Robert O. Robinson Biography This biography appears on pages 1700-1701 in "History of South Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net. This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. ROBERT O. ROBINSON, superintendent of the timber, sawmilling and other similar interests of the Homestake Mining Company, with headquarters in Nemo, Lawrence county, is a native of the Dominion of Canada, having been born in Omemee, province of Ontario on the 10th of October, 1851, and being a son of Robert and Elizabeth (Humphreys) Robinson, the former of whom was born in Ireland and the latter in England. The father of the subject came to America as a young man and first located in New York city, where he became the owner of two lots, at 63 and 65 Pearl street. These he exchanged for fifty acres of land which is now within the city limits of Toronto, Canada. He shortly afterward disposed of this property and removed to Omemee, eighty miles northeast of Toronto, on the Midland division of the Grand Trunk Railroad, where he engaged in farming and stock raising and became one of the honored and influential citizens of that locality, where he passed the remainder of his life, his death there occurring in 1892, while his wife died July 31, 1894. They became the parents of three sons and four daughters, of whom two of the sons and four of the daughters are living. The subject was reared to the sturdy discipline of the home farm and secured his educational training in the excellent schools of his native province. At the age of twenty-one years he engaged in farming on his own responsibility, on a place not far distant from the homestead and thus continued operations until the fall of 1876. In the following spring he started for the Black Hills, coming to Cheyenne, Wyoming, and thence with mule-team to the Hills. He devoted the first two years to placer mining, meeting with varying success, and then entered the employ of the Homestake Mining Company. in connection with the lumbering department of their enterprise. Shortly afterward he built for the company a sawmill on Elk creek, and after its completion was employed in the mill about a year. In 1882 Mr. Robinson purchased teams and engaged in the wood and lumber business on his own responsibility, continuing operations in this line about nine years, within which period all of his contracts were with the Homestake Company, which he supplied with timber of all kinds. In 1892 he entered into a specific contract with the company to assume charge of all their wood, timber, lumber, sawmills, timber lands, etc., and has since been incumbent of this important position, having control of the operation of two sawmills and utilizing at times as many as forty teams and three hundred men. He makes his home in Nemo, one of the most picturesque spots, and the headquarters of the timber interests of the company. In politics Mr. Robinson is a staunch Republican. On the 26th of March, 1874, Mr. Robinson was united in marriage to Miss Sarah Lamb, who was born in Ontario, Canada, and whose death occurred in 1876. The only child, Janet, is now Mrs. A. C. McCready, of Hanna, South Dakota. On the 16th of March, 1892, Mr. Robinson wedded Miss Irene Karr, who was born and reared in Iowa, and they have two children, Helen and James.