JOHN ROBINSON

    John Robinson, a farmer, a well-known pioneer of Dover Township, was born in London, England, March 21, 1802.  He is a son of William and Mary (Taylor) Robinson, the former a native of London and the latter of Oxfordshire, England.  Mr. Robinson was an artist, and superintended the construction of the interior of the former house of Lords, and the Throne at Windsor.  The ancestral history of this family shows them to be of Huguenot extraction.  The first of the family of any distinction came with the persecuted Huguenots from France during the Reign of Louis the Fourteenth.  William was in the employ of the British Government for many years and died in London.  The subject of this sketch was reared in the metropolis of Great Britain, and was educated in a French Protestant College.  Mr. Robinson possesses the endowments of art so characteristic of his race, and was in the employ of the Government in London till 1830, when his property, amounting to $40,000, was destroyed by fire.  He rebuilt, and in 1833 came across the waters, and located a few months in New York City; then came to Delaware County, Ohio, where he purchased 400 acres.  In March 1853, he came to Union County and purchased 200 acres of land lying on the line.  Mr. Robinson by his energy and perseverance acquired large property, at one time owning 800 acres of finely improved and highly cultivated land.  This he has divided among his children and now lives with his son Guido.  August 13, 1831, he was married to Miss Elizabeth, daughter of James and Fillis Hayes.  Mrs. Robinson was born in Gloucestershire, England, in 1812.  This marriage was blest with seven children, viz.: Edwin H., married Lucinda Hill; Alfred J., married Lorinda Hill; Rubens W., married Hattie Watson; Arthur S., married Sarah J. Thomas; Mary C. T., wife of Judson Ferris; Edward, in married Sarah P. Culp, and Guido, married Laura J. Andrews and have four children-Girard E., Beale A., Ellis A. and Grace. Mrs. Robin -on departed this life May 10, 1879.  Mr. Robinson is a man of rare artistic talent.  Both in carving anti painting, he displays plays a remarkably peculiar ingeniousness.  His home is almost entire. ly furnished with ornaments and carvings from his own hand.  One piece of furniture, a library case, of a very peculiar design, is one of the useful curiosities of the parlor.  Mr. Robinson has made some paintings of Alpine and other natural scenery, and shows skill in this art as well as in carving besides he has a large collection of geological, mineralogical and botanical specimens.