USA > Vermont > Windsor County > Reading > History of Reading, Windsor County, Vermont. Vol. II > Part 18
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calling, or that he could miss it in his future life?
At the age of 17 years, an apprenticeship of four years was entered upon, at the machinist's trade at Springfield, Vt., which was profitably and pleasantly passed ; though when completed, a lack of education was seriously felt. Without stopping to work at his trade, he left Vermont in the spring of 1860, with stencil tools for cutting name plates by the way, and with eight dollars in his pocket, his total capital, to make his way westward, cutting stencils by the way, to take studies at the University of Michigan, at which he arrived with $50.00 in his pocket. 'On arrival at the University, he was fearful of trying entrance examinations with the rest, so remained out one term, to attend high school, thence entering the University at the winter term. . His time was still further cut by nearly a third of a year, by measles and rheumatism, and hence this four years' course for the degree, C. E., was reduced for Mr. Robin- son, to somewhat less than two and a half years. This required extraordinary effort, and is said to be the short- est time this course has been passed.
In college his apprenticeship was of material aid, helping him to do jobs to pay his expenses. Thus in part he made stethoscopes for medical students, and graduated thermometer scales for a barometer maker. In the latter however, a machine was invented which proved a great surprise to all thermometer makers. An important invention had been brought out for which more machines were soon demanded, thus noting a val- uable invention.
A mechanical engineering school was sought, though not then found in the country. The next near- est was civil engineering, which was finished at the Uni- versity of Michigan, where he graduated with the degree of C. E., in 1863. To his surprise he found himself equipped for places other than those in the machine shop ; as, before he was aware of it or had given thought
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to it, he found a position offered him on the United States Lake Survey, paying better than the machine shop. This was accepted for the time, in lieu of some imaginary machine shop place, looked for, but not forth- coming. But the use of instruments, supported by col- lege training, was found a most admirable substitute for what the shops could afford, the instrument proving a fine sort of a machine. Here inventions were made, some as improvements, and one a double eyepiece for the telescope, enabling two persons to observe the same star simultaneously, while it passed the field of the tele- scope. Its use was for quickly determining the so- called "personal equation", an important item in deter- mining difference of longitude astronomically.
He left the Lake Survey in 1866, to become instruct- or in engineering in the University of Michigan, where, in 1867 he was promoted to assist Professor of Mine En- gineering and Geodesy. In 1870 he resigned this to ac- cept the professorship of Mechanical Engineering and Physics in the University of Illinois. In this compari- tively new institution at that time, he built up the de- partment of mechanical engineering and of physics, both including systematic laboratory work.
Of engineering in this institution it was written and read by Prof. I. O. Baker of the same University, on oc- casion of dedication of the engineering college building :
"The work of the engineering college may be said to date from Jan. 1, 1870, when Stillman W. Robinson was elected Professor of Mechanical Engineering. ** Ref- erence is frequently made to a shop, established almost as soon as instruction was started .** It consisted of a few carpenter's tools, in a small room cut off from a mule stable .** Jan. 10, Prof. Robinson addressed a communica- tion to the Board of Trustees, in which he forcibly pre- sented the reasons for uniting theoretical and practical instruction, outlined his method of accomplishing this, and asked for an appropriation of $2,000, for the purchase
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of certain tools and apparatus. This appropriation was promptly granted, and a second story added to the 24x36 building for the carpenter's tools. A steam boiler, an engine lathe, a few tools and the partly finished castings for a steam engine were purchased, and the Professor, with the help of his students, proceeded to make a steam engine which had some novel features to adapt it to ex- perimental purposes. In less than six months the shop was supplied with a fair equipment, nearly all of which was the product of the shop itself.
Thus was opened the first distinctly educational shops in America. Seven years elapsed before another similar shop was open in the United States, while now such instruction is offered at nearly all the state institu- tions, and public schools in many cities. The credit for the general conception doubtless belongs to the then President, Dr. Gregory, ** but Professor Robinson should certainly have the credit for the details of the plan, and the clear perception of the principles to be observed.
