Biography of Edward Robinson

October 16, 1807 - April 1896

Edward Robinson's life on earth covered a period of nearly ninety years.  His son,
William Smith Robinson, seventh child of Edward, gave most of the essentials of this
sketch directly to Myrtle Robinson Seastrand.  William was still living at the age
of 96 years old, and he was still able to care for himself and remember facts and
dates without any contradictions.  He could see without spectacles, used his own
teeth, and at this age, well enough to plant and cultivate his own garden.

Edward Robinson was the son of Joseph Robinson of Little Sutton, England, and was
born in Cheshire, England, on October 16, 1807.  We know at this time in English
history, the children of the middle class had very little chance of attending school
as there were no free public schools and only the wealthy could employ private
tutors or send their children to tuition schools.  Then too, children had to help
earn a few pennies per day to help out the father's scanty income of a few
schillings per week.

While very young, Edward chose to train as a footman to the sentry of one of the
royal family.  He took great delight in driving and caring for the stately pedigree
horses of the lords and ladies of the court, and was in charge of the hounds and
horses for the fox hunts.  He had to dress exceedingly trim to be in the presence of
these distinguished people, as he rode about with them as footman, in their fine
carriages behind two spans of immaculate white horses.  He kept his fine English
boots shined to perfection.  He developed a fine appreciation of nature, as he spent
much time among the rustic flower gardens on the different manors.  He later became
a fine landscape gardener himself.  He also had a great appreciation for art, and
several of his grandchildren have done splendid work, in the most technical art,
that of portrait painting.  Edward and William's grandsons, won recognition while
attending the B.Y.U. by painting their parents portraits, which are still cherished
by the family.

This early training as footman schooled Edward in obedience, promptness, efficiency,
courteousness, and neatness, all of which helped equip him for his future life.  He
grew up into noble manhood somewhat heavy-set, round features of face, very pleasant
appearance and optimistic spirit.  His eyes were deep blue and he had a mop of brown
curly hair and a fine set of teeth.  His son, William, had thick snow white curly
hair which is the admiration of everyone; in fact, he has been distinguished from
other Robinsons by the nickname of "Curly Bill."

Edward, at age 21, in 1828, married a lovely spiritually minded English girl named
Mary Smith, who was born December 2, 1810, in Manchester, England.  Their courtship
began while they were working in the same manor.  Mary Smith being employed as tutor
to the children of the manor, as she was very intellectual and a good teacher.  Her
picture reveals a rather delicate little face surrounded by a mop of thick curls.
During the 16 years of their short life together, nine children were born to them:
Richard born 1829, John born 1831, Mary and Martha died in infancy, Elizabeth born
1837, Edward born 1839, William born 1840, Mary Jane born 1842, and Joseph born
1844.  Joseph was buried in Nauvoo by his mother.

Edward Robinson came into manhood at the beginning of the most inventive and
important century of the world's history.  In 1882, the English Parliament offered a
prize for the best model of a steam engine which was to run on rails from Manchester
to Liverpool. Several men in different parts of the world were experimenting with
steam power, but the prize was awarded to George and Robert Stevenson of England for
the steam engine "Rocket." A charter was granted and this engine was to make its
initial run in the year 1830.  This date marked the beginning of great things - a
new era of science and religion.

Edward had the distinction of being the first conductor, or as they use to be called
"guard" on this first train.  The English Noble for whom Edward acted as a footman,
owned a big block of stock in this new enterprise and gave Edward this position
because of the deep trust he had in him.

Edward liked to tell of that first run and how they sprinkled sand on the rails to
keep the cars from slipping when they got going as fast as 20 miles per hour.  In
the American Fork Cemetery, on Edward Robinson's tombstone, is carved a picture of
the steam engine "The Rocket."  Under this is engraved "Edward Robinson, first
railroad conductor in the world."

With a good salary and a thrifty wife, Edward and his little family were very happy,
welcoming each child as it came into their lives to bless their home and name.  But
the grim reaper of death came and robbed them of two of the children - Mary and
Martha.

