Wayne County, NC - Bicentennial Series Reprinted with permission of the News-Argus and cannot be reproduced without permission. The Original Robinson Brothers, John and William Editor's note: This is another in a series of articles on Wayne County's history from 1700 to 1900 presented in conjunction with the American Revolution Bicentennial observance. Imagine being stopped on the streets of the small town of Goldsboro (population about 4,000) in the 1890’s by an elderly gentlemen who proceeded to you captivated, quoting Irish poetry with a cultivated lilt. That’s what happened to the late Judge Frank A. Daniels when he met John Robinson, the father of Judge W. S. O' B. Robinson, Colonel Joseph E. Robinson, and seven other children. Describing John Robinson as "a scholarly man, with some interesting eccentricities, fond of literature, and a lover of the poetry of Oliver Goldsmith and Thomas Moore, Judge Daniels later recorded the incident: "I remember that once, in his old age, he held me spellbound in the middle of our busiest street, where loaded cotton wagons and carts crowded upon us, while he recited in full, with the graces he had practiced and taught in Dublin and Goldsboro: ‘The time I’ve lost in wooing In watching and pursuing The light that lies In Woman’s eyes.’ And that on another occasion I felt the melancholy of departed glory as he chanted: ‘The harp that once through Tara’s halls The soul of music shed.'" John Robinson was born March 18, 1813, in County Derry, Ireland, to George and Mary Dempsey Robinson. When John was three years old a brother, William, was born. The two boys were both graduated from Trinity College, Dublin, where John held for some years the chair of mathematics and elocution. The younger brother married twice. Four sons were born of the first wife and four sons to other second wife, whose name was Eliza Ann Davis. The first set were all born in Ireland, whereas the second set as born in either Lenoir or Wayne County, North Carolina, where two of them lived to become leading citizens of Goldsboro; Dr. Marius Emmett Robinson (the father of M. E. Robinson, Jr.) and Thomas Ruffin Robinson, druggist and father of Thomas R. Robinson, Jr., mayor of Goldsboro for many years. John Robinson, whose first wife was Maria (surname unknown), later married Margaret Dillon who was born in Ballymoney, County Antrim, in 1820. The Robinson’s were Protestants, presumably Presbyterian, but John became a Catholic convert and a very devout one as that upon his marriage into the prominent and devout Dillon family, of whom John Dillon, member of the British Parliament in the mid-nineteenth century, was the most prominent. According to tradition, John’s parents disinherited him and later when John and Margaret decided to come to America, her parents disinherited her. It was in 1847 that the decision to immigrate to America came. The disinherited couple felt there was little hope for Ireland after the unsuccessful uprising against British rule of the Irish patriot William Smith O’Brien. Before coming, however, John writes his brother at White Hall (later Seven Springs) and asked if he thought a Catholic could make a living in North Carolina, and upon receiving a favorable reply, set out with his wife and two small children. John and his family first settled at Seven Springs where he and his brother William conducted a school, which they soon removed to Goldsboro where the Goldsboro Female Academy flourished for many years. Judge Daniels also wrote that the Robinson brothers were regarded, as "great teachers" and that he had known of a number of their pupils who retained the most grateful recollections of them, some of whom bore witness to the severe methods prevailing in those days of wholesome instruction, not wanting in that vigorous use of the rod which was thought conducive to sound learning and virtuous conduct. In addition to the school, William was editor and publisher of the Goldsboro Patriot. The only extant issues are for July 28 and August 11, 1849 (in the University library at Chapel Hill.) Then in 1860 William edited the Daily Rough Notes - the first daily in Goldsboro. However, it was chiefly political in nature - at a heated time on the eve of the Civil War - and lasted for only seventeen issues. Oldest of the weeklies in Goldsboro was the New Era, edited by William Robinson. It lasted only a year or two, because its final copy was No. 34 of Volume II. When John and his family moved to Wayne County in 1854, he settled on a plantation which he named Tara and which was located in a community then known as Scottsville about three miles northwest of Goldsboro. It was a train stop and because it sounded so much like Pikesville, the railroad requested that the name be changed. Judge W. S. O’B. Robinson, second son of John and Margaret, suggested Belfast, in honor of his mother. The name was accordingly changed by an act of the North Carolina legislature. The John Robinson family divided their time between Tara (the ancient seat of Irish kings) and their home in Goldsboro on North John Street, the present location of the Union Bus Station. In addition to their children born in Ireland, the John Robinson’s had seven children born in this country. Two of the sons, Judge William Smith O’Brien Robinson (named of course for the Irish patriot) and Colonel Joseph Edward Robinson (founder and long time editor of the Goldsboro Argus) became prominent Goldsboro citizens. A daughter, Mary Howard Robinson, married William Lee Morris and spent the many years of her widowhood in Goldsboro as a beloved teacher of the mentally retarded. There was a sterner side to John Robinson’s makeup, a firm adherence to principle, which could not be shaken, no matter how painful or menacing the consequences. When the Civil War came he was living on his plantation, Tara, at Belfast, where he owned slaves and enjoyed the Southern way of life. However, when his friends and neighbors joined the cause of the Confederacy he steadfastly remained loyal to the Union. To one and all he explained this difficult decision by saying that when he had become a citizen of the United States he had pledged his allegiance to the United States of America against foreign and domestic foes and the he would cut off his right arm before he would go against the flag that had given him protection. Judge Daniels further wrote of the consequences of his staunch decision: Unpopularity and a degree of isolation came to him among a people whom he loved and who had shown their high esteem for him but he never faltered in this course. However, with the fall of the Confederacy, he had many opportunities of mitigating the hardships which fell to the lot of his fellow citizens, of which he gladly availed himself, and, in due course, estrangements which had grown up died out and the old relationships were restored. That the John Robinson family remained devout Catholics is evidenced by the fact that they, along with four other families, were the founders of St. Mary’s Catholic Church and that John brought over from Ireland a beautiful crucifix which was first used in a private altar in his home and now graces the altar of the church he helped found. That this fervor still lives is evidence by the fact that his great-grandson, Father Ralph Monk, the son of Mrs. Mary Cox Monk of Goldsboro (now in her nineties), is now the priest at the church founded by his forbearers. ============================================================== USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. The electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or for presentation by other persons or organizations. 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