obtained a fair common school education.
He became what you may call a fast young man.  The dollars that his 
father had saved, he spent with as much ease as the young man of the 
present time.  His father helped him with getting into business, as he 
certainly possessed business qualifications.  He conducted the experiment 
so long that it cost him many thousand dollars, and he gave it up.  It 
seemed as if with him, life was a failure.  In 1848, the community was 
surprised with the news that John R. Robinson had eloped with Lucy A. 
Withey, daughter of General Solomon Withey.  They were married in 
Grandville, and lived together happily until her death, which occurred 
April 8, 1884.  One daughter and four sons were born to them, only two, 
James B. and Eva lived to grow up.
In 1869 while living in the northern part of the lower peninsula, he 
attended revival meetings and soon professed himself converted.  Those 
who knew his former life had very little faith in its lasting; but a 
still greater surprise followed, when he announced that he was about to 
enter the ministry.  His father made this remark:  "I will give him three 
years to lose it all and become worse than ever."  But not so.  Instead 
of being worse his faith grew stronger, and he was instrumental in 
converting his dear father in his old age.  For more than twenty-five 
years he led an exemplary Christian life.  His life was an example of 
what Christian faith can do.  His remains lie in a little cemetery at 
Shepherd in Isabella County, away from his kin.  He died poor.  He loved 
his father, and it was his wish that when his remains were committed to 
earth, they should be by the side of his father.
These sketches of the career of Rev. John R. Robinson that I have given 
you, I took from a clipping my father had saved.  I think they must have 
cut it from a Grand Rapids paper several years ago.  They were given in 
Ada at a pioneer gathering by attorney George White of Grand Rapids.  He 
said, "For all that I have told you of his career, I am indebted to his 
own statements made to me on Dec. 26, 1884, and now that his lips are 
closed in death, they are our only source of information."
Rix Robinson's second marriage was more romantic.  He was making a trip 
among the Saginaw Indians, and in some manner he offended one of the 
Chiefs.  They made him a prisoner and after abusing him shamefully, and 
having all kinds of fun with him, they threw him into the river, where he 
would have perished had it not been for another chief's daughter, who 
rescued him and took him to her wigwam where he was nursed back to life 
again.  He rewarded her kindly acts by marrying her.  He took her to his 
little cabin home in Ada, where she lived until her death.  Her picture 
shows that she was a good looking woman, dressed very well, and she was 
also an industrious and model housekeeper.

