Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-06-01
MATRIMONIAL ROMANCE.
Maid, Wife and Widow in Twenty.
four Hours.
How a 'sManaging'' Papa was Beaten
"A Fortune Dissipated.
From the New York Sun, May II.

Mr.. Coleman T. Robinson was born il
Kent, Putnam county, n. Y, Jan. II. 1S49
! and died May 1, 1872, in his thirty fifth
year. At the age of 10 Mr.. Robinson Wis
, tied Europe, and spent several years explor
ing France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the
, Holy Land, traversing the Nile, bathing in
the Dead Sea, and perambulating the
streets of Jerusalem. He graduated with
distinction at German college in Berlin af
ter his travels, and returned to his native
land in 1851.
Shrewd and venturesoIne, he went into
Wall street and began specializing in stocks.
Success marked all his efforts, and after a
few months he became the head of the
house of Robinson, Cox g Co., stock
brokers, in Wall street, where he had many
financial transactions with Drew, Wander
bilt, Jay Cooke, Henry Clews, James Fisk,
Jr., and Jay Gould. He araassed for
tune, and about two years ago he retired
from business a millionaire, his property
estimated at a million and a half, princi-
pally in stocks and bonds.
Last November, he purchased an elegant
country seat at Brewsters station, in his
native county, on the New York, Harlem
and Albany railroad, and furnished it gor-
geously. A large room In the house was
fitted up as a museum, where he arranged
an endless number Of curiOsities, gathered
during his travels In foreign countries. Mr..
Robinson, with liveried servants and a
team of spanking bays-the envy of the
surrounding farmers-could be seen almost
every day dashing over the country roads,
seated in a neat little phaeton. A
man of generous impulses end Of
sociable disposition, he made many
friends, and no enemies until after bis death
On the first day of last January Mr..
Robinson gave a wooden wedding recep-
ton in his house to the Rev. Mr.. and Mrs.
| Fletcher, the Baptist minister of the village.
Among the guests was Mr.. James d. Lit
tie, editor Of the Putnam County Courier,
| of Carmel and his daughter Florien, girl
of sixteen, not out of short dresses. For
| the first time the millionaire fell in love.
He was a favorite of the sex, but matrimony
was the last thing in the world he had ever
contemplated. Child as she was, he pro-
| posed to her on the spot and was as prompt
| ly rejected. The young miss rather treated
| his proposition as a good joke. About the
next thing Mr.. Robinson did was to get on
| a terrible spree, which lasted nearly two
weeks, during which time be talked of moth
| ing but Florien, declaring that lie would
marry her if it was the last act of his life
and he kept his word.
On the 10Th of the same month Mr.. Rob-
inson gave another reception-this time to
his cousins, j. T. and A. I. Smith. Miss
Little attended, attired for the first time in
the robes of manageable girl. Mr.. Rob
inson, infatuated, pressed bis suit again,
| and was again rejected. Then he appealed
to her father and implOred him to use his
influence with his daughter in his behalf.
What passed at that and subsequent inter
views between Messrs. Robinson and Little
on that subject is not known. But from
those interviews it seems Mr.. Little learn
ed that MIR. Robinson had previously made
will, and it is common report that Mr..
Little promised the suffer that bis daughter
should marry him provided he would des-
troy that will and agree not 10 make an
other unless it should settle the bulk of his
property on the bride elect. Mr.. Robinson
agreed to the proposition, and said that he
would destroy it. But Mr.. Little would
not take promise. lie must see the will
destroyed.
Mr.. Robinson always carried bis will in
an inside coat pocket. But, to guard against
accident or theft, he kept a duplicate in
Robinson, Chase & Co.'s safe, in Broad
street, New York. Mr.. Eugene Robinson,
of this firm, is a cousin of the dead man.
His sister Mary is Mr.. Eugene RObinson's
wife. The will settled $4,000 a piece on
three cousins in Buffalo, $4,000 more to
the Academy of Natural Science In Buffalo,
of which Mr.. Robinson was a member, and
the rest Of his property he bequeathed to
his sis er Mary. This is the will which Nj.
Little wanted destroyed. ..
According to promise, Mr.. Robinson ap-
peared at Mr.. Little's house about month
ago, having with him the original will and
the duplicate. He called the Little family
into the parlor, and in their presence he
threw the duplicate into the fire. The old
man smiled all over his face, and promised
Mr.. Robinson that his daughter should be-
come Mrs. Robinson whenever he said the
word. The wedding-day was fixed for the
1st OF May, and Mr.. Robinson resumed his
spree.
On the 2Sth of April, while driving fIri-
ously on the Danbury road about mile
from Brewster's, Mr.. Robinson relned his
horse too hard to one side,. which cramped
ami upset the wagon, threw him out and
broke his left thigh close to the temora
joint. DR.. Harris set the fractured limb,
but the patient continued to grow worse,
and on Tuesday, the Both Of April, he sent
for Miss Little, requesting that she should
nurse him; but her father refused to allow
her to do so unless Mr.. Robinson would
consent to have the marriage ceremony per-
formed at once, it being Mr.. Robinson's de-
sire that the marriage, which was to have
been solemnized on the next day,
should be postponed until after he re-
covered. Mr.. Little seemed determined.
Doh
ceremony was performed at O'Clock p. M,
by the girls grandfather, Elder Gilbert
Beebe of MiddletOwn.
About O'Clock that night Mr.. Robinson
became insensible, and died at o'clock
the next evening, just twenty-fOur hours
after bis marriage.
Immediately after his marriage Mr.. Rob
inson called his friend, Mr. o. II. Miller
editor of the Standard, at Brewster's, and
told him that he had not destroyed his will,
as Mr.. Little had supposed, and that he
had placed it in his secretary drawer, and
requested Mr.. Miller, in the event of his
death, to place the instrument in his sis
ters possession. Mrs. Robinson, his sister,
was telegraphed her brothers condition on
the forenoon of bis death, and shea rived
there one hour after he breathed his last
Mr.. Miller did as his friend lad requested,
and before Mrs. Robinson had been in the
house fifteen minutes she had the will.
Before Mrs. Little Robinson quit the
house she said that her husband, before he
died, had given her his 5000 piano, and re-
quested that they allow her to take it, as it
was dying present and all she had to re-
member him by. The request was granted
and she took the piano away few days
afterward. Last week Mr.. Little called on
Mrs. Eugene Robinson and said that he
thought it would suit his daughter better to
have the bay team and phaeton than the
piano, and suggested that an exchange be
made.
Mrs. Robinson replied that as her brother
had made the piano dying gift to his wife,
she could not, under any circumstances, en-
terrain the proposition. That she thought
too much of her brother for that, and fin
iShed by saying that if her brother had de
sired that his wife should have the team he
would have given it to her. Mr.. Little went
away, and has remained in Carmel ever
since.
Dir. Robinson's family respect the uufor-
tunate girl, and, although she is entitled to
nothing, they have consented to allow her