john riley robinson

First Installment of a series about the man who built Oak Hill Cottage

John Riley Robinson’s name shows up most prominently in Mansfield’s history as the superintendent of the first railroad into the city. The Sandusky City and Mansfield Railway laid track into Mansfield in the spring of 1846, greatly improving transportation to and from the port city of Sandusky, the principal transshipment center for Mansfield.

Robinson was more than just an employee of the railroad, he was one of the principal investors. The source of his wealth isn’t clear, but he had been in Richland County a number of years. The name Danford N. Barney of New York shows up alongside Robinson’s as a principle investor in the SC&MRR. If that indicates an early association with Barney, the future chairman of the board of Wells Fargo, his wealth may have been tied to higher financial circles far from Mansfield. By the mid-1850s Robinson was associated with Wells Fargo, and he knew the Barneys at least by 1860 if not much earlier.

Robinson married Jane Wilkinson at her parents’ farm at Lexington, Ohio in 1836. In the 1840 census the family lived in Mansfield and had two sons. The 1850 tax map shows Robinson owning lot 91 which is on W. Third Street and part of the library property today.

Census data from 1850 showed Robinson’s estate valued at $25,000. Oak Hill Cottage, which he had built in 1847, was valued at $3200 on the 1850 tax records.

The balance of Robinson’s Mansfield property included the “Robinson & Riley” flour mill that formed part of the railroad terminus complex along Walnut Street. According to Graham’s 1880 Richland County History, the flour mill was built some time after 1820 by Henry Lehman, was the first grist mill in the city, and was water powered. Robinson purchased the property and improved it, according to Graham, and for many years “did the custom work for Mansfield and vicinity. “

The mill pond, fed by Touby’s Run, stretched along near what is now Sixth Street, from about Bowman Street to one block west of Mulberry where a sawmill was located. The mill race exiting the pond then turned northeast about three blocks to Robinson’s mill, then due east to the Rocky Fork where Orange Street crosses.