In 1825 Rix Robinson was located as Indian trader with his principal 
station at Ada in Kent County, and he had several other stations, among 
which was that at Grand Haven, at the mouth of Grand River.  The Rev. 
William Ferry who had been a missionary among the Indians at Mackinac, 
together with his family and all his interests came to Grand Haven to 
make it his permanent home.  We might say he was the first white settler 
who came with his family to stay.  They landed Sunday morning, November 
23, 1834.  As it was Sunday, none of their goods were landed, but in Rix 
Robinson's log store, like the pilgrims two hundred and fourteen years 
earlier, they united in solemn worship.  Mr. Ferry took for his text, 
Zachariah 4-10, "For who hath despised the day of small things?"  The 
first act was an act of prayer and praise, thus consecrating the future 
village and City to God.  They stopped with Rix Robinson during the 
winter and 25 persons lodged in the log store, which was 16 x 22 feet, 
part sleeping in the loft and others in a vessel that wintered in the 
harbor.  He and Rix Robinson were the founders of Grand Haven.
In 1835 seven brothers of Rix Robinson, together with their families, 44 
in number, emigrated from Cayuga, New York, by way of Detroit, Mackinac 
and Grand Haven.  One brother, Dennis Robinson remained in New York.  
When they arrived in Detroit there was no boat in readiness for them so 
they had to be patient and wait two weeks for one that was building, to 
be finished.  The name of the vessel was St. Joseph.  This was the first 
sailing vessel to enter the harbor at Grand Haven.  It certainly must 
have been a grand sight to the Indians who watched it as it sailed into 
the harbor.  While the crowd of half nude Indians were admiring the 
grandeur of this sailing boat, the women passengers were wondering how 
they could ever live with such uncivilized human beings as these Indians 
appeared to be.
The colony of Robinsons, of which my father - Hiram Robinson, was a 
member, but only two years old at that time, stopped but a short time at 
Grand Haven.  They secured from Detroit a scow boat, or pole boat as they 
were sometimes called, not quite so grand and convenient as the sailing 
vessel, but they were very glad and thankful to get it, and when their 
families and goods were loaded they poled up Grand River in search of a 
desirable place to locate.  Some stopped off near Grand Haven, others ten 
miles from the village.  When the township where they were located was 
organized, it was named Robinson, in honor of them, as they were among 
the first settlers.
My grandfather, who was Rodney Robinson, and his brother Lucas, brothers 
of Rix Robinson, poled further up the river and landed at what is now 
Bass River in the township of Robinson.  Here they found a little log 
cabin which had been used for a trading post and in this small hut the 
two families lived until they could secure their land and build a double 
log house.  
My father's sister, Clarinda Stocking, who was a little girl seven years 
old at the time, remembered well the two years spent on the bank of Grand 
River, then a dense forest of heavy pine timber, inhabited by Indians and 
wild beasts.  She told me a of an incident of their pioneer life while 
there which I will try to relate.  The land on the south side of the 
river had just come in to market and the land office was located at 
Kalamazoo.  Grandfather and his brother were determined to buy some land, 
so providing their families with plenty of food and enough for 
themselves, they each secured an Indian pony and set off for Kalamazoo.  
It required two weeks to make this journey on horseback.  There were no 
railroads then, not even wagon roads, nothing but Indian trails.  There 
were no farms or villages along the Indians' highway, nothing but wigwams 
and howling wolves, which were the only marks of civilization.  They had 
fresh venison steak for the deer were numerous, and as they had their 
guns they could kill one very easily and broil their steak before a fire, 
not lighted with a match, but with the sparks from the flint or by firing 
off their flintlock guns.  I imagine they must have enjoyed their trip 
quite as much if not more than they would have done if they had ridden in 
a palace car.
However, they were having a more enjoyable time than the families left 
behind in the little hut.  
The first night after they left grandmother and her sister-in-law, before 
retiring for the night, were very particular to see that the door and 
window of the cabin were securely fastened, as they were afraid of the 
Indians and wild beasts.  They retired for the night with a feeling that 
all was safe, and slept soundly until morning.  When they awoke, they 
discovered that they had a lodger.  Some wayfaring Indian who had been in 
the habit of lodging in the hut, did not know it was inhabited by 
palefaces, and had found an entrance.
Although they were sure all the openings were closed and fastened, there 
must have been one that they did not find, and the Indian found it 
without any trouble and without awakening them.  He rolled up in his 
blanket and lay down on the floor (or ground, I should say as the cabin 
had no floor) and had a good night's rest.  When he awoke, to his 
surprise palefaces had possession of his hut, and Mr. Indian put on his 
blanket and went away peacefully.  He realized that the women and 
children were frightened, but he could not apologize as he could not 
speak the paleface language.
Grandfather and his brother secured their land and returned to the cabin 
where they had left their families.  They found them all there and well.  
I know these two weeks were very long and lonely ones for grandmother and 
her sister-in-law.  

Grandfather and Uncle Lucas built their double log house and moved in 
before cold weather came.  My father's brother Lucas was born in this log 
cabin.  (Little Luke he was called).  The country did not please them, as 
they were looking for land suitable for a farm.  They did not care to 
invest in the pine forest, as the value of the lumber was almost nothing 
at that time.  I often heard my father, Hiram Robinson, tell about a 
lumbering job his Uncle Ira Robinson, who lived in Robinson, did one 
winter.  He cut and put in the river, 996 pine logs for the Grand Haven 
Company at 50 cents a log.  The company failed to buy and the logs lay 
for several years in the river and were finally sold for one barrel of 
flour and two barrels of pork - a whole winter's work for one barrel of 
flour and two barrels of pork.  996 pine logs would buy a good many 
barrels of flour and pork now!
After the treaty with the Indians at Grand Rapids, a land office was 
established at Ionia and the lands on the north side of Grand River came 
into market.  The two brothers decided to push farther up the river, so 
they chartered another scow boat, and loaded their families and goods and 
poled up the river to what is now the village of Lowell, a distance of 
fifty miles, where they secured land on the west side of Flat River.  On 
the east side of the river was quite a large Indian village.  They got 
away from the pine forests, but not the Indians.
Here they built log cabins and began pioneer life again.  This was in 
1837.
Uncle Rix could speak several of the Indian dialects very well, and the 
Indians said he could talk Indian better than the Indians themselves.  
Through a long life he held a front rank in the history of this state.  
He was a man of pure integrity, with a wonderful control of those with 
whom he moved.  He was an honorable and esteemed representative of that 
class of men who so many years ago dared to open the way to civilization 
in the northwest.  The welcome the savage tribes gave the early settlers 
was due to his control over them.  His name stands as one of the foremost 
of those who have held positions of trust and honor in our State.  With 
truth and honor as a ground work of is character, he fulfilled every 
demand upon his manhood.
In 1873 (ed. note: it was 1875) at the age of 81 (ed. note: he was 85), 
at this home in Ada, his eventful life ended, as it had been lived, 
without fear and without reproach.

