My Genealogy Hound

COL. WILLIAM D. ROBISON, clerk of the Rutherford County Court, a native of this county, was born June 30, 1840. His father, Samuel B. Robison, a native of North Carolina, removed to this county with his parents about the year 1824. Soon afterward his parents emigrated to Illinois where they both died. Samuel B., being of age at the time of his parents’ removal to the West, remained in this county and engaged as clerk in the mercantile business at old Jefferson. A few years later he engaged in business for himself at Versailles, continuing two years, when he began the study of medicine with a view to making it his profession for life. He attended lectures in the Jefferson Medical College, of Philadelphia, from which institution he graduated, and soon after located at Salem, this county, where he practiced his profession until 1852, when he removed to Murfreesboro, where he soon acquired a large and lucrative practice. Politically, the Doctor was an old-time Whig before the late war, but after this event he affiliated with the Democratic party. He was a Mason of high standing and a life-long member of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. Soon after his removal to this county he married Mary North, a native of Virginia and mother of our subject. She died January, 1862. The Doctors death occurred in 1871, while on a visit to his daughter near Rome, Ga. William D. the subject of this sketch, was reared in this, the county of his birth, with his parents, securing a fair literary education. Upon the breaking out of the late war he enlisted in April, 1861, as a private in Company F, Second Regiment of Tennessee Infantry, under Col. Bate, now governor. He was promoted early in the service to second lieutenant, and after the battle of Shiloh to captain of his company. After the promotion of Col. Bate to brigadier-general, our subject was made colonel of his regiment, in which capacity he served in a faithful and valiant manner until the battle of Jonesboro, Ga., where he received a severe bullet wound in the left hip, which totally disabled him for further service, confining him to his bed eight months. At close of the war, having partially recovered from the effects of his wound, Col. Robison returned home and obtained employment as clerk and book-keeper in mercantile establishments in this city, and being elected to the office of county trustee in 1866, fulfilled the duties of this office also. In 1869 he was elected county tax collector, serving the remainder of the unexpired term of his predecessor, who had died. He also, in the meantime, continued his clerkship in mercantile houses until 1876, when he engaged in the grocery and general merchandise business for himself. He conducted this business with good success until 1878, when he was elected county court clerk, and he has filled this office continuously by re-election in a faithful and highly efficient and satisfactory manner to the present time. September 15, 1869, Col. Robison was united in marriage to Miss Fannie Rice, a most estimable lady, daughter of John P. Rice, who was a highly respected resident of this county from after the war until his death. Our subject’s wife departed this life March 6, 1885, leaving no issue, but her memory will ever be cherished by the bereaved husband and a large circle of admiring friends and relatives. Col. Robison has always been a firm supporter of Democracy, and his many terms of public office give evidence of the esteem in which he is held by his constituency in this county. He is a Mason of the Knight Templar and Scottish Rite degrees, being Past Grand Commander of the Tennessee State Commandery of Knights Templar. He is a zealous member of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, and is justly recognized as one among the leading and enterprising business men of old Rutherford, and a highly popular official.