Robson family, part 1
Part of the ‘Smith family history’ series
Part of the ‘Kirkwood history’ series
As we saw at the end of the previous post, after James H. Kirkpatrick’s death in 1853, the majority of the Kirkpatrick family real estate holdings were willed to (favorite?) son Dr. John Lycan Kirkpatrick. Dr. Kirkpatrick served as President of Davidson College during the Civil War, but by 1870 he had settled in Lexington, Virginia where he remained until his death in 1885.
The years following the destruction of Atlanta were followed by years of (literal) reconstruction. Several well-to-do families looked for homesteads outside of the city limits. The Kirkpatrick land was conveniently located between Atlanta and Decatur along the Georgia railroad line, and apparently the Kirkpatrick’s were in a “selling” mood. The Kirkpatrick land may have also been a symbolic destination, as I believe the general area functioned as the Confederate “Camp Kirkpatrick”, with the area labelled in red as “Rebel Barracks” on the Union map below.
As I previously mentioned, some of the relevant DeKalb County deed books are not currently available, but the grantor index gives us an idea of some of the more significant sales of property from Dr. Kirkpatrick. I’ve highlighted some of the more recognizable names from the index below, with a focus on the transfers known to be in the area of Kirkwood (and Lake Claire) today.
As we can see, the sales listed immediately after the 850 acre deed from John Lycan Kirkpatrick to his brother James Wallace Kirkpatrick were first an 11 acre sale, then a 105 acre sale to Kate and Sion Robson. Sion Boone Robson [9/24/1826-4/11/1880] was born in Morgan County, Georgia. Note, some sources don’t include the “e” in the middle name, like so: Boon. He married Kate Hester [3/11/1838-7/27/1914] on November 1st, 1855. The couple lived in Madison, Georgia from 1855 until 1859 when they moved to Atlanta. Sion was in the grocery business with his family, and the couple built a house at the intersection of Marietta and Spring streets in 1860. Due to the war the family moved to Albany in 1864, then to Elberton in 1866, near Kate’s parents. Sion and Kate had five children which I will list here:
- Martha Cornelia Robson Dunwody, known as “Roxy” [7/30/1856-7/18/1932]
- John Henry Robson, known as “Henry” [1859-8/31/1913]
- Paul Boone Robson [11/19/1864-2/24/1928]
- Roberta Robson [6/1866-1/31/1892]
- Norwood Robson [11/26/1868-10/15/1907]
In her autobiography Kate writes the following:
In the fall 1866 he (Sion) began to get restless, and eager to start over again. He went to Atlanta to investigate and in February 1867 we sold our home in Elberton for twelve hundred dollars in gold and moved to Atlanta.
We lived in a house near our old home that my husband had given his sister Anne. Atlanta was being rebuilt and business was springing up, but was still under military rule.
I do not know exactly how or why, but my husband in looking for a permanent home, bought a lot of about ten acres and a farm of one hundred acres in the country between Atlanta and Decatur and in 1868 built a comfortable seven room house on the ten acre lot and we moved to it in August, and in November my fifth baby, Norwood, was born.
Kate Hester Robson Autobiography, 1910/1912 pg. 19
The “lot of about ten acres” was recorded as 11 acres in the first deed index image above, and the “farm of one hundred acres” was recorded as 105 acres in the second deed index image above. Based on references to their property in a deed I viewed that described a property bordering the Robson’s, I ~believe that the 11 acre homestead was on the north side of the railroad tracks, most likely in what is currently the Lake Claire neighborhood. While the index doesn’t record the date of sale, based on the comment above we can assume it was either late 1867 or, more likely, 1868. The 105 acre farm was explicitly recorded as being in land lot 212, and would have comprised more than half of that land lot. My guess is it may have been the northwestern portion, up to the Georgia Railroad line, but I’m not really sure. Here is the 212 land lot as a reminder.
It’s worth noting at this point that Sion Robson’s younger sister was Jane Clark Robson Howard [11/21/1834-7/18/1870]. Jane was Thomas Coke Howard’s third wife, they married 1/14/1861. So it’s not surprising that the subsequent deed recorded in the index was a sale of 30 acres to Jane Howard. I would also not be surprised if the sales were fairly close to each other. I’m fairly confident that the grantor deed index mistakenly references deed book “G” in the index, I imagine the “Q” on the typewriter simply was broken or something… Regardless, note the 105 acre sale to the Robsons was recorded in book Q on page 446 and the Howard sale was Q 448.
Thomas Coke Howard is an interesting person in the context of Atlanta history. He was postmaster, editor of the Daily Intelligencer, a distiller, etc. I don’t want to stray too far afield here though, and I will most likely write something about him in the future… However, for now, I will mention that his wife Jane C. Robson Howard passed away in 1870 after the Howards settled in Kirkwood. Thomas Coke Howard subsequently married Susan Rebecca Harris Robson. Susan was the widow of John Radcliff (or Ratcliff) Robson, who was the older brother of both Sion Boone Robson and Jane Clark Robson Howard. So it should be evident that the Robson and Howard families were very close, to say the least.
Up next, more on the Robson family, and the origin of the Kirkwood name.
Birds of Kirkwood 