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Dictionary of Miramichi Biography

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ROBINSON, JAMES (1852-1932)

ROBINSON, JAMES, lumber company head, MLA, and MP; b. Derby, 6 Mar 1852; m. 1877, Grace MacDonald, d/o Peter MacDonald and Susanna Green, of Blissfield parish; d. Millerton, 16 Oct 1932.

James Robinson grew up at Derby in the home of Mrs Ann Taylor. She was widowed prior to his birth, but in 1856 she married Elkanah Delano. In the census of 1851 the five children in her home were enumerated under the Taylor surname. In 1861 the six children living with her and Delano, most of whom were the same children who had been in her home in 1851, were enumerated under four different surnames: Robinson, Boucher, Ferguson, and Delano. The six included James Ferguson, age nine. In the census of 1871 James was enumerated as James Robinson, age nineteen.

A lumber scaler by trade, Robinson was foreman of the South West Boom when it was under lease to Charles C. Watt. When Watt withdrew from his contract in 1879 Robinson took over as leasee and manager and did the job to everybody's satisfaction for the next thirty years. By 1881 he was also conducting a general store at Millerton. Later he was a contractor, with John O'Brien, for the construction of a highway bridge over the Southwest branch of the river between Nelson and Wilson's Point. He and O'Brien supplied the necessary lumber, while the construction work was subcontracted, and supervised by George Brown.

Robinson subsequently carried on extensive lumbering operations and had an interest in several sawmills in the county, including the Hickson mill in Newcastle and the Rundle mill on Bartibog Island. In 1919 he built the most modern sawmill on the Miramichi near the Morrissy Bridge in Newcastle. This mill was employing 125 men in June 1920, when it was lost in one of the most spectacular fires ever witnessed in the town. In 1921 Robinson's lumbering, sawmilling, and other business activities were gathered under a family corporation, the Robinson Co., which was capitalized at half a million dollars.

Robinson served as a county councillor for Derby parish for a number of years and as warden for several terms. In 1890 he won election to the provincial Assembly, and he was successful also in the elections of 1892 and 1895. He resigned in January 1896 to run for the federal seat vacated by Michael Adams. He won the by-election held for this seat, was re-elected in 1896 and 1900, and sat as a Conservative MP until 1904. After he was defeated in the 1904 election he retired from politics. In the view of the Union Advocate, "there were few politicians more astute and far seeing."

In 1882 Robinson bought 'Mappin Castle', the elegant residence which had been built at Millerton in 1878-79 by Ernest E. Mappin, the husband of Annie Murray. Nearby he had a stable of race horses which included "Birdie," a prize-winning trotter for which he paid an estimated $550. In 1894 he owned the steamer Gracie, which had been named in honor of his wife. In 1897 he christened a new steamer the Irene, for his nine-year-old daughter, Irene B. Robinson. He was the owner of the last sailing vessel to be constructed on the Miramichi, the four-masted schooner Holmes A. Frank, which was built at Rosebank in 1919. In 1906 he bought a gasoline-powered Darracq touring car. This was the twenty-third car registered in New Brunswick and the second to a Miramichi owner.

Robinson was active in the Masonic order, and he and his wife, Grace MacDonald, were devoted Presbyterians. He was the leading member of the committee which built Grace Presbyterian Church at Millerton in 1893-94, which again bore the name of his wife. It was stated that he had "an outstanding personality" and "kindly disposition" and was of "the strictest integrity." He died from injuries received in a car accident when he was eighty years of age. He was survived by his wife, a daughter, and a son.

Sources

[b] tombstone [m] Graves [d] Advocate 19 Oct 1932 / Advance 13 Feb 1879, 22 Mar 1894, 7 Jun 1894, 27 Sep 1894, 13 May 1897, 11 Sep 1902; Advocate 15 Jun 1920; Bamford Genealogy (re. Peter MacDonald/Susanna Green); Commercial World 21 Nov 1946; JLA 1907 (public works report re. registered automobiles); official marriage records (Delano/Taylor); World 25 Oct 1882, 1 Nov 1882, 22 Oct 1919

Notes

See Alexander Ferguson and Ingraham B. Freeman.


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