San
Joaquin County
Biographies
WILLIAM J. ROBINSON
One of the well known and
enterprising citizens of San Joaquin County, William J. Robinson, has for the
past twenty-five years continuously resided in the Lodi section. A native of California, he was born in San
Francisco on January 10, 1859, on the exact ground where fifty-six years later
was held the great Panama-Pacific Exposition.
His father, Francis H. Robinson, was born in Indiana and crossed the
plains to California during the year 1857, while his mother, who was Rebecca T.
Cooper before her marriage, was born in Kentucky and came to California via the
Isthmus of Panama in 1858. His father
conducted a dairy where our subject was born; and was also a contractor and
laid the first brick in the old fort at Fort Point, fronting on the Golden
Gate. Mr. Robinson was married in
Louisville, Kentucky, about 1847, and three daughters were born before coming
to California and four children in California, of whom three are living.
When William J. was ten years of
age, the family removed to Antioch, Contra Costa County, and there finished his
schooling and later engaged in farming and stockraising. During the year of 1892 he removed to
Lathrop, San Joaquin County, and for eighteen years engaged in farming; in 1900
he removed to Lodi and settled on a dairy ranch east of the city, which he
conducted until 1906 when he sold it. He
then established a feed and fuel business in Lodi, first on Pine Street and
later on East Lodi Avenue under the firm name of W. J. Robinson Company, and
later his son Willard J., and son-in-law E. L. Weaver became his partners. About two years later Mr. Weaver withdrew
from the firm. Mr. Robinson started his
business in a small way with little capital, and when he sold the business in
1920 he had built up a large and successful enterprise. A few years previous he had erected a modern
plant of concrete blocks covering a considerable area and in selling out
retained his building, selling only the stock and goodwill, which he still owns
in partnership with his son.
Mr. Robinson married Miss Helen
Johnson, a native of Missouri, but a resident of this state since the age of
five years, and they are the parents of two children: Willard J. is a member of the firm of Robinson
& Lyon, owners and proprietors of a sporting goods house in Lodi, and has
one son, William Emery; Bira T. is Mrs. E. L. Weaver
of Lodi; she was formerly a teacher in Inyo County, and has three
children: Leroy, Kenneth and Ralph. Fraternally Mr. Robinson is a member of the
Lodi Lodge No. 259, I. O. O. F., joining that order in Antioch, California,
when a young man. He and his family are
members of the Congregational Church of Lodi.
Broad-minded and progressive, he has always adhered strictly to high
principles in business matters as well as in personal conduct.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
515-516. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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