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Dictionary of Miramichi Biography

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ROBINSON, ALEXANDER (1848-1902)

ROBINSON, ALEXANDER, carriage manufacturer, importer, and dealer; b. Rosebank, 3 Mar 1848, s/o John Robinson and Janet Rob Scott; m. 1873, Jane Hewitson Cormack, d/o Alexander Cormack and Ruth Pattison Hewson; d. Saint John, 20 Oct 1902.

Alexander Robinson's father was a painter and decorator who came to the Miramichi with his parents in 1825 from Co. Longford, Ireland, and his mother was a native of Scotland.

Robinson apprenticed in the carriage trade with the firm of Price & Shaw in Saint John and worked as a journeyman in Yarmouth, N.S. He entered business for himself at Rosebank around 1870. In 1874 he relocated in Chatham, where he established the Chatham Carriage & Sleigh Works. This was a combination carriage manufactory and dealership in imported carriages, sleighs, and farm machinery.

Robinson enjoyed building decorative vehicles such as the "three spring, one horse express wagon" which he had for sale in 1881. The body of this vehicle was paneled in black, with gold bordering, and the underworks were painted vermilion. It became increasingly difficult for independent carriage builders to compete with the large manufacturers, however, and in 1894 he joined the competition by becoming the Massey-Harris farm machinery dealer on the Miramichi. A large, handsome building which he had erected in 1879 was lost to fire in 1895. He continued temporarily at another site but closed the business and retired in 1901 due to illness.

Robinson was a Chatham town councillor and a member of the Masonic order and other fraternal organizations. In 1898 he was serving as a trustee of St Andrew's Presbyterian Church. He had a reputation as a hard worker. "What his hand found to do," stated the Miramichi Advance, "he did with all his might." He was "honest, earnest, and outspoken," sometimes to the point of giving offence. At his death in 1902, at age fifty-four, he left his wife, Jane H. Cormack, three daughters, and two sons.

Sources

[b/m] Biog. Review NB [d] Advocate 22 Oct 1902 / Advance 26 May 1881, 3 May 1894 (ad), 20 Jan 1898, 17 Oct 1901, 23 Oct 1902; Advocate 3 Jan 1872 (ad), 27 Dec 1893 (ad); Fraser (C); World 26 May 1886 (ad)


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