Fayette County, West Virginia Biography of HOUGHTON A. ROBSON This biography was submitted by Valerie Crook, E-mail address: ********************************************** ***The submitter does not have a connection*** ********to the subject of this sketch.******** ********************************************** This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. 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. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume II, pg. 568-569 Fayette HOUGHTON A. ROBSON, of Huntington, senior member of the firm Robson & Nelson, real estate, coal and oil lands, has been associated with many of the large deals and trans- actions in properties involving the important natural re- sources of West Virginia. He was born at Cotton Hill in Fayette County, West Vir- ginia, February 1, 1856. His grandfather was a native of England, and on coming to America settled in Culpeper County, Virginia, where he was a planter and slave holder. He married Ann Reed, a native of Culpeper County. Their old homestead is still owned by their descendants. Thomas S. Robson, father of Houghton A., was born in Culpeper County in 1819, grew up there, was married at Harrison- burg and immediately afterward settled at Cotton Hill in Fayette County, West Virginia. For many years he was county surveyor of Fayette County. During the Civil war he had charge of the county records, and by order of the court had these records conveyed to Southwest Virginia, to Montgomery County, where his deputies guarded them all through the war. He himself entered the active service at the beginning as a quartermaster in the Confederate Army, and at the close of the war he returned the records safely to their home county. He never received a penny for the faithful discharge of this trust, and eleven commissioners said that he should have taken the records north instead of south, though he was ordered by the court. For many years, until his death, he was commissioner of School Lands for Fayette County. He died at Cotton Hill December 7, 1888. He was a democrat and a member of the Baptist Church. Thomas S. Robson married Mary Elizabeth Abbot, who was born in Harrisonburg, Virginia, in 1831, and died at Charleston, West Virginia, in 1913. Their children were: James S., a farm owner at Charleston, and in the modern growth of that city part of his farm land has been built over; Annie L., of Charleston, widow of James G. Parks, who was a merchant at Cotton Hill; Houghton A.; Edwin and William, who died in infancy; and Cora R., wife of I. A. Rosenheim, in the transfer business at Huntington. Houghton A. Robson spent part of the Civil war period in Montgomery County, Virginia, and while there he had the privilege of attending school three months, and this with another brief period in Fayette County gave him his only formal school instruction. He was busy on his own account in gaining knowledge by the process of doing, and his associates have always recognized in him a man of splendid judgment and well informed on all the issues of the day. The family at the close of the Civil war had noth- ing, and Mr. Robson had to contribute his share to the up- keep of the household. At the age of twelve he was doing such work as was suited to his strength and years. About that time his father took a contract to carry the mail from Fayetteville to Lewisburg, and the son performed this duty for two years, getting a dollar a day for himself and mule, paying his board out of this and also fifty cents a week for ferryage. Shortly after his service as a mail carrier he spent three weeks in Huntington working with a pick and shovel in the streets. Then, though young and weighing only eighty pounds, he gained a position as a brakeman with the recently constructed Chesapeake & Ohio Railway, serving nine months. He then went back to the home farm and as- sisted in its work, and also did some surveying until the death of his father in 1888. His father in the meantime had been agent for some large tracts of land owned by Eastern people, and Houghton A. Robson succeeded to this responsibility as well as to the work of commissioner of school lands of Fayette County. It was a business requir- ing good judgment and tact and a growing knowledge of land values, and the work really laid the foundation of his subsequent business career. In 1900 Mr. Robson removed to Charleston and began the buying and selling of real estate, coal and oil lands. In partnership with J. M. Payne, an attorney, he bought a tract of 1,000 acres of coal land on Boomers Branch in Fayette County, paying $35,000, though only $5,000 in cash. Mr. Robson immediately took an option on 3,000 adjoining acres at a contract price of $25,000. He also paid $1,000 on this transaction. The first 1,000 acres was leased to the Masters Coal Company. In his second pur- chase he was associated with Dr. Lewis Prichard, and this was soon followed by his taking an option on 6,200 acres adjoining. By that time he and his associate had ex- pended $3,500 on options. The 7,200 acres were subse- quently sold at a fair profit to the Kanawha & Hocking Railroad Company. Mr. Robson continued in the real es- tate business as a partner of Doctor Prichard until the death of the latter on July 20, 1919. In the meantime, in 1918, he had removed to Huntington, and since 1911 has been associated with Fred C. Prichard, son of Doctor Prichard, under the firm name of Robson & Prichard. Mr. Robson is also associated with his son-in-law, C. P. Nelson, in the firm of Robson & Nelson. They have seldom acted as brokers, but as principals in the buying and selling of real estate, coal and oil lands, and their transactions com- prise a large volume of this class of business in the state. Mr. Robson is a director in the Huntington Banking & Trust Company, in the Charleston National Bank, the Mont- gomery National Bank, is president of the West Virginia Insurance Agency, president of the Battle Ridge Land Com- pany of Charleston, and president of the Elk Ridge Colliery Company. His offices are in the Robson-Prichard Building, owned jointly by him and Fred C. Prichard. This was the first large office structure erected at Huntington. It is ten stories high and was built in 1910. The ground floor furnishes space for the Huntington Banking & Trust Company, and the remaining nine floors are used for office purposes. Mr. Robson also has an office in the Charleston National Bank Building at the capital city. He is a demo- crat in politics, and one of the very active and liberal mem- bers of the Baptist Church. In 1884 he married Miss Jennie C. Shoemaker, daughter of James K. P. and Mary Elizabeth (Cams) Shoemaker, the latter deceased and the former a retired real estate broker and oil operator living at Homestead, Pennsylvania. The only child of Mr. and Mrs. Robson is Mary E., wife of C. Paul Nelson.