Taylor County, West Virginia Biography of John L. ROBINSON ************************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: Material may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material, AND permission is obtained from the contributor of the file. These pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for non-commercial purposes, MUST obtain the written consent of the contributor. Submitted by Valerie Crook, , July 1999 ************************************************************************** The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 183 JOHN L. ROBINSON, of Grafton, spent his early life in and about the mines, is still a coal operator and producer, and for the past decade has done an extensive business in general contracting. Mr. Robinson was born at Pruntytown, the old county seat of Taylor County, December 5, 1867. His father, Christopher Robinson, was born in Yorkshire, England, was associated from early youth with the coal mines of that region, and when about thirty years old came to the United States, in 1849. As a practical miner he did work in the George's Creek District of Pennsylvania, and in 1859 went West to participate in the mining excitement of the Pike's Peak region. He spent a year in the mountains without finding any considerable wealth, and on his return came down the Platte River on a raft to Omaha, thence by the Missouri to the nearest railroad and back to West Vir- ginia. He resumed mining in Marion County, and in 1861 located at Pruntytown, where he leased coal lands and became an operator, continuing active in the industry the rest of his years. He died at Pruntytown at the age of sixty-eight. As an American citizen he was in thorough sympathy with the abolition movement, and always voted as a republican. He was reared in the Church of Eng- land, and in this country was an Episcopalian. In Marion County Christopher Robinson married Miss Mary A. Barnes, daughter of Abram and Mary (Hall) Barnes. Her father came from New Jersey, and lived for many years and died on his farm near Fairmont. Mrs. Christopher Robinson died in 1905. Her children to grow up were: Albert M., who lost his life in the mines and left four children by his marriage to Augusta J. Utt; Mary M., who died in Pruntytown, wife of Thomas M. Cooper; John L., the only surviving member of the family; Charles J., who was a miner and then a mine operator and died at Grafton unmarried. John L. Robinson was reared in Pruntytown, where he attended the free schools and was a pupil of the high- class private school-conducted by Professor McPheters. The coal mines of this district afforded him his apprenticeship in mining, and in them he did all the routine duties from mule-driver to mine foreman and superintendent. He is president of the Gabe Fork Coal Company of Grafton, organized in 1918, and is also director and superintendent of the Jerry Run Coal Company, organized in 1920 and developing a property at Rosemont. Since 1911 Mr. Robinson has given much of his time and energy to the general contracting business, particularly paving and road work. His first contract was excavating and furnishing material for the construction of the Graf- ton High School as a sub-contractor to the Roach-Brune Company of Cincinnati. He has performed a large amount of excavating and street work in Grafton, including a por- tion of the paving of West Maine Street to the river bridge. He is junior member of the firm Withers & Robin- son, who in recent years have handled several large con- tracts for Taylor County. Mr. Robinson is a sterling citizen and has been an interested worker in republican politics since boyhood. He cast his first presidential vote for Benjamin Harrison in 1888. At Cincinnati, December 2, 1912, Mr. Robinson married Miss Olga Meister. Her father, Emil Meister, was a jeweler in the City of Zurich, Switzerland, being descendant of a family that has lived in this little republic for more than eight centuries. He died at Lake Lagano, Switzer- land, in 1921. He called himself an international grand- father, from the fact that his children had become so widely dispersed. His oldest son, Otto, was for six years in charge of a corps of civil engineers in China, then as a mechanical engineer had charge of an office at Kobe, Japan, and is now in charge of an office for Sulzer & Bush at Shanghai. Emil is an artist in Germany. Hans is a grocer in Switzerland. Edward continues the business of his father at Zurich. Leonora is the wife of Fred Gampers, a banker in London, England, Herman is an architect in Paris, France. Olga Meister was liberally educated, and became profi- cient in both the French and German languages. While visiting an uncle at Garfield, New Jersey, she answered an advertisement for a teacher of French and German in the Hutchinson family at Fairmont, West Virginia, and while in that work she first met Mr. Robinson. After leav- ing the Hutchinson family she was a trained nurse at Morgantown five years, and engaged in a similar capacity at Birmingham, Alabama, three years. The three older children of Mr. and Mrs. Robinson are: Elizabeth Meister, Mary Virginia and Edward Lee. Mrs. Robinson died February 6, 1922, leaving a baby boy, John L., Jr., who was born on the day his mother died, which was also her birthday.