Rash's Surname Index
Notes for John Buchanan ROBINSON
From "Contemporary Biography of Pennsylvania":
Hon. John Buchanan Robinson, a prominent attorney at law, and member of the State Senate of Pennsylvania, was born in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, May 23, 1846. On both sides Mr. Robinson comes of the sturdy North of Ireland stock, which has done so much to supply leaders in every walk of American life. His paternal grandfather was the late General William Robinson, who served in the Pennsylvania Legislature, and had also the honor of being the first Mayor of Allegheny City after its incorporation. General Robinson was the first President of the the Exchange Bank of Pittsburgh. He was also appointed a United States Commissioner in 1842, and as fiscal agent was authorized by the Government to effect a loan of five million dollars in Europe. Owing, however, to the fact that American credit was then at a very low ebb, he was unable to accomplish this mission. General Robinson was the first white child born north and west of the Ohio river. He was held in such high esteem as he grew to manhood and passed middle age, honored and respected by all who knew him, that, at the time of his death in 1868, it is probable he could have borrowed on his personal credit the sum refused him in 1842 as the agent of the National Government.
John Buchanan, son of William O’Hara Robinson, was born in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, May 23, 1846. He attended the private schools in Pittsburgh, entered Western University, finishing at Amherst College. In 1862 he attached himself to Captain Riddle’s company of the 15th Pennsylvania Emergency Regiment, and in 1864 enlisted in the active service. But the family already had two sons at the front, one of whom, Captain William O’Hara Robinson, was killed at the battle of the Wilderness, May 6, 1864, and through the influence of his grandfather, General Robinson, John B. was released from service, much against his wish. As compensation he was appointed a cadet of the United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, by Congressman Thomas Williams, and sworn into service for eight years. He was graduated four years later in 1868, and was engaged in active sea duty until 1875, when he resigned, having risen to the rank of lieutenant. During his naval experience he visited nearly every country. He was three times in Europe, sailed around the world in the flag ship “Colorado,” flying the pennant of Rear Admiral Rodgers. He was in Japan at the time of the American expedition to Korea, in which Lieutenant McKee and a number of sailors and marines lost their lives in the attack on the Korean forts located along the Hong river. In that same year, 1871, in company with Lieutenant Chipp (afterward lost with the Jeanette Polar expeditin) Lieutenant Robinson was on the United States steamer “Monocacy,’ commanded by Captain McCrea, engaged on the hydrographic survey of the Yang-tse river. In the same year, as navigating officer of the United States sloop of war “Idaho,” commanded by Captain J. Crittenden Watson, he went through the exciting dangerous experience of a typhoon, which nearly sank the “Idaho,” although at anchor in Yokohama harbor. While in Japan, Lieutenant Robinson was one of a company of United States naval officers accorded an interview with the hitherto rigidly exclusive Mikado of Japan, the interview having been arranged by Sir Henry Parkes, K. C. B., British minister to Yeddo, in defiance of precedent. In August, 1871, Lieutenant Robinson, with a party of American officers, made the ascent of Fieji-Yama, the famous mountain peak of Japan, and accurately measured its height by instruments. Returning to the United States he served in 1873 on the Great Lakes on the steamer “Michigan,” and in the fall of that year was ordered to New York as watch officer on the “Juniata.” Later he sailed in the “Juniata” under sealed orders which proved to be to proceed to Santiago de Cuba and peremptorily demand the surrender of American citizens seized on the “Virginius” by the Spanish authorities. On January 1, 1875, after eleven years service, Lieutenant Robinson retired from the naval service, his resignation having been handed in the previous year.
