San Joaquin County Biographies


This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm



 
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 herd 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, Ky., 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 stock raising. 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 he 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, 
Cal., 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.
 
History of San Joaquin County, California � Los Angeles, Historic Record Co., 
1923
p     515
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler.