In connection with a request by William O. Robison’s to modify his Civil War pension, his wife Sally Victor was interviewed by a Pension Office investigator on May 7, 1907. (The undated picture of her above dates from around that time.) Sally’s review of the timeline of the family’s early residence in Seattle is very informative. Note however that she says that the Robisons arrived in the State of Washington “six years ago last August.” She probably means “six years ago now” (i.e., “We’re now in May and it’ll be six years this summer that we left Carthage for Seattle”). All other references to the Robisons’ arrival in Seattle give the timing as August 1901.
The Robisons seem to have come straight from Carthage to Fremont, and must have built the house at 4220 Greenwood Avenue almost immediately, around 1902 or 1903 at the latest. At least this is what Sally seems to be implying here.
Note that the “homestead six miles east of Kent” was the property Charlie referred to in his conversation with me. It was at a place called “Jenkins’ Prairie” and was obtained under preferential terms for war veterans (like William O.), and required him to be present six months out of the year to get title.
This testimony seems to quite clearly indicate that after the house in Fremont was built, it remained in the family, even when William O., Sally, and Charlie moved to Maltby for two years (1904-1906). It was the house they returned to when they sold the Maltby acreage.
William O. himself was also interviewed separately at this time by the Pension Office inspector, and his remarks give the motivation for moving to Maltby:
I lived at Maltby, Wash., about two years. I had got so that I could not work at my trade of carpenter — could not climb around on buildings any more on account of rheumatism. So I got me a ranch and thought that with a cow or two and some chickens I could make a living that way.
Among other things, this suggests that William O. could “climb around on buildings” up until about 1904, in other words including the period during which, with the help of his son Ernest, who was also trained as a carpenter, he is thought to have built the house at 4220 Greenwood Avenue.