In 1840, the same year that Mormonism was first preached in England, little William,
who was one year-old became seriously ill, and Mary, a very religious woman with
great interest in the new religion, sent for the Mormon missionaries.  Brigham Young
was then in Manchester and came to their home, anointed and laid his hands upon the
sick child's head and promised the parents that he should be made well and live to a
ripe old age.  William has been living testimony of this healing, and always speaks
of it with appreciative reverence.  Soon after this, Edward also joined the church,
following his good wife's example.  He often let the missionaries ride free on "The
Rocket", saying "sit still and say nothing."  More than one time, he saw a
missionary in need of a suit of clothing.  He would take him to a tailor and order
for him whatever he needed.

It took a year or so for Mary Smith to persuade her husband to quit his fine
position as a conductor and leave their native land to join the Saints who were then
in Illinois.  But the prayers of this little woman prevailed and in 1842, Edward and
Mary, with six children left their native land for America.  Upon leaving, the
railroad company presented Edward with a silver watch in which was engraved "To
Edward Robinson, in token of regard from the directors of the Manchester-Liverpool
Railroad, 1842."  This watch is now in the keeping of the Daughters of the Pioneers
of American Fork.  They crossed the ocean in an old sailing vessel, "Henry" in
October 1842.  It took nine weeks to cross the Atlantic due to the beginning of the
winter storms.  Mary and two of the children were at death's door during most of the
nine week voyage.

They were indeed happy to set foot on ground, but as soon as they landed, they
changed ships for the steam-propelled flat riverboat which sailed up the enchanting
Mississippi River to Nauvoo.  The Saints had built this beautiful city in Illinois
on the banks of the Mississippi River, on swamplands that were scorned and thought
to be worthless by all others.  Edward, believing this to be their permanent home,
took their savings and immediately built them a lovely little red brick two story
home.  This was the happiest year of their lives.  They were living and learning the
gospel of Jesus Christ as taught by the Prophet, Joseph Smith, in Nauvoo, Illinois.

In the newly built Nauvoo, they envisioned only happiness ahead, but as the poet
Burns said "The best schemes of mice and men can aft aglee and leave us naught but
grief and pain, for promised joy ".  Within the next year, 1844, Mary at the age of
35 was taken in death by the birth of her ninth child.  The baby, named Joseph,
after the prophet, was cared for by the Kirkwood family.  Later he died and was
buried beside his mother in Nauvoo.

Without a mother in his home, life was discouraging for Edward.  He employed Ann
Wooten, a widow with four children, two of her own (Attie and John) and an adopted
daughter Lizzie and her sister Nannie, to care take of his household.  Ann Turner
Wooten was born in Tumstall, Staffordshire, England on November 4, 1810.  She made
such a good housekeeper that Edward proposed marriage to her and these two plucky
parents decided to rear their families together.  She made a good mother to her own
as well as Edward's children, although a mixed family of ten is no small task for
one woman.

Unrest and mobbing in Nauvoo again became rampant and Edward taking the advice of
authorities to seek homes in nearby towns and traded his little dream home for a
team of horses and moved his family to Burlingtown, Iowa.  Here for four years they
struggled, trying to save enough to make their journey with the Saints to Utah.
Here two boys were born in1847.  Heber and Alford, both died in infancy.  At this
time, Edward and the biggest children would go to the mills and get roughing for ten
cents a bushel.  From this, Ann would make sack after sack of bread which was dried
in order to take it with them on their journey across the plains.

They traveled in the Ezra T. Bonson Company, leaving there in the spring of 1849.
By that time, over 5,000 Saints had gone ahead of them, so by then, the paths first
made by the light tread of moccasined Indians were trampled into a dusty road by the
clumsy hooves of the oxen and the rawhide boots of the men.  At one time, Edward,
still retaining his jolly humor, said as he held up his coarse boot, "This old clod
cruncher doesn't look much like the fine polished boots I wore in the gentry, but
such is the price of pioneer life."