	___________________________________________________

Text of commemorative bronze marker
placed on the site of Rix Robinson's home on Fulton Street in 1927

In Memory of 
Rix Robinson 
born in Mass, 1792
Founder of West Michigan

Established his Ada Trading Post in 1821 a short distance north on river 
bank.  This tablet marks the site of his home into which he moved in 
1837.  Explorer of the Northwest Territory, Fur Trader, Lumberman, 
Lawyer, Banker and Friend to the Indians.  Was first Supervisor of Kent, 
now Grand Rapids, State and County Commissioner and State Senator.  Also 
helped to revise the Constitution in 1850 when he advocated Woman 
Suffrage.  The beloved "Uncle Rix" Robinson died in this house Jan. 30, 
1875.

	ed. note: This is the marker that was moved by the Amway Company 
and later replaced after much public outcry.


	___________________________________________________



	A Short Dissertation on a Tough Old Man
	by Fred N. Kerwin, The Grand Rapids Press, December 17, 1972

Old Rix Robinson, dead these many years and largely forgotten, has 
erupted into new life.  A boulder with a brass plaque that for some time 
has marked the site of his pioneer home and trading post at Ada has been 
moved from out of its weed and brush obscurity to a prominent site on the 
property of a business firm nearby.  The resulting outcry of protest 
against the so-called arrogance of predatory Big Business has given to 
Rix a new fleeting prominence that makes timely a short review of the 
salient facts and myths concerning this admirable man.
The justification for a monument marking a one-time site of Rix's home 
and place of business seems to be that he was not the first white man to 
come to Kent County, not the first Indian trader here, but the first 
white Indian trader to settle permanently in the locality.  That he had 
other virtues worthy of remembrance is testified by many repetitions of 
rather sparse and scattered biographical bits in local newspapers and 
sundry township and county histories and such like.  His many descendants 
and collateral blood heirs have done much with the available material to 
make of him a V.I.P. with a touch of the glamour patina of pioneering 
adventure.  He probably was worthy of it all, and the wonder is that this 
monument should have been left so long obscured by weeds and brush.  This 
writer has for 11 years driven almost daily within a few feet of it 
without being aware of its presence.
It would be pure fiction to picture Rix Robinson as a Leatherstocking, a 
Daniel Boone or a Kit Carson.  He was a Simon-pure businessman, out to 
gain wealth and congenial life in a pioneering environment where he met 
both adverse and advantageous conditions with confidence and competence.  
A native of Auburn, New York, he came to what is now Kent County in 1821, 
purchased a going trading practice and moved it from its location near 
present-day Lowell to  river bank site near the confluence of the 
Thornapple River with the Grand.  He married an Indian girl for a 
specified term of 100 moons at the end of which she divorced him.  They 
had a son who spent his young manhood as a irresponsible spendthrift, 
etc. but suddenly entered the ministry and came through as a dedicated 
doer of good.  Rix took a second Indian wife.
With few exceptions Robinson was well liked by the Indians; he gained 
land through gifts to them, bought other lands far and wide, engaged in 
lumbering, banking, fur trading and politics.  He held public office 
ranging from local supervisor to the statehouse senate.  He prospered.  
He operated several trading posts in and between Ada and Grand Haven and 
elsewhere.  He is credited with easing the way for the white takeover of 
the Indian lands.  The late Captain Charles Belknap who knew Rix, wrote 
of him for the Grand Rapids Press, "I am not ready to say there was 
anything striking about Rix Robinson.  He was just a sturdy business man, 
very blunt and quick in his speech and positive in all he did.  The 
Indians had great respect for him."
The respect of two Indians was gained in hand to hand encounters which 
may qualify Rix as one of our great Indian fighters.  A few Red men did 
not approve of him and thought he should be eliminated.  One big brave, 
with a few followers, approached Rix, intent upon doing him dirt.  The 6-
foot-6 Rix picked up this exemplar of the White Man's Burden and held him 
over an open fire until the primitive gained a new respect for civilized 
culture, so like his own.  In another instance Rix found an Indian taking 
whisky without paying for it.  At Rix's remonstrance the Indian 
challenged him to combat out in the open.  Rix held this fellow under 
water until air bubbles ceased to appear, but relented under the 
squawking and screeching of an audience of squaws.  In each case the 
deflated brave came to Rix, begging to be his friend.

