History of  Gallatin County, Part 29

American families rarely present an example of two successful generations identified with one profession.  The practice of medicine seems an established tradition with the Robinson family.  The importance of a profession is determined by its beneficence of usefulness in a very large measure.  So dependent is man upon his fellow man that the worth of each individual is largely recorded by what he has done for humanity.  There is no class for whom greater gratitude is due from the world at large than to those self-sacrificing noble-minded men whose life work has been the alleviation of suffering that rests upon humanity.  There is no one standard by which their beneficent influence3 can be measured.  Their helpfulness is as broad as the universe and their power goes hand in hand with the wonderful laws of nature that came from the very source of life itself.

Among the leading physicians of early Gallatin were the Robinsons. Dr. John T., the subject of this sketch, was born at Princeton, Indiana, April 11, 1829.  His parents, Samuel and Liddie McKinm Robinson were born, respectively, in Baltimore, Md., and Kennebec, Maine.  The father went to Princeton, Ind., about 1829, sold goods for the time being and the same year came to Kentucky and located at Jackson's Landing, about six miles from Warsaw and engaged in the merchandise business.

The brother of Samuel, S. B. Robinson, was classmate of Humphrey Marshall at the military Academy, West Point, N.Y.  He died in 1885.  John T. Robinson, at the age of nineteen, began the reading of medicine while a pilot on the Ohio river and continued his studies until 1852, in which year he became Captain of the "John T. Cline" plying between Madison and Louisville.  Later, he was on the "Alvin Adams."  In 1855 he quit the river and until 1860 sold goods at Warsaw while still studying medicine.  In 1860 he entered Cleveland Medical College, from which he graduated in 1861 and opened practice in Warsaw.

During the war between the states he served as a provost marshal and although opposed to the Emancipation Proclamation, was decidedly a union man.  On August 24, 1852 he married Miss L. C. Moore, of Madison, Indiana.  There were four children born to this union - Samuel B., born November 21, 1856, who was for many years a partner with his father in the practice of medicine; McIntyre M., born November 23, 1858; John G., born October 15, 1866; and Allie D., born October 4, 1871. 

Dr. Robinson was a Royal Arch Mason and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.  His long and useful life was mostly spent in Warsaw where he entered upon the practice of medicine, giving his skill, knowledge and sympathies, forgetting his own comforts and safety and rendering service in many cases without any certainty of reward and has earned that which is after all more valuable than mundane things of life - the rewards of a well rendered service.  Dr. Robinson died May 5th, 1911 in the 83rd year of his life, loved and respected by all who knew him.

October 4, 1929, from the Gallatin County News