Edward drove two good yoke of oxen to pull the two wagons and had two good cows,
Paddy and Lilly.  Lilly was a hard looker, as she had her tail bitten off by a
coyote when she was a calf, but they gave plenty of milk to soak up the hard dried
bread  they had to eat, and with an occasional flapjack or egg, from the hens they
took with them, they seemed to have a mighty healthy diet.  They also had buffalo
meat now and then.  There were plenty of these dangerous looking animals on the
plains at that time.  Buffalo at a distance, they looked like a patch of cedar
trees.  The Indians laid claim to the buffalo, deer, and other game, and they did
not like to see the white man coming to their hunting grounds and robbing them of
their source of food, clothing, fuel, and many other essentials.

When Edward and his family finally started down grade into the valley, they were
indeed thankful.  This true, the land with its purple sage appeared dry and deserted
looking, compared with the green plains they had left behind, but the streams and
the beauty of the lake made up for this land's dryness.  The majestic mountains
stood like sentinels, guarding the people as they proceeded to build their homes
once more.  Happy with the thought that they would never be driven out again.

The first thing Edward Robinson did when he arrived in Salt Lake Valley in October
1849, was to secure land.  He rented the John Taylor farm and immediately commenced
fall plowing, using the faithful oxen that had brought them across the plains.  The
boys helped split logs to make walls to keep the wolves out of the milk.  They
cleared the land and broke the sage and skunk brush up for fuel.  They drove the
oxen into the canyon to bring back cottonwood, wild game, and berries.  Deer and
game were plentiful and helped out a lot when bread stuff was so scarce.  Most of
the grain had to be saved for spring planting, as it was the year before - in 1848 -
which the crickets got away with such a large part of the crop; when the Lord in his
mercy sent the Seagull to help us out.  Much grain was needed in 1849, for that was
the year when the Gold Rushers came though on their way to California.   They were
glad to trade tired animals for food stuff.  That is how the pioneers obtained
horses, sheep, and cattle.

Let us envision Edward's pioneer home that first winter.  A family of eleven
children; three sets of half-brothers and sisters ranging in age from one to
nineteen years old, living in one big room with its quaint fireplace, black smoky
kettles and primitive oven, which must have been kept full to supply food for so
many growing and hungry youngsters; a spinning wheel; straw ticks made from the
canvas of the covered wagons; a crude box or chest made of native lumber which
contained their Sunday clothes, two or three chairs, homemade with buckskin bottoms.
 This was a  home quite different to what might have been theirs, had they remained
in jolly old England, almost as humble as that of the Christ Child.  Yet, I believe
there was far less murmuring than today in our expensive homes.  A home which called
for all the perseverance, thrift and patience that individuals could cultivate.  An
abode where every member of the family in an evening, bowed his head in reverence
and knelt upon his knees in thankfulness, for the preservation of his life, for the
daily sunshine, and the soil and strength to bring about the things they envisioned
ahead.  Where there were scanty meals shared willingly.  Kind services rendered
unbegrudingly, where a high standard of English culture was maintained, in spite of
rough settings.  Where they were happy because each day meant improvement and
progression. Content and happy as they were, this was not yet their permanent home.
A call came from the authorities asking the Saints to go to other valleys and make
homes, since so many were coming to the Salt Lake Valley.  Once more, Edward
Robinson answered the call.  He loaded his scanty belongings into his one remaining
wagon, one of his oxen had died, but he yoked a cow in its place and again they all
started out for what proved to be their final destined home.

At this time, the family possessions had dwindled to the scantiest and most meager
of their life.  This seemed only to kindle new hope and determination into their
lives, and from this time on, each year brought them added blessing and wealth.
They journeyed south toward the beautiful Utah county, then called Provo Valley.
Arza Adams and Stephen Chipman and their sons, Nathan and Henry Chipman had already
passed through here, the fall before.  On their way to the fort in Provo they were
so impressed with the area and its prospects that they returned in the spring of
1850 and built the first two log homes. They brought back the report of their find:
vast green pasturelands around the fresh water Utah Lake, abundant in fish, fertile
bench lands covered with a bunch of grass. Lovely streams carrying water through the
virgin soil and such wild game, including antelope and deer, with snow capped
mountains protecting the lovely valley.  Picture Edward Robinson's fine English
family of thirteen members, father and his sons walking as they drove the oxen and
the cows, with the women and children riding along with their few remaining
possessions.  Picture their admiration as they pulled over the rugged grade around
the point of the mountain, separating Salt Lake County from Utah County and first
beheld the beautiful Utah Lake and its surroundings in Utah County, which valley
proved to be their permanent home.