Robinson was born in 1792 and died in 1875 in the house at Ada, the site 
of which was marked by the boulder that has been moved.  This was the 
first frame house in western Michigan; it was little more than a shanty 
but seemed so palatial to the natives that it drew sightseers from afar.  
It existed as lately as 1910, but only almost inadequately as a hog shed.  
Rix lies now under an imposing monument in the little cemetery at the top 
of the hill just west of Ada on M-21.  His two Indian wives are buried at 
some distance, at the foot of the slope, near the old River Road, their 
graves marked by dimly etched, ground-flush stones in long grass.  If you 
would ride to see it, pick a cold day when muck is frozen, not a day when 
it is greasy on top of a film of ice, particularly if your neck and 
shoulder muscles are arthritic, for the euglenoid sashaying out of rhythm 
of the front and rear ends of your car will sever your head from your 
body.  Fishermen make a go of it.  Someone recently went there and stole 
a stone marker identifying the spot.  Missing stones have brought Rix 
Robinson back into the limelight.

	___________________________________________________


Natives Restless Due to Lack of Action!
Lowell Ledger, Suburban Life, Thursday, Nov. 30, 1972, vol. 18, no. 35

Rix Robinson, son of Edward and Eunice Robinson was born in 
Massachusetts, August 23, 1792, received legal education, was admitted to 
the bar, and came to the junction of the Thornapple and Grand Rivers in 
1821.  Twenty-six days en route from Buffalo to Detroit, Robinson was the 
first white settler in Western Michigan.  He built a little cabin home 
where Ada village now stands and married an Ottawa Indian woman by Indian 
Rites and succeeded Madam La Framboise as an Indian trader, in which 
business he continued until 1834.
A huge boulder erected in Ada in 1927 bears the following inscription:  
In Memory of Rix Robinson Born in Mass. 1792, Founder of West Michigan.  
Establishing his Ada Trading Post in 1821, a short distance north on the 
river bank, the boulder, erected by the County of Kent, marks the site of 
Robinson's home, into which he moved in 1831.  Explorer of the northwest 
territory, Robinson was a fur trader, lumberman, lawyer, banker and 
friend to the Indians.  He was the first supervisor of Kent, state and 
county commissioner and state senator.  He also helped revise the 
constitution in 1850, when he advocated woman suffrage.
Robinson died in his house in January of 1875...only to become the center 
of attraction more adversely in 1972, when his memorial marker was moved 
by Amway Corporation, irritating his descendants and causing mixed 
emotions on Ada area residents.  Although the residents won the state's 
decision to have Amway move the memorial back to its original site, the 
protestors are still stirring emotions their emotions by insisting that 
it be done now, without any stalling or puttering around.  Until the 
memorial is firmly placed back where it belongs, there will be no rest 
among the natives of the town where the first white settler made his home 
in West Michigan.
	___________________________________________________

Widow Takes over fur trade business, makes a fortune
	by Tressa LaFayette, The Sunday Chronicle, Muskegon, Michigan, 
April 26, 1987

Madeline La Framboise (born 1780), the widow of a Canadian fur trader, 
blazed her own business trail in the west Michigan area.  Described as a 
beautiful and charming woman, Mrs. La Framboise's life was one of 
romance, bloodshed and fortitude.  She arrived in Muskegon in 1796, 
shortly after her marriage to Joseph La Framboise.  He was a trader for 
the British Fur Co., covering the western Michigan area.  A native of 
Arcadian Nova Scotia, he eventually became the company's superintendent 
for this territory.
The are several accounts available of Mrs. La Framboise's life.  What is 
known is that she was the daughter of Jean Baptiste Marcotte and the 
granddaughter of Returning Cloud, a powerful Chippewa chief.  Her father 
sent most of his children to Montreal, Canada, for schooling.  At this 
point the tales diverge.
One says she entered a convent school at Montreal when she was 10 years 
old.  Another says her father died when she was young, and there being no 
money for her education, she was reared by her French grandmother.  In 
any event, she was a very intelligent woman and could speak French, 
English and the Chippewa language.
She accompanied her husband on his rounds of the western Michigan trading 
posts, including Crockery Creek in Ottawa County and Lowell in Kent 
County.  They spent the winters in the woods in western Michigan and the 
summers at their home on Mackinac Island.  They traveled in a Mackinaw 
boat with sail, oars and a crew of 12.  During the spring of 1809, the 
couple, together with an infant son, Louis, made their way south from 
their Upper Peninsula home, stopping in Muskegon.
After leaving Muskegon, the family traveled along the beach between 
Muskegon and Grand Haven.  La Framboise was killed, reportedly stabbed 
through the heart by an Indian with whom he argued.  Details of the 
incident are vague, but it is known that the young widow made 
arrangements to have her husband buried at Grand Haven.  She then 
continued the business, visiting the circuit of camps and posts.  When it 
was time for her to return to Mackinac Island, the widow ordered her 
employees to dig up her husband's remains and put them on the Mackinaw 
boat which then headed north.  There was an elaborate funeral at Mackinaw 
and the body was buried in the vault of St. Anne's Church.
Mrs. La Framboise's success during her first season in the woods of 
western Michigan led the American Fur Co. to make her superintendent of 
western Michigan.  She accumulated a fortune in the years that followed, 
remaining active until 1821, when she sold out to Rix Robinson of Grand 
Rapids.
Her daughter, Josette, the belle of the island, at 16 years of age, was 
married to Capt. Benjamin Pierce, commandant of Mackinaw, whose brother, 
Franklin Pierce, became President of the United States.  Flashing 
uniforms, flowing silk and lace gowns and Indian finery made a scene of 
splendor at the wedding, but Mrs. La Framboise wore a buckskin costume.  
Everyone on the island turned out for the brilliant wedding.
Mrs. La Framboise spent the remainder of her life at Mackinaw.  She died 
in 1846 and was buried next to her husband.
	___________________________________________________