He returned to Pennsylvania and began the study of law under John G. Johnson in Philadelphia. In 1876 he was admitted to the Philadelphia bar, and in 1878 removed to Delaware County, where he was admitted to the bar of that County, and in the same year was admitted to practice in the Supreme Courts of Pennsylvania. He advanced rapidly in his profession, and as senior counsel for the defense in the case of Samuel Johnson, a colored man, charged with the murder of John Sharpless, he won a state-wide fame. This is one of the celebrated cases in Pennsylvania reports and was heard on appeals through different courts, finally reaching the board of pardons. Mr. Robinson fought this case with such ability and pertinacity argued with such eloquence, that he saved the life of his client. Along with the practice of his profession Mr. Robinson has carried a burden of official political responsibility. In 1884 he was elected to the state legislature from Delaware County, was re-elected two years later, and prominently mentioned for speaker. He was in the thick of the fray in the House, making many noted speeches, particularly his anti-discrimination speech, his speech against Governor Pattison’s veto of the indigent soldiers’ buried bill, and his speech in favor of an increase in the length of school terms, which resulted in passing the bill. In 1888 he was a candidate for renomination to the House, but was defeated. In the following campaign he was on the stump for his successful rival, and later was engaged by the Republican National Committee as a speaker in New York, Connecticut and New Jersey. In 1889 he secured the nomination for state senator from the Ninth senatorial district, winning the honor on the first ballot over Jesse M. Baker, James Watts Aiercur and Geoffrey P. Denis. In this contest he was antagonized by the liquor interests and by those controlling federal patronage. He led a successful fight, and as the “People’s Candidate” completely changed the complexion of the old time Republican rule in the County, also establishing himself as a leader in state politics. He won over his Democratic competitor by 1,559 majority, and served with great honor as senator. Mr. Robinson is one of the most trenchant and vigorous political leader-writers in his state, and both pen and voice have often spoke in aid of great reformatory measures. Staunchly Republican, he is not so partisan as to smother independence, nor is he in the slightest degree a demagogue. He has opposed men and measures in his own party and has always had the support of the voters of his district in a large degree. As a speaker he is logical and convincing, often rising to the heights of true eloquence. He has delivered many memorable addresses on “Memorial Day” in different cities, and one yet spoken of in praise was delivered at the reunion of the veterans of the 97th Pennsylvania Volunteers in November, 1889. He has also gained success as a writer. While in the naval service he wrote a series of brilliant letters for the “Commercial Gazette” of Pittsburgh, and has since been a frequent and welcome contributor to the leading New York and Philadelphia journals. In 1881-82 he was chief editorial writer for the “Delaware County Gazette,” of Chester, then owned by August Donath. In the winter of 1880, Mr. Robinson made his first essay on the lecture platform, beginning a career of success that brought him into prominence as a lecturer.
Mr. Robinson is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows; the American Protestant Association; Knights of Pythias; Order of Chosen Friends; Knights of the Golden Eagle; Improved Order of Red Men; Independent Order of Mechanics; Bradbury Post, No. 149, Grand Army of the Republic, of which he was elected commander in 1884; and holds memberships in various other societies. A man of fine natural talents, developed in contact in political and professional life with the best association, blessed with a comprehensive education greatly extended by foreign travel, Mr. Robinson has used his gifts wisely and well. He illustrates in his own life the peculiar characteristics of the best birthright of the best type of American citizen, the ability to succeed in political and professional life without resource to trickery. After a public and professional life of nearly forty years, Mr. Robinson, from the heights of success, can truly say that every step of his way has been honestly won, and that principle was never sacrificed for sordid gain. Since 1901 he has held the position of United States marshal in the Philadelphia District.
Lieutenant Robinson married in St. Louis, Missouri, October 29, 1874, Elizabeth Waddingham, daughter of Charles L. Gilpin, then of St. Louis, Missouri, granddaughter of Mayor Charles Gilpin, of Philadelphia, a linear descendant of Joseph Gilpin, of Dorchester, Oxfordshire, England, who came to Pennsylvania in 1696, settling in Birmingham, Delaware County. Joseph Gilpin was of the sixteenth generation from Richard de Gueylpin, who had a grant in the reign of King John (1206) of the estate of Kentmore, in the County of Westmoreland, England. By the union of Mr. Robinson and Miss Gilpin there were seven children born, four of whom survive: Mrs. Elizabeth Wyckoff, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Mrs. Adele Gilpin Miller and Mrs. Helen Robinson Anderson and Miss Mildred Robinson, the three last named of Media, Pennsylvania. These children through their mother trace through twenty-one recorded generations of Gilpins to the days of Magna Charta. The family home of the Robinsons, the “Gayley,?? is in Media, Pennsylvania.
Besides the before named offices held by Mr. Robinson, he was appointed by President McKinley, May 1, 1900, United States marshal for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, was reappointed in 1900 by President Roosevelt, and again reappointed in 1912, by President Taft, and served until December 1, 1913, when he was succeeded by Frank S. Noonan, a Democrat appointed, by President Wilson, in flagrant violation of all civil service reform and his own civil service professions. During the time Mr. Robinson was marshal, he was elected a national delegate to the Republican Convention in 1908, which nominated Mr. Taft for president. Of other offices held by Mr. Robinson was the presidency of the Republican League of Clubs of Pennsylvania, during the years 1891-1892 and 1893, succeeding the first president of the league, Hon. Edwin S. Stuart. He has been a candidate for minor offices, among those for lieutenant-governor of the State in 1894, being defeated for the nomination, although electing ninety-seven delegates against the combined opposition of all the prominent leaders of the party in the commonwealth. He was an unsuccessful applicant for the position of assistant secretary of the navy. In 1897, the president Mr. McKinley, appointed Theodore Roosevelt through Cincinnati, Ohio.
During Mr. Robinson’s service in congress he was on the Columbia Exposition Committee and the Naval Committee, and twice was a member by appointment of the speaker, to the board of visitors to the Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland. His public record, State and National, covers a period of over forty years, and he is yet, although a private citizen, one of the most active and influential of the Republican leaders of the County of Delaware, and the state in which he resides.
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