The Robinson Family

Historical Notes

By Rosalie Hawthorne Miller

Nov. 8, 1949

Gainesvil= le, Fla

Jacob Elizabeth Robinson was my great grandfather and = is as far back as we have been able to trace the family line thus far. He was married three times and the father of 21 children. There = were three children in his first marriage: William (killed in Civil War), Whitfi= eld, and Jim (who married Jane Smoke). Mary Skipper that lived at Hague was Jim’s youngest daughter.<= /p>

The third marriage was to Jane Fe= rguerson and they had two children – Joe and Echyln. Some of the children of the three marriages died in infancy.

The second marriage is the one we branched from. Jacob Elizabeth Robinson was born = in 1812 in Orangeburg District. S.C. They moved to Florida<= /st1:place> about 1850. Grandma Sauls was about 3 months old. Jacob Elizabeth Robinson died in 1= 880 of pneumonia and his wife died in 1868 soon after the birth of one of their children. They were both buri= ed in the old Family Cemetery on the old home place = 211; now known as the Cox Place= – in the Bland Community of Alachua County. Property now owned by J.L. Matthew= s.

Martha Selena Smoke, our great grandmother was the sis= ter of Dr. Sam Smoke, and Jane Smoke that married Mr. Robinson’s son Jim. They also had a half brother Aaron= Smoke of S.C. The Smokes came from = Holland and the Robinsons from England. Martha Smoke’s father was a = Methodist preacher.

Jacob Elizabeth Robinson’s father was an orphan = – as I have stated his people were English.&= nbsp; They went from England to Holland and then came to the United States. His father must have married in Holland – h= is grandmother bound him out to Stone Masons trade – Uncle Sam Robinson learned the trade and also his sons.

Aunt Mattie Merchant, (sister of my grandmother Farmer= who was later Mrs. Sauls) said that her Dutch great grandmother came from Holland<= /st1:place> sometime in the 1700’s. Jacob Elizabeth Robinson was raised by his Dutch Grandmother. He had a half sister that was marr= ied in this country. This old grandm= other lived 110 years and in her 100^th year cut a full set of teeth. They were not as hard as the usual= teeth are.

Our great grandfather Robinson’s house – C= ox place in more recent years – was begun in 1867 and completed in 1868. Every board, shingle etc. was hewe= d, plained and dressed by hand. The family moved in August 1868, b= efore the house was completed. Grandmother Robinson was then 44 years old and about to have another child. (S= he was born about 1824 in S.C.) Her brother, Dr. Smoke, advised her to go to Worthington Springs and bathe and drink the Spring water. Aunt Mattie Merchant was about 7 y= ears old when they moved into their new home.

Our Robinson grandparents and Dr. Smoke also my grandf= ather Farmer were buried in the old Robinson cemetery on the place. John Jacob Sa= uls, my grandmother’s last husband, and Aunt Mattie Merchant and family are buried at Spring Hill Methodist Church (both cemeteries in Alach= ua County).

There were six children to live to manhood and womanhood: They were Delbert Robinson that married Virgilia Crews, Samuel Ro= binson who married Patty Riveare, Mary Jane Robinson w= ho married first Jame Manley Farmer and second John Jacob Sauls, Ausberry Robinson, Martha Ann Robinson married Ad Merchant and John Robinson that married Mamie Height.