Rix Robinson was not the first fur trader in Ada.  Madeline (or 
Magdalena) La Framboise, the half-Ottawa wife of a murdered French 
trapper, owned a string of trading posts in the Grand River Valley for 
years before Robinson.  Reputed to be no ordinary woman -- probably for 
succeeding in an exclusively male trade in the "pays d'en haut," or 
savage country -- La Framboise sold her franchise to Rix Robinson and 
returned to her home on Mackinac Island.
	Seigal, Jane, A Snug Little Place: Memories of Ada, Michigan 1821-
1930, pub. by Ada Historical Society, 1993. pp. 20.

	___________________________________________________




	Rix Robinson: 
	An Early Fur Trader or Draft Dodger Makes Good
	by William Harris, program of the Michigan City Historical Society, 
Thursday, November 19, 1970

Introduction
Our program chairman gave me the assignment of introducing our speaker to 
night with the admonition that I know more about the background of the 
talk than she did.  I should - I had to type it!  If I may, with Miss 
Kitchell's permission, quote from a talk she gave recently before the DAR 
that "Genealogy is the Handmaid of History."  For it was my husband's and 
my mutual interest in genealogy (or the history of a family) which made 
tonight's talk possible.
In tracing one of the many lineages that make up a family genealogy he 
found not the proverbial "horse thief," but quite a colorful collateral 
ancestor who earned himself a prominent place in history.  If this 
ancestor had not convinced his six brothers and their families to migrate 
from New York to Michigan over a century ago, perhaps this interesting 
lineage would not have been a party of my husband's genealogy.  
Therefore, to show you how genealogy and history can go hand in hand, I 
present to you, my husband, William H. Harris, manager of Value 
Engineering for Pullman Standard Division of Pullman, Inc., a member of 
the museum committee of our society and the Great, great, great, great 
grand nephew of "Rix Robinson - Pioneer and Trader" or "Draft Dodger 
Makes Good."

	Rix Robinson - Pioneer and Trader

There are two things to keep in mind as this talk progresses:  First, 
that Michigan City was incorporated on February 8, 1836, with 1500 
inhabitants; Second, The Treaty of Washington - between Chippewa and 
Ottawa Indians and the Federal Government signed March 28, 1836, which 
ceded all the remaining Indian lands in the lower Michigan peninsula, 
except for minor reservations.  Now, we'll show the significance between 
these two facts.
Rix Robinson, the third of thirteen children, was born on August 28, 
1789, in Richmond, Massachusetts.  The family moved to Cayuga County, New 
York, in 1790.  At the age of nineteen he began the study of law and was 
admitted to the bar in 1812, but before he began to practice, the War of 
1812 broke out.  His father opposed the war as unnecessary and suicidal.  
Rix Robinson was drafted, but when the officers came to pick him up, he 
was not to be found.  Process was issued against him for the penalty for 
nonappearance to do military duty, but could not be served because of his 
continued absence from the state.
With his fortune of $1,000, given him by his father, he left Auburn.  It 
took 26 days to travel from Buffalo to Detroit.  His first taste of 
frontier life was as a sutler to the U.S. troops at the Mackinac Straits.  
For two years he followed the troops from post to post and made little 
profit, so he went to St. Louis and invested in tobacco.  This trip and 
investment led to the establishment of several trading posts, two in 
Illinois, one at the Calumet River near the head of Lake Michigan in 
1817, and one on the Illinois River 25 miles from its mouth in 1819; one 
at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1820; one at the mouth of the Grand River in 
Ottawa Co., Michigan, in 1821; and another at the mouth of the Thornapple 
River in Kent Co., Michigan in 1821.
As early as 1821 the first American settlement was made in the territory 
now known as Kent Co., Michigan, (the City of Grand Rapids lies in this 
county) by Rix Robinson who arrived here a few days after the negotiation 
of the Chicago Treaty of 1821.  A period of over five years elapsed 
before he could claim a white neighbor and he came in the person of Louis 
Campau.