In 1871, a legislative grant of $25,000 for a new me- chanical and military building, and for additional ma- chinery, furnished the strongest evidence of the approv- al of the method of instruction employed .** The work in the recitation and drawing rooms was equally as high in character as the shop work .**
This institution was the third in the United States to give instruction in Physics by the laboratory methods, for the inauguration of which Professor Robinson should have the credit."
Of the faculty of this University, it was said by its President, A. S. Draper, that the time will never come when among faculty names that of Robinson. mentioned with others, will not lead all the rest.
Professor Robinson had become Dean of the College of Engineering in 1878, in which year he resigned to ac- cept the chair of mechanical engineering and physics, in the Ohio State University, at Columbus, O. After
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three years, the mechanical subjects had advanced to re- quire his whole attention when he was relieved of phys- ics. Here the higher technical subjects of the classroom, together with the laboratory work, became so severe that he was compelled to resign in 1895.
The professor's training in the various engineering subjects had made him a valuable man in practical op- erations outside of the university in which he often ac- cepted service. From 1880 to 1884, he was inspector of railroads for Ohio, he examining one-third of all of those roads, and reporting all defects to the State Commission- er. In 1883 and 1884 he served in consultation with the manager of the Santa Fe Railroad, on train brakes and railroad laboratories, while other subjects were investi- gated and written up, including vibration of bridges, per- missible working stresses, strength of columns, car couplers, curves and sidings, railroad economics, besides various other articles published in societies, magazines, etc., and noticed here and in foreign countries. He is author of three of Van Nostrand's Science Series, and rewrote and enlarged another. He is also author of Principles of Mechanism, a College text-book, published in 1896, and admitted to be the chief authority on that subject, and which won him the degree of D. Sc.
He has served as consulting engineer in several im- portant cases, including bridges of the Santa Fe Rail- road, from 1887 to 1890. One bridge was a cantilever of longest span, up to that date, in this country (this work winning for him the Roland Prize of the Am. Soc. C. E.) He was consulting engineer for the iron frame work and mountings of the great Lick Telescope, a veritable and exacting piece of engineering work. He was consulting mechanical engineer for the Mckay Shoe Machinery Co., of Boston, from 1897 till it combined with the United Shoe Machinery Co. Also he was mechanical engineer and inventor for the Wire Grip Fastening Co., from 1884 ill 1897, and invented all the shoe manufacturing ma-
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chinery operated by that company.
The professor has been principal in some fifty inven- tions in various lines, forty of which have been patented in the U. S., and many in foreign countries, among which, the most successful were the thermometer gradu- ating machine, the photograph trimmer, the templet odontograph, the improved Pitot tube instrument, the transmission dynamometer, an angle shaft coupler, an hypodermic syringe, and those for boot and shoe manu- facturing. Some of these inventions received awards and medals at our National Expositions.
Professor Robinson is a member of the American So- ciety of Mechanical Engineers; American Society of Civil Engineers ; American Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers ; Society for the Promotion of Engineering Education and other organizations, and Fellow of the American Association for the Advance- ment of Science.
He was first m in 1863 to M. E., daughter of Abel Holden, who d in 1885, by whom he had one son and two daughters. In 1888 he was again m to M. Haines, of Ada, Ohio.
Thus it is seen by following through the above nar- rative, that Stillman W. Robinson, b in the humble town of Reading, Vt., stands as one example of a self- made man who rose from an insignificant boyhood, to distinction as a teacher ; as an author ; as an inventor ; and as a master of engineering and mechanical science. It has been written of him in Ohio, where his late years have made him known, he is "A man honored, respected and esteemed wherever known, and most of all where best known. He stands today among the leading repre, sentatives of the department of teaching, having to do with the great scientific principles underlying mechani- cal engineering, and his advanced thought and investi- gations have led to many inventions which have made the world of labor richer, and its activity more effi-
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cient." It is one of the glories of our American Nation that a man may thus rise by his own efforts, to distinc- tion and influence among the professions, thus serving - as an encouragement to the youth of the country.
Elna Alphonso Robinson, M. E.
