john riley robinson; part 5

Fifth installment of a series about the man who built Oak Hill Cottage
Robinson’s 1892 obituary credits him with having been the manager of the "great line of stages that was run between Fort Smith, Ark., and San Francisco ". In the 1861 diary of his first trip to Batopilas to purchase the silver mine he writes forward to his son Asher “on the overland” to make ready to accompany him if he wished. Asher and another man named Tom Lavin joined the party at Ft. Smith. Lavin may have been a Lexington, Ohio local because prior to departing Mansfield on the trip Robinson writes that he visited “old man and Pat Lavin” at Lexington.

In the 1860 census, Asher Robinson’s occupation is listed as “conductor”. A conductor was the man who rode up with the driver and took care of passengers, baggage, etc. And finally, as further evidence of his work for the “Overland”, in his 1873 diary of a trip from the Batopilas mine in Mexico to New York delivering a shipment of silver, he writes that he “met some of my old drivers on the overland.”

Robinson closed Oak Hill in February, 1861 at the beginning of his venture in the Mexican silver mine. It appears he was staking his diminished, but still considerable resources on the Mexican venture. In his diary before leaving Mansfield he mentions his daughter May, who had been unwell, his son Willshire at Delaware College, and his son Asher on the Overland. The impression is that he’s closing Oak Hill but his wife and family are remaining in the Mansfield vicinity. He sells the furniture from the house to “Hall and Allen” for $445, and consigns “a lot of lamps” to “Edward and James” to sell and apply the proceeds to “payment of an S. & B. bill of $43.00 due from Asher.”