Rix Robinson married twice, each time to an Indian woman.  There are two 
versions of his marriages.  Both stories agree that  he married Flying-
Cloud-Woman, the daughter of the principal chief of the Pere Marquette 
Indians in 1821 in accordance with Indian ceremonies and customs.  They 
had one child, John, who became a missionary among the Ottawa and 
Chippewa Indians in Michigan.  Then the stories differ.  One says that 
Flying-Cloud-Woman died and he married River-Woman by Christian rites.  
The second says that Robinson's first marriage ended after 100 moons, 
according to Indian custom, and they separated without a fuss at the 
expiration of the contract, and the second marriage was under Indian 
custom for ten years before the Christian rites were performed.
Rix Robinson first became acquainted with fur trading by joining the 
Astor company.  For a short time his territory was in Indiana.  He then 
was assigned to a post for the Astor Company from which the trader had 
been driven each year by the Hudson Bay Fur Company.  Robinson held it, 
although the same methods were tried as before.  The chief of the 
principal tribe of Indians would pass the door brandishing his tomahawk 
and a bundle of furs, which were sold to the Hudson Bay Company.  One 
evening this chief and several braves entered Robinson's shanty.  The 
chief seated himself on a three-legged stool and asked if Robinson had 
whiskey.  When Robinson told the chief that he had whiskey, the chief 
demanded some.  Robinson refused.  The chief seized the stool and threw 
it against the door, which the whiskey was behind, breaking it in.  The 
chief declared he would help himself and started toward the broken door.  
Rix Robinson struck him and he fell senseless into the fireplace, which 
had a roaring fire.  Robinson dragged the chief to the door and threw him 
out ordering his followers to take him away.  Robinson's life was 
threatened if he entered the woods, which he continued to do to hunt.  On 
the fifth day after the episode, the chief appeared at Robinson's door.  
Robinson straightened himself and asked, "Want to fight?"  To which the 
chief replied, "No, I do not."  They sat down with pipe and tobacco and 
smoked.  From that day the Hudson Bay Company got no more furs.  Rix 
Robinson often said he had learned two things in dealing with Indians.  
First, was to never take an insult from an Indian without chastising him 
and second, never show fear of an Indian no matter how many his 
followers. 
Rix, because of his firmness and fairness, his knowledge of Indian 
language, character, traditions and laws, his truthfulness and his taking 
an Indian wife, was very influential among the Indians of the state of 
Michigan.  However, he sometimes had disagreeable encounters with them.  
An Indian at the Grand Haven Post, who had been chastised by Robinson, 
secreted a knife in his garment and was about to stab him, when Robinson 
threw him into the river and held him under water until he was 
unconscious.  He pulled the unconscious Indian on the bank and left him 
for the squaws to resuscitate.  Some months later the same Indian came 
back and asked Mr. Robinson's pardon, entered his employ and for many 
years was Robinson's most trusted man.
Another encounter was during the winter of 1833-34.  The Indians had been 
consulted as to their willingness to cede lands north of the Grand River.  
The chiefs and head men of the different bands assembled in Robinson's 
store for discussion, the main point was to decide how much of their 
money was to be set aside to pay their debts to the traders.  During the 
discussion it had been claimed one of these traders was not honest.  He 
claimed $20, but they did not believe his claim would exceed $10; but 
that Robinson's claim of $48 was right and just and would be included in 
their estimate.  One Indian demurred saying Mr. Robinson had cheated him 
in his account.  Mr. Robinson produced his books and explained his 
account to the man without effect.  The man reiterated his charge, Mr. 
Robinson closed the book and with it knocked that Indian down and 
thrashed him severely.  He then appealed to the assembled Indians for 
their approval or condemnation.  They in one accord said: "Right, right.  
Our brother-in-law is not a cheat and has served him right."

