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THE LIFE OF HON. RIX ROBBINSON A PIONEER OF
WESTERN MICHIGAN BY GEORGE H. WHITE
His kicking Sim Johnson, one of Buchanan's trusted political friends through the streets of Grand Rapids, for not returning 2, 000 silver dollars lent him to enable his wildcat bank to make a good show to the bank com missioner who was inspecting its pecuniary condition, was done in mid-day in the most public part of the city. Johnson was nearly as tall and wel formed a man as Mr. Robinson. The ridicule it excited drove Johnson away Mr. Robinson was always very hospitable and generous, often aided his friends with his name, to such an extent that at the time of his death although possessing yet a large property, it was found to not very much
exceed his liabilities. He became president of the Old Settlers' Association of Kent,. Ionia and Ottawa counties three years before his death and held that position when he died.
He was a man of temperate habits. Until a couple of years before his death, he was not in the habit of attending divine service, save on funeral occasions. The complete reformation that the influence of divine truth had produced upon his son, the Rev. John R. Robinson, in elevating him from a drunken, dissolute half-breed, a source of constant trouble and anxiety to his father, to a sober, grave, considerate, kind son, a good citizen, an humble follower of the cross, an outspoken disciple, a clergyman working with zeal among his race, and one whose private life had become unblemished, after a time caused him to turn his attention to the cause of it, and finally to ask for the rite of baptism himself. The last two or three years of his life he was himself a follower of the cross, and he had the utmost confidence as to his future life beyond this world.
His intellect was strong and clear; it was only the physical body that was worn out and ceased to be the wrap of the soul January 13, 1875.
No monument marks the place where this remarkable man's remains repose, on the crest of a hill at Ada, overlooking the river he so loved, and the home of more than fifty years of his life.
Michigan
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