Frank E. Robinson

FRANK E. ROBINSON has been a prominent factor in the real estate and loan business at Atwood for the past thirty-one years, and besides his business career has made an enviable record as a faithful public servant. For four terms he was mayor of Atwood, for many years was in the City Council, and for three years was deputy clerk of the District Court.

Mr. Robinson was born at Hillsboro, Ohio, Jannary 22, 1862. His people have been in America for many generations. His grandfather, John C. Robinson, was a native of Ireland, and on coming to America settled in Pennsylvania, later was a pioneer in Illinois and Iowa, and died in Appanoose County, Iowa, in 1878. Thomas J. Robinson, father of Frank E., was born in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, October 19, 1831, grew up there, lived several years of his early married life at Hillsboro, Ohio, where he was a farmer, and in 1862 moved to Moulton, Iowa, and in 1871 located at Harlan, Iowa, where he spent the rest of his life. He died October 14, 1893. His children and descendants greatly prize his record as a soldier of the Civil war. He enlisted in August, 1862, in Company C of the Thirty-Sixth Iowa Infantry. He was in the Red River campaign under General Banks, and in one battle was captured and spent ten months in a Confederate prison at Tyler, Texas. He was mustered out August 24, 1865, at Balls Bluff, Arkansas. He was a very strong and influential republican and a member of the Presbyterian Church. Thomas J. Robinson married October 29, 1856, Miss Julia Anna Swarts. She was born at Hillsboro, Ohio, January 6, 1839, and died at Harlan, Iowa, September 16, 1910. A brief account of their children is as follows: Ella Florence, born September 8, 1858, died in February, 1916, wife of Forest Gibbs, who is assistant postmaster at Harlan, Iowa; Frank K, the second in age; John Wesley, born January 6, 1866, is a Methodist missionary in India; James F., born September 10, 1869, died at Clarinda, Iowa, October 12, 1908; May, born May 8, 1871, is the wife of Herman C. Dacken, of Harlan, Iowa; and Anna, born December 20, 1872, was married May 31, 1896, to Herbert S. Robinson, a traveling salesman out of St. Joseph, Missouri, their home being in Omaha, Nebraska.

Frank E. Robinson though a native of Ohio lived from early infancy in Iowa, attended the public schools of Harlan, including high school, and at the age of eighteen went to work to earn his own way. For two years he was assistant postmaster at Harlan. After that he acquired a thorough experience by work in a real estate and title abstract office, and fortified with that experience he came to Kansas in March, 1888, and located at Atwood. Here he was in the abstract business until 1898, and developed the pioneer abstract book of the county. He is probably the best authority on land titles and values in that section of the state. For a time he was connected with the Bank of Atwood, but in 1898 resumed the real estate and abstract and loan business and has conducted his enterprise on a large scale ever since, with offices on Main and Fourth streets. He is also a director in the State Bank of Atwood. Mr. Robinson is a property owner and has always identified himself with every public spirited movement in his home community. He is a republican, and is affiliated with the Masonic Lodge. Royal Arch Chapter and Knight Templar Commandery at Atwood.

December 18, 1884, at Harlan, Mr. Robinson married Miss Rhoda M. Ferguson, daughter of James S. and Clarissa (Hebbard) Ferguson. Her parents are now deceased. Her father was a carriage maker at Harlan, Iowa. Mr. and Mrs. Robinson have four children: Roy V., born October 24, 1886, is a rancher at Rosita, Colorado, but during 1918 was in the service of his country in the army. Frank Lee, born March 23, 1888, graduated from the Kansas State Agricultural College of Manhattan, is a chemist by training and profession, and has also been in the United States army during the great war. Lynn A., born October 14, 1889, is a draughtsman and architect, a graduate of the Kansas State Agricultural College, and when the war closed was in the Officers Training Camp at Louisville, Kentucky. Edith May, the youngest of the family, was born April 12, 1893. She graduated in home economics from the Kansas State Agricultural College and is now assisting her father in his business.

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