DR. JAMES M. ROBINSON. This successful old medical practitioner is well known for his genial personality, his ready and kindly sympathy with those who come to him as invalids, and for this reason his clientele is perhaps even larger than would have been attracted by his recognized ability and the success which has attended his efforts. He belongs to that class of physicians who recognize the fact that there is something more than a barren ideality in “ministering to a mind diseased,” or, in other words, that the mental condition of the patient has in many cases much to do with his physical condition, and always endeavors to leave his patients in a happy and hopeful frame of mind where the nature of the disease renders this possible.
The Doctor was born in Marion County, Ala., October 16, 1823, a son of Samuel and Elizabeth (Evans) Robinson, the former of whom was born in North Carolina and took up his residence in Alabama at an early day. He later settled in Mississippi, and died there in 1848. His widow afterward removed to Louisiana, where she was called from life in 1865. The Doctor was the fourth of eight children born to this worthy couple, whose names are here given: Minerva, Reese; Sarah (Forsythe), of Boone County, Arkansas; James M., Samuel, William, Lucy J. and David T., the latter being a physician of Cooper, Tex., and he and Samuel and William were soldiers during the Civil War. James Evans, grand-father of the Doctor, was an Englishman by birth, was an early emigrant to America, took part in the Revolutionary War and died in Alabama. The Robinsons came of Scotch-Irish ancestry, and both Samuel and Elizabeth Robinson held to the Presbyterian faith, the father being a Democrat politically.
Dr. Robinson was a boy of fourteen years when he was taken to Mississippi, and in 1857 he entered the Memphis Medical College and did his first practicing in Mississippi. In 1859 he came to Arkansas and located in Hempstead County, but since 1867 has been a resident of Boone County and an active practitioner of Bellefonte. He practices all branches of his profession, is a skillful surgeon, and his patronage extends over a large territory. He has now reached the age of three-score years and ten, and the infirmities of age that are slowly but surely creeping upon him have rendered him unfit for the long night rides through wind and rain, and he feels that after the active life he has led it is but just that he should “rest from the burden and heat of the day.” He was married in Alabama to Lucinda McDonald, who died in 1849, leaving three children: Elizabeth, Mary and John W. In 1850 the Doctor married Sarah Fisher, who was called from life in 1868, having become the mother of seven children, six of whom survive: David T., William M., Henry, Wiley S. (deceased), Llewellyn, Sarah J. and an infant deceased. For his third wife the Doctor took Martha A. Bruton, a daughter of Jacob Bruton, who was killed during the war. Dr. Robinson’s third union resulted in the birth of six children, but only two lived: Edward L. and Columbus B.; Huldah J. died in 1892 at the age of seventeen years; Charles H., Marlin, and James M. died when young. The most of the Doctor’s children reside in Boone County, are married and have families, his grandchildren numbering nineteen. Dr. and Mrs. Robinson are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and he is considered one of the foremost citizens of the county. He is the owner of a fine grist mill fitted up with the roller process, and which has a capacity of fifty barrels per day, and he has also been actively engaged in the raising of stock and the drug business. The measures of the Democrat party have always received his support, and socially he is a member of Bellefonte Lodge of the A. F. & A. M. His children are among the most highly respected people of the county, and he has every reason to be proud of their untarnished records. Although in the autumn of life, he is yet hale and hearty.