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HON. REUEL ROBINSON, of Camden, Me., was born in Palmyra, Somerset County, Me.,
September 25, 1858. He comes of the old New England stock, his ancestors having lived, for several generations,
in Brentwood, N. H., from which place his grandfather, Daniel Robinson, emigrated to Mt. Vernon, Me., shortly after
his marriage with Miss Clarissa Jewett, a granddaughter of Dr. Benjamin Shepard, one of the most eloquent orators
and skillful physicians of New Hampshire’s early history. From Mt. Vernon Daniel Robinson moved with his family
to Palmyra in 1838 or thereabout. His son, Daniel Shepard Robinson, the father of the subject of this sketch, married
Miss Susan A. Bruce, a Massachusetts lady of Scotch extraction, and afterwards settled in Palmyra, where he still
resides.
Mr. Robinson early determined upon a collegiate course, and, feeling that he ought not to burden his parents with
the expense of the same, began teaching school at the age of seventeen, and, from that time until the completion
of his college course, he taught some district school each winter and worked hard upon his father’s farm each summer,
thus earning the greater portion of the money needed for his college expenses. He prepared for college at the Maine
Central Institute, Pittsfield, Me., and graduated from Bates College in the class of 1881, being class-day orator
of the largest and one of the ablest classes that ever graduated from that institution.
After leaving college Mr. Robinson taught a short time in Waldoboro, Me., and Barnstable, Mass.; spent a few months
in the office of a iiercantile house in Boston, and in 1883 went to Camden, Me., where, for a term of several years,
he was the successful Principal of the High School. He was also, for a short time, Principal of the Gardiner High
School, and of the North Anson Academy.
Intending to make the law his profession he entered the law office of Hon. T. R. Simonton as a student while teaching
at Camden, and was admitted to the Knox County Bar in 1888, but did not enter upon the practice of his profession
until a year later, when he formed a partnership with Mr. Simonton which still continues.
In politics Mr. Robinson has always been a Republican, and in the summer of 1888 he was nominated by his party
as their candidate for the honorable and responsible position of Judge of Probate for Knox County, and, though
a young man, just admitted to the Bar, and a comparatively new citizen of a Democratic county, he was elected without
difficulty.
During the four years that Judge Robinson presided over the Knox County Probate Court, a large and constantly increasing
volume of business was transacted, and although in several important cases appeals were taken from his decisions,
yet in every case his decrees have been affirmed by the Supreme Court. Since the close of his term of office last
December, having refused a re-nomination by his party, he has devoted himself to the practice of his profession.
Mr. Robinson is prominent both as a Mason and as an Odd Fellow. As a Mason he is Past Master of Amity Lodge, and
Past High Priest of Keystone Royal Arch Chapter, but it is as an Odd Fellow that he is best known throughout the
State, having held the highest, offices in the gift of the Order here, and at the present time is Grand Master
of the Grand Lodge of Maine.
Mr. Robinson was married in December, 1885, to Blanche E., daughter of Mr. Charles W. Atkins of Camden.
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