Elna Alphonso Robinson, son of Ebenezer Robin- son, Jr., and Adaline W. Robinson, was b on the old Robinson Farm, half a mile south of South Reading vil- lage, Dec. 15, 1839. At the age of eight years, his fath- er d, and he was sent out to live with his grandfather some two years, at Hartland, Vermont, and afterwards with another relative in the northern part of the state, about two years, and after this, with a farmer in Spring- field, Vt., till he reached the age of seventeen years, when he went to learn the machinist's trade with F. B. Gilman, at Springfield, Vt. After serving his appren- ticeship with Mr. Gilman, he was m to Miss Melora Smith, at Gardner, Mass. He then spent a year or so, cutting stencil plates for soldiers, after which he and his young wife went west, locating at Janesville, Wis., where he entered the employ of a machine shop, and worked at his trade for several years. For three years of the time he resided at Janesville, he was foreman of the machine shop of the Doty Manufacturing Company.
Realizing that he needed a better education than the common schools afforded in Vermont, Mr. Robinson, in 1870, removed to Champaign, Il1., and entered the Uni- versity of Illinois, taking the full course of Mechanical Engineering, which took four years' time, when he grad- uated with the degree M. E. While a student in the University, Mr. Robinson, being a practical machinist and accustomed to the handling of work and men, was given the charge of the University Mechanical Labora- tory and Machine Shop, spending a portion of his time as assistant in the laboratory, and in capacity of foreman
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in the shop ; and in this way he was able to earn a fair amount ; and by the help of his wife, who took boarders, he was able to carry on his studies, and pay hisliving ex- penses through to graduation in June, 1875.
After graduation, Mr. Robinson continued in the employ of the University for three years, and still had charge of the shops, and also taught several classes in the University.
In June, 1878, Mr. Robinson formed a partnership with Mr. E. M. Burr, M. E., also a graduate who learned his machinist's trade under Mr. Robinson while a student at the University. They then embarked in the machine and foundry business under the firm name of Robinson & Burr, which partnership continued for twenty-one years, building up a very successful busi- ness in the city of Champaign, Il1.
Their work was general machinery, for the most part, though a few patented machines, including a some- what remarkable thermometer graduating machine, were specialties. This latter machine, awarded a medal at the Centennial of 1876, was greatly improved by them.
During the partnership, there appeared quite a need of plumbing in the town, and as there was no one regu- larly engaged in it there, they took this up, and it de- veloped into quite a large portion of their business.
In February, 1899, by mutual consent, the firm of Robinson & Burr was dissolved, Mr. Robinson taking the plumbing and heating by himself; since which time he has conducted this business alone, at which he has ranked as foremost.
Quite early in life, Mr. Robinson manifested unmis- takable evidences of strong mechanical traits, preferring mechanical toys in boyhood, and leaving the farm for machine apprenticeship, on becoming a young man ; thus gaining skill in a line which held him through suc- ceeding years to the present.
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Through life, Mr. Robinson was thoroughly up- right in all his dealings, always surrounded with plenty of friends, and never a foe. He early became a church member. He buried his first wife in 1885, and remar- ried in 1887. He raised three daughters by his first wife. Since 1871 he has resided at Champaign, Il1.
Albert Alonzo Robinson, C. E., M. S., LL.D.
Albert Alonzo Robinson, of Boston, president of the Mexican Central Railway, is a native of Vermont, b on the Ebenezer Robinson farm about half a mile south of the village of South Reading, Windsor County, Ver- mont, Oct. 21, 1844 ; son of Ebenezer, Jr., and Adaline (Williams) Robinson. He is a lineal descendant of Jonathan Robinson, b in Cambridge, Mass., in 1682, a son of William Robinson, one of the early settlers there. His grandfather, Ebenezer Robinson, Sr., was b in Lex- ington, Feb. 1765, and d Oct. 31, 1857, at the ripe age of ninety-two. He served in the Revolutionary War for two years, part of the time in the navy as privateer, and part as a soldier in the land forces ; and for about six months was a prisoner on the prison ship "Old Jersey". His father Ebenezer, Jr., was also a native of South Reading, Vt., b Sept. 30. 1809, d July 5, 1848.
Albert A., was educated in the public schools, in Milton (Wis.) Academy and in the University of Mich- igan, Ann Arbor, Mich., where he graduated in 1869, taking the degree of C. E., and B. S., and in 1871 the post graduate degree, M. S .; and subsequently in 1900, the honorary degree of LL.D.