It was now fall of 1850.  They purchased a one room house from Sol Thomas who wanted
to join the Gold Rushers.  This lot is the present American Fork City Park where
three generations of the Robinson's reared their families; no other persons ever
owning this corner. Here William S. Robinson lived 86 years.  Part of the lot and
Edward's adobe home were sold to the city upon William's death..  They desired to
purchase it all at the same time, but grandfather said, "This spot, my home, is too
dear to me to be sold for money, I want to live here as long as I live. After my
death you can have it."

The old adobe wall enclosed this property and I remember playing on it where it was
worn down to a long mound of earth.  Grandfather says we did not need that fort, as
the Indians were better peace makers then the whites if you know how to treat them.
Of course, they became hostile when they saw us taking up all their streams and
hunting grounds.

After spending the first winter in the one room log house which had sufficed a few
years of pioneer environment, they added another log room.  In grandfather's words:
"We were so many grown ups that Ned, Richard and myself had to sleep out in the
straw with a bit of shed over it, but it wasn't bad.  It made us tough."  Our
stepmother fashioned us some warm bedding and buckskin tops so we were warm, I'll
tell you.  She also made me a fine buckskin coat with a beaver collar on it.  I
caught the beaver on the Provo River.  This suit lasted my brothers and me for
years.  It was just the kind of garb to wear when you had to break the ice on the
basin outside the door to wash your face, or go to the city creek for water.  You've
got it pretty slick nowadays, just turn a tap and out come hot or cold water, but
you've got your troubles paying for those luxuries!

Edward Robinson and Ann Wooten proved worthy parents, equal to the task of training
and raising this large mixed family.  Edward was the steady plodding type with an
unusual kind and humorous manner.  Yet he was a very good disciplinarian, quite
forceful and was strict, believing in the use of Solomon's rule when necessary.  Ann
was more aggressive, the bustling kind and an exceptional seamstress.  You could
often find her sitting up into the late hours of the night sewing suits for her
grown sons and dresses for the girls; knitting all day while the children did their
best at the house work.  With such a thrifty wife, this family soon improved things
around them.  They took up a large section of land along the State Highway, half way
to Pleasant Grove, including where Edward Jr., Nate Robinson, Maggie Robinson, and
Wallace Moislots homes are located.  This large tract of land meant endless clearing
and cultivating.

The larger boys and girls going to the fields with their father.  Grandfather
recalls, "We were certainly children of the soil and could go to William Greenwood's
school for only a short time in the winter months when the ground was too frozen to
be worked.  We traded vegetables with the school for our schooling.  Being a native
looking bunch of pupils and we did more fooling then learning as we sat on our log
benches."  We had a bit of a slate and a speller, but our main textbook was our
Bible.  We felt more at home out in the open fields then in a school room, as we
loved to work in the clear air and sunshine which gave us good appetites and we were
a thankful bunch that we got to finally settle in such a peaceful land.

As Edward tilled the soil with his boys around him, he must have thanked his
Heavenly Father that he was now a landowner himself, instead of a footman to royalty
in old England.  And best of all in a free country of religious liberty, where
family would be driven no more.

