North Robinson

How North Robinson began

North Robinson was laid out in March 1861 by Crawford County surveyor Horace Martin on land owned by J. B. Magers, in southeastern Crawford County on the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railroad. Perrin's 1881 county history says it takes its name from the Robinson family, which came to the area about 1830-31; Colonel William Robinson bought the land where the village stands for $1.25 an acre. The village grew around a steam sawmill and grist mill, a post office, an elevator, a carriage factory and a tile factory, and its lots briefly emptied in a panic when the original land turned out to be heavily mortgaged. It has remained a very small agricultural village, between roughly 150 and 300 residents in the census counts from 1880 to 2020. On September 4, 2017, an EF2 tornado struck its northern part.

Settled c. 1830 (Col. William Robinson buys the land; Robinson family in the township about 1831), platted March 1861, by J. B. Magers (owner); surveyed by Horace Martin, county surveyor.

Where the name comes from

Perrin's 1881 county history says the village 'derives its title from a family, named Robinson, that came to the township in about 1831,' whose members became prominent citizens; Colonel William Robinson, a War of 1812 officer, bought the land on which the village stands in 1830 at $1.25 an acre, and J. P. Robinson later secured the post office. The history does not say why the village is called 'North' Robinson.

Before the town

No village, trail or mound specific to North Robinson is documented in the sources checked. Perrin's 1881 county history, which gives the village its own history in its Whetstone Township chapter, mentions no Native residents there. The land was part of the New Purchase opened by the 1817 Treaty of the Foot of the Rapids of the Maumee and lay east of the Wyandot reserve at Upper Sandusky.

Timeline

1. 1830 — Col. William Robinson, a Pennsylvania native and War of 1812 soldier, buys for $1.25 an acre the land on which North Robinson now stands; he is later Justice of the Peace for eighteen years.
2. c. 1831 — The Robinson family comes to the township, the family from which the village later takes its name.
3. c. 1851 — J. B. Magers, William Brown and William McGee lease land from Mr. Robinson ten years before the town is laid out and build a steam sawmill, to which Magers adds two sets of millstones for grinding grain.
4. 1858 — S. A. Bowers and J. W. Delancy rent Magers's mill at North Robinson and run it for about a year.
5. 1861-03 — The village of North Robinson is laid out by Horace Martin, Crawford County surveyor, on land owned by J. B. Magers: seventeen lots in the southeastern part of the south half of fractional section 12; the village later has about eighty lots.
6. c. 1861 — Buyers learn the original land is heavily mortgaged, the lots are mostly vacated in a panic, and settlers move across the line into Jefferson Township to a plat laid out by J. P. Robinson; business returns to the original town when the title is quieted.
7. 1862 — John L. Caskey and Lewis Helcker begin making carriages in the village; Caskey has sole ownership from 1873 and employs six to ten men.
8. 1873 — The village school is built, graded, and attended by nearly a hundred children; Magers builds a three-story frame grain elevator at a cost of about $3,000.
9. c. 1877 — The English Lutheran church is built in the village, 'a nice, tastefully arranged edifice,' and the United Brethren church is moved in from half a mile south.
10. 1880-04 — Sickman, Fate & Co. of Crestline erect a steam tile factory with several kilns, each holding 12,000 tiles of two to ten inches, serving farmers draining wet land.
11. 1880 — The census counts 182 residents; it is 257 in 1890, 200 in 1900 and 155 in 1910.
12. 1980 — The population reaches its highest census count, 302; it is 219 in 2020.
13. 2017-09-04 — An EF2 tornado struck the northern part of the village, causing significant damage.

Stories

The lots that nobody could be sure they owned

In March 1861 Horace Martin, the Crawford County surveyor, laid out North Robinson for J. B. Magers, who owned the land and ran the mill beside it. Buyers took lots at once and built houses and shops, but it then became known that the land had been heavily mortgaged, and a panic followed. Residents left the platted lots and moved across the line into Jefferson Township, where J. P. Robinson, who owned that land, laid out an addition and had it properly recorded. When the title to Magers's original lots was quieted, business people and property-holders came back and the village grew quickly. Frederick Newman was its first merchant; liquor had been sold since its beginning, and the first hotel did not open until about 1876. The mill, the post office Magers held, the elevator and the 1873 school all followed.

A tornado in September

On the afternoon of September 4, 2017, a tornado touched down and tore through the northern edge of North Robinson, a village of barely two hundred people. Rated EF2, it damaged homes and property before lifting. For a village whose written history is otherwise a short list of mills, shops and population counts, the storm is the one dramatic event on record in the last century.

Photographs

Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · crawfordcountyohiogenealogy.org · en.wikipedia.org · commons.wikimedia.org · archive.org · commons.wikimedia.org

Mostly private wells The water here

• Crestline Village100% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)

Ballot issues

Elections for office

Winners in bold. Results from the county board of elections' official canvass unless marked.

Auditor of State record

• No fiscal caution, watch or emergency on the Auditor of State's lists.
• Basic Audit, 2022 to 2023, released 2024-08-27

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