From childhood until he reached his majority, he was engaged at farm labor out of school hours, except- ing during the years 1856-'59, when he worked as a clerk in dry goods or grocery stores. From 1865 to 1869, he took his college course at the University of Michi- gan. During 1866 and 1868, he was employed for about
ALBERT A. ROBINSON.
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five months each year, as assistant on the United States Lake Surveys in astronomical field work, and on trian- gulation of the Great Lakes.
His work on railroads began in 1869, when on May 27, he entered the services of the St. Joseph & Denver City Railroad as axeman in the engineering corps, and thereafter served successively as chainman, levelman, transitman, office engineer, locating engineer, and assist- ant engineer until the first of April, 1871. Then he be- came assistant engineer of the Atchison, Topeka & San- ta Fe Railroad, in charge of location and construction, and two years later, on the first of April, 1873, was made chief engineer, which position he held till August, 1890. From June 1, 1883, to Sept. 1, 1883, he also served as as- sistant general superintendent of the Santa Fe system ; from Sept. 1, 1883, to March 1, 1884, he was general su- perintendent ; from March 1, 1884, to Feb. 1, 1886, he was general manager ; from Feb. 1, 1886, to May, 1888, second vice-president ; and second vice-president and general manager from May, 1888, till April 3, 1893, when he left this system to accept the presidency of the Mexican Central Railroad Company, (Limited.)
During his engineering experience he has had di- rect charge of the construction of over forty-five hundred miles of railroad, including the building of the Pueblo & Denver line, one hundred and sixteen miles in seven months ; and the extending of the company's line from Kansas City to Chicago, four hundred and fifty-eight miles, from April, to Dec. 31, of the same year.
As president of the Mexican Central, he is in charge of the general business and affairs of the road, with headquarters in Boston, and with offices also in the City of Mexico and in London.
Mr. Robinson is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers. In politics he is Republican. He was m Dec. 9, 1869, to Miss Julia Caroline Burdick, of Edgerton, Wis. She d Aug. 3, 1881, leaving a daughter,
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Melta Burdick Robinson, b July 17, 1876.
He m, second, Sept. 3, 1885, Mrs. Ellen Francis Williams, a sister of his first.wife. It was when Mr. Robinson was less than four years old, that his father died, leaving him to the care of his widowed mother, who, after some two years, and until she was remarried in 1856, placed him out to earn his living. Most of this time he was with his uncle, Lewis Robinson, a manufac- turer, publisher, stove dealer, farmer, etc., by whom, and among which occupations, the child was given em- ployment.
When some six years old he was sent to Windsor, Vt., a distance of twelve miles, with a horse, and a load of washboards for delivery. Notwithstand- ing his youth, the load was delivered correctly, but his judgment for the old horse was less correct, for next morning it was found dead in the pasture, from colic, in- duced probably by the long drive, extending into the night. However the commercial part of the transaction appears to have been executed as satisfactorily, as some of his railroad dealings of later years.
In one instance, at about the same age he was sent with a horse and buggy, a distance of sixteen miles, to bring home a son of his uncle. On arriving at the school to find the object of his coming, and while seated in his buggy, he asked of some students passing "where is Calvin ? These went up into the schoolroom and re- ported to Calvin L. Robinson that "there is one of the ni- cest little boys you ever saw out here in a buggy inquir- ing for Calvin."
Thus the sixteen mile trip was correctly accom- plished. The youth was often sent on trips with success remarkable, for one so young, producing a most favor- able impression upon all he met, for manlike and gentle- manly behavior.
In 1856 he was taken to Wisconsin with his parents, where, until he started for college in 1865, he was occu-
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pied in school, clerking in stores, and as aid in carrying on a farm. In all this he sustained an excellent reputa- tion for a boy.
At the age of seventeen he commenced his four years' college course, taking, as was not common, two degrees in the time for one.
Before graduating, he was engaged for employment at railroad construction. In his field practice of rail- road track building, he commenced at the very bottom, including the driving of "slope stakes."