It wasn't long until Edward and Ann built them a comfortable six room house.  It was
made of adobe, colonial style, quite like the red brick house Edward and Mary had
built in Nauvoo, with four rooms downstairs, two big rooms upstairs.  Repeating
grandfather again, he said, "We boys went to the canyons and hewed are own native
timber," We dried our own adobes, and I can see my stepmother now throwing the adobe
up to the masons as they put up the walls.  We were surely proud of our lovely home.
 It stood some distance back from Main Street on the corner lot, leaving a large
front lawn and flowers.  Father Edward could be found continually at work.  Edward
landscaped and planted trees, lawn, shrubs from the neighbors, from Salt Lake and
from the east.  These all had to be brought in by ox team.  Some later emigrants
brought him his lilac brushes from old England, which were planted on each side of
the east gate to bid you welcome.  From the right front entrance were rows of all
kinds of roses, which outlined a long gravel walkway that curved to the door of the
house.  Next to the patch beneath the rose trees were beds of violets, rows of white
narcissus, tulips with hyacinths back of these, and a great profusion of purple and
yellow iris which followed the corner curves at the lawn and bordered the walk to
the back gardens.  Here there were roses of ever shade, from wild pink and yellow
single roses, which were in the background against trellises of fragrant
honeysuckle, to his choicest deep red "Prince Henry."  These roses he had to show to
everyone who came onto the lot and he reminded them it was named after one of
England's kings, and a symbol of his great love for his Mother Country.  In fact,
his roses were the admiration of everyone.  The people of the town called his place
"Robinson's Rose Corner."  Some of the trees now growing in the American Fork City
Park were planted by this great lover of nature.

Richard was the first son to leave this lovely home; his romance budded into their
own family when he wooed Lizzie Brently, the adopted daughter of Ann.  This couple
was called by authorities to help settle Southern Utah.  John married Ann Clements
of Grantsville, Utah.  Elisabeth married Morgan Phelps of California, while Edward
married Sarah Harrington and built a home on part of the Robinson land.  Heber
married Maggie Della Smith.  Later, Margaret Crystal and husband also built down on
the farm.  William married Orpha Adams and built a red brick house west of his
father's home, which he later sold to the city for use as a city park.  Mary Jane
married Oscar Woods of Castle Gate.

Most of the children were married when another great loss came to Edward.  Ann
Wooten's life had been too strenuous and she was taken from this existence at the
age of 54 on April 8, 1864.  She is buried in the American Fork Cemetery.

Edward found much solace cultivating his lovely flower beds and mowing his lawns,
trying to keep his house until two or three years later when another lovely little
English woman came to bless his old age.  He married Margaret Groovner, an old maid,
who had accepted the Gospel in England and had come to American Fork, Utah, with the
Kelley family.  She was born October 11, 1811, in Hertfordshire, England.

This kindly little English woman made a fine helpmate for Edward during his
declining years, as she was a splendid cook and a precise housekeeper.  Edward's
grandchildren and the little ones in the neighborhood thought Margaret "tops"
because she made such good cookies, and was so liberal with them.  Her meals were
always served exactly on time and no matter how busy Edward was in his lovely flower
garden, he had to come in for their afternoon tea which Margaret served in her fine
china cups, which she had brought from old England.  Even after she became blind,
she continued to serve her tea, with the help of her kind husband.  In this, Edward
proved to be most considerate.  He was often seen leading his wife about in his
flower garden or out in town for a walk.  As if the creator wished to give Margaret
a chance to return his kindness, Edward became deaf and Margaret would lean in close
to his ear and make him understand in a special way.  So, happily along they did go.
 He was her eyes, and she, ears for him, until death once again made its call and
took Edward's third wife in June 1889.  Life was very awkward and droll for Edward,
he then decided to see if he could sell his home, where the City Park now is, to his
grandson, William E. Robinson, who had just married Jane Chipman.  Edward stayed a
while with them in one room of the house, still finding much comfort in caring for
the trees and flowers, some of which are still growing (1944).  Here he stayed until
Jane's first baby, Myrtle, was born and they needed the room.  Great Grandfather was
taken to live with his sons.  First he stayed with William Smith Robinson, who had
married Orpha Adams and who lived next to him on the other side of our present park.
 Then after a while, Edward lived with his son Heber and his wife, Maggie.  Finally,
his son, Edward Jr., who had married Sarah Harrington, took him to live with them in
their farm home. (Later owned by Wallace Hoislet and now by Mr. Crosby.)

Here in these lovely surroundings on the land he had broken and been the first to
cultivate, Edward Robinson remained with his son and grandchildren.  He loved to
hold the little ones on his lap and let them listen to the precious watch he had
brought from old England as a gift from the railroad company.  A watch which was
kept running from the year 1842, until the time of his death, April 1896.  He is now
resting in the American Fork Cemetery.