Richard Robinson, a prosperous farmer of Garden Grove, was born near Ottawa, Canada, in 1827. His parents, Isaac and Margaret (Moses) Robinson, were natives of Ireland, moving to Canada in 1821.
The senior Robinson was a shoemaker by trade and also owned a large farm. He died in Canada in 1843, leaving a family of nine children. Richard, the third in the family, received a common-school education and entered business when very young, having to help in the maintenance of the family until 1852, when he started for California by way of Cape Horn on the bark Fanny Major. He landed in San Francisco in September, 1852, and first followed mining for eight months on the Yuba river; then for six months he drove a truck from San Francisco; then followed mining two years in El Dorado County. Next he followed farming two years in Sonoma County, and again sought the mines. In May, 1858, he went to British Columbia and followed mining there for a year and a half; then he was engaged in mercantile business two and a half years at Kempville, Canada. In 1862 he came again to California, by way of the Isthmus. Until 1872 he followed farming in Sonoma County, and then three years near Colusa City; next for two years he kept a college boarding house at Santa Rosa, and in this lost money. He next went to Tulare County, where he followed farming again for about six years. His next and last move was to SouthJern California. At Garden Grove he has a fine ranch and is very prosperous.
Mr. Robinson was married in the spring of 1854, in El Dorado County, to Lettie Bolton, also a native of Canada, and a daughter of Richard Bolton, a native of Iowa. The children are: Isaac, Forest, Wellington and Chester Arlington (twins), Mina, Frank, Adda, Byron, Porter (deceased) and Bertha. Mr. Robinson has traveled a great deal and has seen many of the hardest realities of life; but he retains a sympathetic heart and gives a cordial welcome to all his friends.
