HISTORY OF KENTUCKY AND KENTUCKIANS, E. Polk Johnson, three volumes, Lewis
Publishing Co., New York & Chicago, 1912. Common version, 
Vol. III, pp. 1266-67.  [Jefferson County]

RICHARD ALEXANDER ROBINSON--The late Richard Alexander Robinson 
was one of the leading citizens and business men of Louisville.  A sketch
of his life
finds an appropriate place in history of those men of business and
enterprise in Kentucky whose force of character, whose sterling integrity,
whose fortitude amid discouragements, whose good sense in the management of
complicated affairs and marked success in establishing large industries and
bringing to completion great schemes of trade and profit have contributed
in an eminent degree to the development of the vast resources of the
country.
     Mr. Robinson was in the broadest sense a self-made man, being both
the architect and builder of his own fortune, and in large measure the
promoter of the commercial prosperity of the community in which he lived,
but it was not only his success that made him one of the most honored and
respected residents of the city, it was the character of the man, his
unfaltering honesty, his kindly purposes, his recognition of the good in
others, his broad sympathy and unbounded charity.  These endeared him to
all with whom he came in contact until memory now holds his life history
as a sacred treasure.
     Mr. Robinson was born October 23, 1817, on "Spring Hill" farm near
Winchester, Frederick county, Virginia, the oldest son of Lyles Robert and
Catherine (Worthington Goldsborough) Robinson, while his paternal
grandparents were Alexander and Priscilla Robinson of Baltimore, Maryland,
where Alexander was a prominent merchant.  Lyles, the father of Richard A.,
was reared by his aunt at Winchester, Virginia, his mother having died in
early infancy.  He married Catherine Worthington Goldsborough, the
daughter of Dr. Richard Goldsborough, of Cambridge, Maryland.
     After attending the Winchester Academy Richard A. Robinson in 1832
began his business career as a clerk in a general store in Shepherdstown,
Virginia.  His mother died in 1828 and his father, in 1834, leaving young
Richard A., as the eldest child, practically the head of the family of
orphaned children, and it was the object to prepare a home where all the
children could be together that brought Richard A., to Louisville,
Kentucky, in 1837.  Here he became a bookkeeper in a wholesale grocery
house, but a year later he entered the employ of Casseday & Ranney, where
he was bookkeeper until 1841, when he engaged in business for himself as a
member of the firm of Robinson, Lee & Company, which firm established a
retail dry goods store on Market street.  In the meantime he had succeeded
in bringing to Louisville his brothers, two of whom, Goldsborough and
Archibald M., became members of the above firm.  Mr. Lee dying in 1841, the
business was continued under the firm name of Robinson & Brothers.  In
1842 he married Eliza D., the daughter of William F. and Mary S. Pettet,
of Louisville, and soon after that event he transferred his interests in
the dry goods business to his brothers and himself engaged in the retail
drug business on Main street, which became the house of R. A. Robinson &
Company in 1855.  Subsequently his sons, William A. Robinson, Worthington
Robinson and A. Lee Robinson, and Charles W. Pettet became associated with
him, and business developed later into what is now the Robinson-Pettet
Company, one of the largest concerns in that line in the South.
     To open a new avenue of trade for other of his sons, the wholesale
hardware house of Robinson Brothers & Company, was established in 1878,
and later Mr. Robinson formed a joint stock company to operate the
"Louisville Woolen Mills," of which he became the president.  For six years
he was a director of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, and for five
years of the Elizabethtown & Paducah Railroad Company.  He was also a
director of the Louisville Bridge Company.
     Mr. Robinson's religious faith was an element of his life and prompted
him to the most honorable relations with his fellowmen, it being manifest
in every transaction where he endeavored to put into practice the golden
rule.  He became a member of St. Paul's Episcopal church when it was
established in 1839 and served as Sunday school teacher, vestryman and
warden in the church.  After St. Paul's was removed to its present location
Mr. Robinson became a member of St. Andrew's church.  In 1882 he was
elected the first honorary life member of the Louisville Board of Trade.
     The public benefactions of Mr. Robinson cover a wide territory and a
great variety of objects.  He made large donations to several worthy
institutions and contributed with large liberality to every worthy charity
or society to assist the poor or the unfortunate.  There was no
educational cause or institution, which did not find in him its most
powerful ally and most capable supporter.  It was not wonderful that in the
life of this large-souled, unswerving, conscientious man all the generous
and philanthropical affections should grow and flourish.  He felt himself
enobled by his work.  Among other benevolent work Mr. Robinson endowed a
scholarship in the Theological Seminary of Virginia for the education of
Episcopal ministers; and made endowments of five thousand dollars each to
the Louisville Charity Organization Society, the Home for Friendless
Women, Home of the Innocents, the Orphanage of the Good Shepherds and the
Young Men's Christian Association.  He also gave liberally to the
Protestant Orphan Asylum, the John N. Norton Memorial Infirmary and St.
Andrew's church.  The old Winchester Academy which Mr. Robinson attended
as a boy was succeeded by the Shenandoah Valley Academy, which has taken
high standing in Virginia, and in 1894 Mr. Robinson purchased and presented
to the Academy, a tract of twenty acres adjoining Winchester, and upon
which it has since been established in a permanent home.  He also endowed
three scholarships in the Academy.
     His generous nature was also just, as every one who knew him
intimately well understood.  He was loyal in his friendships and generously
remembered the friends of his youth.  The tenor of his life was even and
in all his relations he was honorable and reliable.  The lesson of such a
man's life is worth something in a community, the sagacious man of business
holding in mind the complex details of its numerous departments, the quiet
citizen who discharges with seriousness and conscientious fidelity the
duties of citizenship, the benevolent and generous Christian who recognizes
the claims of humanity and seeks to befriend, improve and uplift those who
need help--such a man has not lived in vain--he has been successful.
     He died peacefully and well prepared on December 9, 1897.  His
religion need not be sought with a lantern and doubted when found, for the
man of iron judgment and unbending will, of powerful perceptions and
resolute purposes, uncovered his head and went obedient to every mandate.
He planted here and planted there, and rejoiced in the time of harvest. He
believed in the inscription on the high priest's miter, and sought to send
the light of holiness and peace into all the corners of the earth.

Richardson Worthington Goldsborough Pettet Peter
=
Winchester-Frederick-VA Cambridge-Dorchester-MD

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/jefferson/robinson.ra.txt