Robinson Family

Martin Robinson had never travelled outside New Haven and had no ambition to. His grandfather had arrived in this new land from northern England where he’d learned to be a blacksmith and in the process of his apprenticeship had observed the dawn of railways and roads to take these new horseless carriages they called automobiles. So, he’d left the job he’d been apprenticed to in the little country village and headed to cities where he first worked in rail workshops learning the secrets of building and servicing steam engines now being used on rail services or as tractors on farms, powering the new mills or propelling people between cities on new rail networks. He drank from knowledge of these new machines and became quite proficient in their building and maintenance. Then appearing on roads horseless carriages were becoming familiar and he was drawn to studying what made them work. Anything to do with mechanics and propulsion was of interest to him and he learned through the newspapers that in the new world there were exciting opportunities to use his trade, and the financial rewards were much greater than the subsistence wages he got from applying his skills in England.

So, Grandfather Robinson found a village girl anxious to throw off the restraints put on her by her family and they plotted together to put their meagre savings together and work their way by ship over to America where they’d find their fortune there. But there was a gap between expectation and reality when they reached New York and sought their fortune. There’d been mass migration to the new world, and everyone was competing for the limited job offers to claw their way up to prosperity. Many did make it, but most didn’t.

Elizabeth Grant got tired of living in poverty with Grandfather Robinson and set her eyes on someone with a steady job and prospects of a bright future and they were married. Her devastated partner decided to sign on with a railroad company building a presence slowly toward the west and was soon noted for his expertise in anything of a mechanical nature so as he headed west with the penetrating rail system to service steam engines and became noted for his skill in dealing with the new horseless carriage motors, he suddenly became a sought-after expert paid highly for his services.

Then in one of the new towns that sprang up as the railroad progressed, he met Martha. Martha had been trained as a schoolteacher and cared for the children of the new town on the rail network later called Gladesville. The two hit it off at their first meeting and John Robinson and Martha Colbert soon entered marriage with an itinerant preacher performing the service entering the event in Gladesville town records.

John Robinson decided to settle in Gladesville where there were continuing opportunities for business in the surrounding rural community fixing their farm machinery as well as contracting with the railroad to service their steam engines and he began to dabble in fixing motors of the rare horseless carriages appearing around town. Out of that union children were born in rapid succession, the last of which was Martin’s father Andrew. The family became wealthy over time and therefore a target for the criminal elements seeking an easy way to support their lifestyle as they itinerated through town on their way further west or returning east. The wild west as it was beginning to be referred to hosted many of these itinerants and robberies were frequent and people lost their lives in the process.

John and Martha felt being in this railroad town as a stopover point for these itinerants was not the place to raise their children and they’d been robbed of their money several times, so they began to cast around for a safe place to raise their children and rumors were that a rural village far to the south called New Haven was looking for a teacher.

John Robinson made the long journey by horse to look at this developing rural town and loved the locality. A river ran to the side of the town, and it was an ideal place to bring up children. There were several stores doing a profitable business and of course a local rural school with approximately one hundred students at different class levels. Their teacher was preparing to get married to someone her family back east had arranged, and she was looking forward to being released so she could head back home to prepare for the wedding.

There was an established rural community outside of town operating large land holdings and townspeople told John a shortage of experienced mechanics to service their equipment. A thriving business could be established over time.

He went back to Gladesville to report back to Martha who quickly caught his excitement over a move to a safer place to raise their children. John sold his business in Gladesville to an eager buyer along with the house on the understanding the house wouldn’t be available until Martha finished the school year. It would give John time to return to New Haven and begin construction of a home and shed to conduct his future business.  Local citizens looking forward to a replacement teacher and resident mechanic took part in constructing these buildings under John’s direction and refused any payment. It was the way rural folk helped each other, and they expected he in turn would help them in an hour of need when he was established in their town.

The buildings were ready for occupancy before Martha’s school year was completed, and John returned to Gladesville to purchase a horse buggy and contract a bullock cart driver to ship their furniture and belongings to New Haven. With the school handed over to the new teacher and house empty they deposited keys to the new owner and John sped his family over the developing rough road to their new quarters in New Haven leaving his family there to camp in the empty home while he sped back to accompany the bullock team bringing their personal effects to their new location. They travelled all night and by midday the next day the unloading and placement of furniture was complete.

Martha set about with her brood unpacking the bedding and curtains and soon the house began to look like the home they’d left. John had taken the trouble to make this new house the same dimensions as his former home in Gladesville so furniture would fit comfortably in familiar places though he added rooms in the expectation of more children gracing their family. The substantial wood stove was fired up and Martha busied herself cooking.

One by one families of the town came to introduce themselves to Martha and inspected her as the teacher of their children for the next school year. She in turn visited each of the townspeople in the next few weeks to meet her future students and to take a gift of her homemade cookies soon to be sought after on return visits. The children loved their new home, and the healthy environment not polluted with smoke and charcoal ash from passing trains that constantly passed by to the west and east. They loved bathing and fishing in the shallow river that passed by the town and played games with the village children who soon became an extended family to them.

As Martin’s father Andrew grew up in the company of village children, he settled on a firm friendship with the children of the Hoover family and was slowly drawn into a relationship with Claire Hoover in his early teen years. The Robertson children were well liked in the village for their respect for the elderly and willingness to help when anyone was in need. Clare’s parents encouraged the relationship which was formal in those teen years. It was about the common interests each obviously shared, Claire and Andrew moved around together as friends rather than a romantic relationship.

However, the Hoovers hoped that as they both matured their friendship would develop into a commitment to spend their life together. Under encouragement from Claire’s brothers Andrew suddenly realized when turning nineteen he wanted a home of his own someday and Claire as his reigning queen in the home. When he finally plucked up courage to ask Claire to marry him so he could establish himself with a home of his own, she quickly said yes, having been equally pushed by her brothers to consider Andrew as a life partner. There was great rejoicing in the Robinson and Hoover families over this planned marriage. Andrew’s elder siblings had already departed New Haven to find work in their chosen professions. Two had gone to the teachers’ college and were now assigned to other towns far removed from New Haven and Andrew’s remaining sister had married the son of a local shopkeeper she’d known from her school days.

It was only Andrew who’d shown an interest in mechanical things like his father had learned from his father in the workshop and travelling with him to rural properties far from town to fix their broken equipment. He liked the work and hoped to take over his father’s business someday.

Andrew was surprised when his father who was still a wealthy man suggested Andrew find a place where he and Claire would be happy to raise their future family, and John would finance the building of their first home. He’d take Andrew into partnership in the business. Andrew and Claire were surprised and ecstatic at this offer and when the word got out as to what old Robinson was planning the Hoovers insisted on furnishing the new home for them. Once again, the village men partnered with the Robinson and Hoover family in building this house and it was quickly finished and ready to occupy.

Then the local Pastor Horst Weber performed the ceremony, and the village threw their usual celebratory party afterward in church grounds which all contributed to. Then accompanied the couple to their new home and cheered as Andrew lifted his bride Claire and took her over the threshold. Andrew waved as he shut the door, and the couple locked in embrace in their wedding joy for the first time inside their new home.

The pastor facilitated a visit from a doctor who he sourced from Gladesville for half yearly checkups for everyone in the village. The doctor was there for a week each visit, and health checkups were conducted in the church hall which served other functions of the community. It was during one of those visits that the doctor noted some irregularities in Robinson’s heart and as there was little known about cures for many ailments people had in those days and the few diagnostics aids the doctor could only prescribe a less strenuous work regime and what the doctor understood as a healthy lifestyle to be followed. He followed the doctor’s advice as best he could, leaving heavy lifting to his son but one morning when Martha got out of bed, she noticed her husband was not breathing. She checked and let out a cry of pain. Her husband was dead.

The whole town turned out for the funeral and the Robinson siblings joined in placing their father in the grave dug at the back of the church where other pioneers were buried. Martha was beside herself as she mourned her life partner and was barely able to finish her teaching year with the support of the community but indicated she could no longer carry on in that role so helped the community seek a replacement teacher. Enrollment at the school had doubled and that required help from mothers in the community who were educated and could help out as teacher aids but it was becoming a burden for Martha even before the death of her husband John so the community went looking for two teachers to replace Martha and she promised to fill in at the school in an emergency in future.

Claire Robinson was very close to her mother-in-law and alarmed to see she was not coping or looking after herself. She’d lost her reason to live with her husband, now buried. Claire talked with her husband Andrew, and they decided to move into the ancestorial home to take care of the ageing woman. Martha found joy in their presence in the home, but her grief was so intense that within three months Martha had joined her life partner beside him in the graveyard at the back of the church.

The Robinson family grieved the loss of both parents. Andrew’s male siblings indicated they had no interest in moving back to New Haven to be part of the business and Lizzy his sister had married into a well-off family in the village and indicated Andrew should enjoy the home and business of his parents without any compensation to the rest of the family.

It was soon after the passing of Martha Robinson that Martin was born to bring comfort to the home, and they were happy with the spacious home as another two children were added to the home. Lizzy was named after her Aunt Elizabeth and Simon followed her.

To be continued.

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