This was his first experience on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad, the road which he built most of prior to the year 1890, while he rose from the the lowest to the highest position in railroad building.
During this twenty years, however, he with several aids, were kept close at this work, while that road ad- vanced across the plains to Canon City, Denver and Chi- cago ; and also through mountains as well, to Santa Fe and El Paso ; which, including branches, approach 5,000 miles, aggregating one of the greatest portions of ยท railroad buildings ever accomplished by one man. He also accomplished part of the work on the line through the Grand Canon of the Arkansas to Leadville. In con- nection with this, and including his presidency, some notable railroad problems were worked out, including Grade Compensation for Curvature ; the practicability of Switchbacks ; a railroad owning its own complete Test- ing Laboratory ; expense to allow in reducing the pre- vailing Maximum Grade of a Division, and other Grades proper to admit in the same division by way of reducing cost ; the Maximum Grade to adopt for a division for East Bound versus West Bound; the making of Prelim- inary Surveys without Instruments ; the admission of special short divisions embracing extraordinary grades, with provision for its own extra locomotive power exclu- sive to itself ; the best locomotive for a combination of steep grades, sharp curves, and heavy traffic; the best
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organization of the forces of a railway system for the most Efficient Operating and Maintenance of Way for the same; the most suitable Location of the Construc- tion and Repair Works of a railway company ; what portion of the Total Equipment of a Railway should be manufactured in its own works ; to what ex- tent should the Entire Work be separated into individu- al shops, and how far should these shops be separated ; the best arrangement of the individual shops of the works to secure the greatest efficiency of shop produc- tion and repairs ; the most Suitable Power to adopt in a railway works, steam, electric or others, etc., etc.
Indeed the entire experience of Mr. Robinson, in connection with railroads, from the first to the present, for a period of some thirty years, has been one of contin- uous, close and hard work, connected with constant study upon problems as how to secure from the entire system the most satisfactory returns with greatest econo- my.
How well this great work has been accomplished in the matter of railroad affairs is answered by the high es -. teem in which Mr. Robinson has been constantly held as he has advanced from the very lowest position in en- gineering, up through the series, including preliminary and final location, constructing engineer, chief engineer, superintendent, general manager, to president; all in connection with great railroad systems.
The appointment of Mr. Robinson in 1893, as presi- dent of the notable Mexican Central Railroad marked a turning point for its higher and unquestioned success, as evinced by its extension of numerous branch lines, large additions to the rolling stock, and the establishment of magnificent modern construction and repair works of its own at Agnos Calientes.
Thus it appears that the world of progress has found in the person of A. A. Robinson more than an ordinary man upon whom to place heavy responsibilities ; and the
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resplendent manner in which he has held his shoulder to the chariot wheel of the country's onward and upward movement speaks in no uncertain terms for the credit and honor of his own native town of Reading ; the State of Vermont ; for New England ; and for the country at large. Thus the farmer boy from the eastern slope of the Green Mountains, left at four without a father, must have been born as possessed of unusual natural traits such as puts new life into whatever surrounding circum- stances, both to command and to do; and the humble town of Reading, Vt., may justly claim a credit for itself, and voice it in published memoirs.
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CHAPTER XXVIII.
Biographical Sketches, Continued.
James P. Osborne, M. D .; Wm. Munroe Pember ; Abel Ray, Jr .; Rev. Joseph S. Small ; Albert N. Swain.
James P. Osborne
whose portrait hangs in the Library Building was for many years a resident physician and surgeon, at Felch- ville. He was b at Piermont, N. H., in 1843, fitted at Newbury, (Vt.) Seminary, and graduated at Dartmouth Medical College, He was a successful and popular physican, both at Reading and Tilton, N. H., and at the latter place was extensively engaged as a manufacturer, and accumulated a large property. He left surviving him a wife and daughter, the latter now dead.
William Munroe Pember
was bin Reading, Nov. 2, 1860. He became a farmer and teacher and located in Rochester, Vt., in 1890. Was educated at the common schools and at Randolph Nor- mal School. Since his residence in Rochester he has held the office of school director and Supt. of schools, and town representative 1902-4, and is a republican.
Rev. Joseph S. Small, -By Wm. H. Gardner, of Chicago.
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