Sally J. Victor and William O. Robison are shown here surrounded by their children, from left to right:
- Charlie V. (b. November 22, 1895);
- George H.(inset; b. April 6, 1881);
- Ernest R. (b. April 30, 1878);
- Lillian A. (b. April 12, 1874); and
- William S. (i.e., W.S., or Bill; b. May 19, 1884).
- (A girl, Birdie A, was born on April 8, 1876 and died on October 24, 1876).
The picture is undated. Could it have been taken in the summer of 1900, just before the family left Carthage, Missouri, for Seattle? Does Charlie look like a not-quite-five year old in this family portrait? I don’t think so. In that summer of 1900 George had just turned 19 and was already married (however, although he is not in this picture, he was enumerated in the census that year in Missouri, in the household of his parents, along with Florence, his 21-year-old bride); Ernest would have been 22 in the summer of 1900, Lillian 26, and W.S. 16.
It is possible that neither Lillian nor Ernest were single at the time of this picture either, because they, too, got married — in Joplin (Carthage), Missouri, or thereabouts — around the turn of the century.
Or the picture could have been taken in Seattle anytime between around 1901 and about 1904. We know that Ernest, at least, came to Seattle (in 1902?) from Missouri with his wife and the first of his many children.
Outside of what can be guessed from this portrait, here is the best textual information on the formation and movements of this household:
From a letter written in 1887 by William O. Robison in his own hand (with spelling uncorrected) to the Commissioner of Pensions in Washington, D.C., asserting his claim of having been wounded in the Civil War, he begins:
“Sir, from my Discharge [from the Army] in July 1865 I lived at nevada Story County Iowa till the month of December 1870 when I Came to this Place [i.e., Carthage, Missouri]. my Ocpation has been that of a Carpenter when I was able to work.”
In a deposition taken by a special examiner from the Bureau of Pensions on May 7, 1907, the statement of Sarah J. Robison (Victor), gives us the following additional information:
I am 53 years of age; my post-office address in 4220 Greenwood Ave., Seattle, Wash. I am the wife of this pensioner, William O. Robison. We were married at Carthage, Mo., July 6, 1873. We have lived together continuously since said date, have never been separated nor divorced. We came to this state six years ago last August [i.e., 1901]. Our first place of residence was here in Fremont, a suburb of Seattle. This house where we now live has been our home most of the time, but we took up a homestead six miles east of Kent, Wash., soon after we came here and would go out there to live during the summers and return and live here in the winters. Then we traded our ranch or homestead for another ranch three years ago [i.e., around 1904]. Then we moved to said ranch and lived there until last October [1906] when we sold it. Said ranch was one-half mile east of Maltby, Wash.
From notes of a conversation I had with my great uncle Charlie in September 1985, I got the following details:
William O. [i.e., his father] homesteaded 80 acres six miles east of Kent in a place called “Jenkin’s Prairie.” As a veteran, he could get the place as long as he spent six months a year on the property. He traded it later for 40 acres in Maltby. I was in third grade there in Maltby. It was the happiest time of my life. After he [i.e., his father, William O.] had the mill accident, he went [back?] to live on Greenwood Avenue.
From the information I have on the lawsuit connected with that “mill accident,” I know that it occurred on February 14, 1906. Statements by friends and neighbors (and by Sally Victor) make it clear that William O. couldn’t work a “ranch” anymore after breaking his leg, and this no doubt occasioned the removal back to Fremont. He hobbled around on crutches for much of the time after that, apparently, although he lived on until 1917. The household was extinguished when Sally Victor died in January 1927.
The main thing is that the family lived in Carthage, Missouri, from the time William O. Robison and Sally Victor married in July 1873 until they left for Seattle in the summer of 1901. All five of their children were born in Carthage. Three of them (Lillian, Ernest, George) married in Carthage. Ernest came to the Pacific Northwest permanently, and Lillian perhaps for a time. George eventually moved to Vancouver, Washington, and after his wife Florence died, came (sometime in the 1950’s) to live at the Clark Hotel in Seattle, owned by his niece, Mabel Robison. The house at 4220 Greenwood Avenue in Fremont was the center of gravity for those of this household who moved from Missouri to Seattle right up till the death of William O. in 1917. Sally Victor continued to live in this house till she died in January 1927.