Edward B., son of William N. and Katherine J. (Smith) Robson, was born in the town of Seneca, Ontario county, New York, November 19, 1867. He received the advantages of an excellent business and classical education. At first he was a pupil in the district school. then at the Canandaigua Academy and the Geneva High School, and finally received his business training at Eastman’s Business College, from which institution he was graduated in 1891. During his early years, while he was still a student, his spare time was employed in assisting his father in the cultivation of the homestead farm, and he thus gained a detailed and practical knowledge of all pertaining to general agriculture. His first position in commercial life was with the Adams Express Company. in Geneva, with whom he remained for a short time, resigning to accept a position as bookkeeper with the hardware firm of T. J. & 1. M. Skilton, which position he held for a period of seven years, and until he started in business for himself. About 1899 he established himself in the agricultural implement business, a branch of commerce with which he was thoroughly well acquainted, and of this he made an immediate success. He keeps in stock a large and varied assortment of every tool and implement in use in the cultivation of the soil, and the branches of work connected with it. his annual sales averaging at the present time twenty thousand dollars, and they are steadily and constantly increasing. The business is conducted on the most modern and approved lines, and fully equipped with everything which will draw trade. In addition to giving this business his personal attention, he continues to manage his farm, which consists of one hundred and one acres in Fayette, Seneca county, New York. Mr. Robson is a man of great versatility and is practically unacquainted with the meaning of physical or mental weariness. He has been one of the most active members of the Democratic party in his section of the country, and has creditably filled a variety of public offices. He served as supervisor of the city of Geneva for two years, and when he was elected to this office, he carried every ward in the city and received a majority of two hundred and fifty-one votes, a testimony to the high esteem in which he is held personally by his fellow citizens, as four of the wards are strongly Republican. He is a member of the Presbyterian church, a Mason, and a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He was a member of the committee on the improvement of the Courthouse, and was chairman of the committee that purchased the site at Holcomb, prepared the plans and awarded the contract for the erection of the Tuberculosis Hospital. Mr. Robson married (first) Anna B. Watson; (second) Januarys 3, 1906, Flora Willower, born in Seneca county. New York, 1892. Children: John C., boru January 29, 1908, and Margaret, born June 29, 1910.
