Robert Alexander Robison

ROBISON, GREER, WHITAKER

Posted By: Deborah Gilbert (email)
Date: 9/9/2016 at 17:41:12

Maxwell Book: 1883-1983

Robert Alexander Robison and his wife Nancy Norres Greer came across the prairie from Mifflin County, Pennsylvania the year 1855 in a covered wagon drawn by oxen (the ox yoke hangs in the Maxwell Museum), with a cow in tow so that their two children, Ida and George, might have milk. They settled on East Indian Creek a short distance west of Iowa Center. They guilt a cabin (having only $10 to their name) which became known as the 'Old Alex Robison Farmstead' until 1893 when they moved to Nevada. He paid $1 an acre for a few acres at that time. On May 20, 1852 an original patent had been issued by the U. S. Government on 40 acres of timberland two miles north and two miles west of Maxwell located across the road from their cabin. Eight years later he purchased this same 40 acres for $10 an acre. In 1919 it was handed down to his son, E.R. (Buzz) Robison and in 1929 to his grandson and namesake, Clay Alexander Robison who later donated this same 40 acres to the Indian Creek Chapter of the Izaak Walton League, including a cabin which was built in 1930.

'Old Alex' as he was familiarly known, accumulated a vast fortune in farms, acquiring enough land to give each of his nine children a farm when they married. He passed away in 1907.

His son E. R. Robison born in Iowa Center (1862) was married to Miss Mattie Whitaker in 1888 who was an early day teacher, and moved to the farm given him by his father.They continued to live there until their deaths. This farm contained 30 acres which had never been under the plow. They had three children, Edith, who donated the Longterm Care Wing to the Story County Hospital in Nevada at the time of her death in 1972; Earl, who passed away in infancy; and Clay who inherited the home farm, which later became a Century Farm in 1977. Clay was a businessman, farmer and conservationist. He was also Justice of the Peace of Maxwell for eight years, a builder and owner of the Maxwell Post Office, former owner of two bulk plants and the Home Oil Co., Inc. of Maxwell, Center Oil Co. of Slater and Center Oil Co. of Webster City.