The second Mrs. Robinson was largely instrumental in making the treaty of 
Washington with the Indians, by which more than half of the area of the 
lower peninsula was ceded by the Indians to the federal government and 
compensation paid.  The Indian chiefs were required to go to Washington 
but declined to go without Mr. Robinson.  He took charge and filled two 
stage coaches.  One day Mr. Robinson ordered dinner for his chiefs at a 
tavern.  Just as dinner was served, the coaches drew up and they were all 
ordered to get in, the landlord declaring they were mail coaches and 
could not be delayed.  The Indians had no dinner, but the landlord 
required payment of fifty cents for each one of them, saying that was his 
price and was not to blame because the coaches could not wait.  Rix 
Robinson made no protest, but on the return trip would not allow his 
chiefs to eat for an entire day before arriving at the tavern, where they 
had been outwitted before.  When they complained of hunger, he ordered 
then to tighten their belts.  Arriving at the tavern, they ordered a good 
dinner and it was placed before them.  Robinson commanded, "loosen your 
belt."  They did and began to eat.  They ordered more and the waiter 
brought it.  The landlord rushed to the door but no coaches appeared.  
The Indians called for more food and everything eatable, including cold 
meats prepared for supper, was brought in and disappeared.  Famine faced 
the household.  Robinson threw down fifty cents apiece for the chiefs.  
"That will not pay for the raw material,"  the landlord stormed.  "I 
can't help that.  You set your own price," Robinson declared.  "You shall 
not go until you pay my charges," shouted the landlord.  Mr. Robinson, 
with a twinkle in his eye, gravely said, "At a signal from me you and 
everyone of your helpers would be killed inside of ten minutes.  It would 
not be well to attempt to keep us."  The coaches appeared at a signal 
from him and they all climbed aboard.  The secret of it was, Mr. Robinson 
had paid the drivers more to delay the coached that the landlord had 
given then to hurry on.  
Rix Robinson held many political offices before his death and could have 
been governor, but declined because his wife was an Indian and would be 
unable and unwilling to perform the social duties that would have been 
required of her.  He never accepted any office that might have submitted 
his wife to humiliation.  He died on January 9, 1875, without a monument 
to mark his resting place.  Today, a bronze monument marks the site of 
his grave which is located on M-21 west of Ada.  The cemetery is on a 
high hill overlooking the Grand River, and the vast acreage, which was 
the original Rix Robinson homestead.  A huge boulder and metal plaque 
mark the site of the house which he occupied since 1837, which in its day 
was nothing short of a pioneer palace.  
Robinson spoke fluently all district dialects of the Indian tongue, and 
it was due largely to his influence over the Indians that they retired 
gracefully upon the coming of the white man.  So, if you will remember 
the two things I asked you to keep in mind as this talk progressed, The 
treaty of Washington and the incorporation of Michigan City, both in 
1836, you can now readily see how Rix Robinson's influence and his help 
in the establishment of the Treaty of Washington had to have an effect on 
the coming of the white man to the Michigan City area.  Because, had it 
not been for early pioneers and traders like him and Joseph Bailey (whom 
we are more familiar with) and their fair dealing with the Indians, the 
white man would not have been welcome. 
	___________________________________________________

John R. Robinson, son of Rix
>From the Ada Historical Society notes, Oct. 1995

As the eldest son of Rix and his first wife the most is known of him, 
much more than of his step brothers and sister.  After his parents 
divorced, he was sent to live with friends in Mackinaw.  When he was 
twelve, he returned to live with his father in the Grand Valley at the 
trading post near Ada.  Much of John's early life is remembered in the 
deeds of mischief he was known for.  Later when he was older he was known 
for being downright irresponsible, worthless expenditures and drunkenness 
the most obvious traits in his character.  Suddenly, in his late 
twenties, his life took off in the opposite direction and he became and 
ordained Methodist Minister.  Although most people including his father 
thought it to be another phase he was going through, John Robinson lived 
the rest of his life in the way of the Lord and even converted his father 
in Rix's later years.  John is buried with the family of his wife in a 
small cemetery in a town near Lansing, Michigan.

	___________________________________________________

"John Robinson was a real problem for his father, but got religion later 
in life and became a minister."  from Charles Cramton, born 1896
.	Seigal, Jane, A Snug Little Place: Memories of Ada, Michigan 1821-
1930, pub. by Ada Historical Society, 1993. pp. 20.

	___________________________________________________


First in County
Rix Robinson was Kent's earliest White Man
In a Dense Forest
Pioneer Set Trading Post that is now Village of Ada
Home which was once marvel of all Surrounding country now houses swine
Grand Rapids Press, Nov. 22, 1909

On the crest of a bluff overlooking the vast acreage which was the 
original Rix Robinson homestead stands the somber shaft of granite  
erected by the old settlers of the county in honor of its first white 
settler.
Just as Rix Robinson occupied a commanding position in the community more 
than seventy years ago his monument towers above the other shafts and 
slabs of marble and granite that stud Ada's little hillside cemetery.  
When the sun sinks low in the west, this tapering finger of granite sends 
its shadow out upon the very ground staked out by the venturesome trapper 
seventy-six years ago.  Carved upon the west face of the stone is a rough 
likeness of the pioneer and inscriptions chiseled in bas-relief tell the 
story of what he did for subsequent generations in the county and of his 
devotion to the Indians, from whose wigwams he chose a help meet. 
	Penetrated
Robinson first broke through the trackless forests to the junction of the 
Thornapple and Grand rivers in 1821.  He was the first white man to set 
foot on the territory that is now Kent County.  He was one of those 
adventurers of the times who penetrated far beyond the farthest skirmish 
lines of civilization and devoted himself to trading with the Indians and 
to exploration.  In 1821, appreciating the spot was ideal for a 
settlement, Robinson established the central of a series of permanent 
trading posts.
Robinson could scarcely be considered a settler in those days.  He was 
here only at  the sufferance of the Indians.  But for upwards of ten 
years he lived in peace with the red men of the valley, traded with them, 
offered advice and established himself in their regard and in their 
councils until he was a personage of greater importance.  Until his death 
he was known throughout western Michigan as a friend of the Indians.  He 
was chosen as official interpreter and it was to him the government 
delegated the duties of bringing the Chiefs to Washington, DC to sign the 
treaty of 1836.
Ada township was named in honor of Miss Ada Smith, daughter of Sidney 
Smith, one of the pioneers of the township, who was its leading 
businessman, for years.  Rix Robinson was the first white settler.  He 
came, at first as successor to Mme. La Framboise, as the agent of the 
American Fur company.  Robinson married a Grand River Indian woman, Miss-
A-Quot-O-Quay.  After her death he married Sippi-Quay-Daw (River Woman) 
grand daughter of the head chief.  This chief bestowed upon the trader 
the rich hunting ground known as the Great Bayou and ordered his people 
to reserve it in the interests of Robinson.  
Section 21, lying under the very shadow of the monument that marks 
Robinson's grave, was deeded to him, or rather to his half-breed family, 
by the Indians.  This was before the treaty of 1836.  And though he might 
have been termed a sojourner before, he actually became a settler.  
Robinson's influence, no doubt, as much as that of the daring and devoted 
missionaries of those days, had much to do with the pacification of the 
Reds and their devoting themselves to peaceful occupations.  After the 
treaty, Robinson held his section and accumulated more ground until he 
owned 721 acres of the choicest farming land in Kent County.
Passengers on passing Grand Trunk trains look out upon what was Rix 
Robinson's original homestead acreage.  It comes right into the village 
of Ada.  It was on this ground that Rix Robinson built what was one of 
the first frame houses in the county and probably the first outside of 
Grand Rapids.  This quaint dwelling still stands.  It can be seen from 
the depot and is only a block or two from the Ada Hotel.
	Was Like a Palace

In the days when it was first occupied it was nothing short of a pioneer 
palace, and settlers accustomed to habitations of rough logs and thatched 
roofs came miles to gaze upon the modern dwelling.  It stands today in 
the barnyard of the big Averill diary farm.  It is in a sad state of 
repair, and the visitor, filled with romantic thoughts of pioneer days, 
is rudely awakened when an inquisitive black snout is thrust through a 
crevice in the weather-beaten sideboarding and the visitor is greeted by 
a very material and porker-like grunt. 
Rix Robinson was honored with the election as supervisor when the 
township of Ada, was first organized.  In those days Ada included 
territory that today is Cascade and Caledonia townships.  Kent County's 
history is inseparably linked with the name of Robinson.  Many of the 
first white children were named after the white trader who pointed the 
way to the civilization of the valleys of the Grand and Thornapple.  The 
old pioneer proved as popular with the whites as he was with the Indians 
and died in the early 1870's happy and satisfied in the realization of a 
life of good accomplishment.
	Editors Note: The home of Rix Robinson was torn down in 1915.

Rix Robinson and the Land Cession of 1836
>From the Ada Historical Society notes, Oct. 1995

On January 5, 1836, Lewis Cass, Governor of the Michigan Territory, 
stated before the Legislative Council that "We are rapidly approaching 
the period when our present temporary government will be dissolved and 
succeeded by an independent state government."  This remark was but an 
indication of the rapid development of the Michigan Territory, 
particularly in the area south of the Grand River.  Yet the vast 
territory north of that line was still Indian Territory and technically 
land hungry settlers were barred from taking up claims in that area.  It 
was a region given over largely to the pursuit of the fur trade.  Posts 
of the American Fur Company, as well as those of independent traders, 
were to be found throughout the region.
It was at this time that an application was made by the legislature, 
requesting a commission be appointed to negotiate with the Indians.  Many 
months later in Washington, one of the key figures in the successful 
outcome of these negotiations was Rix Robinson, fur trader and the 
American Fur Company agent in the Grand River Valley.  Acting as a 
liaison between the government, he made possible the peaceful departure 
of the Indians from that area.

	___________________________________________________


"I am not ready to say there was anything striking about Rix Robinson.  
He was just a sturdy businessman, very blunt and quick in his speech and 
positive in all he did.  The Indians had great respect for him."
	-- from Captain Charles Belknap,  a local historian knowledgeable 
about Rix Robinson.











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