The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-07-26
ALL COMES BACK.
Story of the COurtship OF Com
- missioner Warmers Father
And Isabelle Robinson Is Re-
FiEed at Her Old Home.
TAINTIIN THE BLOOD
And How 1t Got There Is a
Tradition.
A Stern and Cruel Father LIS
Held Responsible.
TAINTIIN THE BLOOD

belle Robinson is being told again in
the homes of the good people Of this
quiet little hamlet, set down in the
midst of green fields and bordered,w where
earth and sky seem to meet, with groves
of luxuriant rock maple.
For it was to this peaceful valley that
John Warner father of United States
Commissioner Of Pensions Vespasian
Warner, came thirty-three years ago to
WOO and wed the bare-footed country
girl. There are yet among the living
pioneers who helped Stephen Robinson,
Isabelle's father. to blaze paths through
the forest primeval of northern Ohio,
years before the shot was heard at sum-
ter. There are yet among the living men
who helped Stephen Robinson at the
lodgings and remember well the night
when The rich banker OF Illinois" came
to claim his bride
REEVES Stories of Mixed Races.
1t is a tradition here that the African
blood runs in the veins of the Robin
sons. The filing of deposition in Gin
ton, Ill, by Commissioner Warner in
which he sets forth this tradition as l
fact, in the effort to Illustrate his step
mothers attempt to break the will of
his father lately deceased, has revived
the old stories here-stories that had
been forgotten a quarter of a century
ago. for Isabelle Robinson never came
DICK 10 the OlQ nOul0y EXCEPT " OQIy the
dead, after she drove down the country
lane in a real city hack, with John
Warmers arm around her. a spray of
lilies of the valley in her hair.
!. Quite naturally the old folk of this
charming village side with Isabelle.
Whey all call her Isabelle here. They
fMYer learned to speak of her as Mrs.
W&Sper. They say she was always the
plaiH. simple girl they knew at the log
gings in the early days, but that her
husbands riches was the barrier be-
tween her and the old home among the
naples.
Old Tradition Revived.
But now and then they speak of the
mixed blood in the Robinsons. They do
not shudder, moreover, when they tell
how as they remember the tradition,
Isabelle Robinson came to have negro
blood in her veins.
A sweet faced woman of nearly nine
ty summers, who requested that her
identity be suppressed-for the Robin
sons still live on the old homestead in
goodly numbers-told the story thus:
LAS I remember it, many, many
years ago we girls used to talk in
whispers about the curly hair of the
Robinson girls Isabelle was a twin.
Her sister was a girl of great good
sense and had a wonderfully sweet
disposition. You know they lived way
down there where the Huron river
winds back of the high hills, and we
always considered that sort of in the |
wilderness. These girls grew up in the |
woods and along the river, and they |
grew as wild and free as the flowers |
and the river they loved so we'll. One |
day Isabelle's sister died We thought |
Isabelle would never get over that |
She was just like one in a dream till |
John Warner came and took her away. |
''Well, we used to talk a good deal |
about their curly hair. We thought 1T |
didn't look just right. Finally some
of the old folks. as we used to call |
81, fa1I 49,
Robinson girls had negro blood in /
them. AS I remember it, it was said |
that in the early days here, when the |
Indians had their wigwams down |
turnpike road. either Isabelle's grand
mother or great-grandmother was very /
cruelty treated by her father. Things |
went from bad to worse. and finally !
one cold night the old man locked this
girl up in smokehouse.
Girl Makes a Vow.
''Well, so our mothers told us, this /
girl suffered so intensely out in the
smokehouse that bitter cold night that
she made vow to marry the first man
who liberated her. 1t was said that |
she remained on her knees praying
most of the night, until she heard
some one at the door. She got up and
waited for it to open. And when it did,
10 and behold, there stood a great big
negro. They say he was full-blooded
one. He had worked in the neighbor-
hood and she knew him. Well, the
first thing the old folks knew this girl
lad gone and married this negro. Now
&Rether that girl was Isabelle Robin
SONS grandmother or great-grand-
mother. I can't say. But that was the
story our forefathers told US long be-
fore there was any thought of Civil
war.
But I want to tell you that that
didn't make any difference with us
girls. The Robinson girls were just as
lovely and sweet as they could be and
they always went to our parties
Where Banker Found Bride.
At the time when John Warner, the
fight for whose million dollar estate
has led to the searching of family
closets In several states and the rat
thing of a few skeletons meanwhile
drove into Steuben to claim his bride
northern Ohio. In the first place it
was named after that gallant Prus-
sian nobleman who helped Washington
at Valley FORGE. 1t was one of the
main stations on the old turnpike road
running from Columbus to Sandusky
before the railroad builders had tapped
this rich field. There We're several
blacksmith and wagon shops. But the
tavern was the principal thing about
the town at the time Isabelle Robinson
went into the west. the bride of a very
rich man. as they understood it then.
Father Put on Trial.
: At this tavern there were wont to
eongregate nightly the rIoneers who
were then past the meridian. Among
them were John Clark. still living at
Milan, Ohio; Squire White, Doc" ,
Mather, Uncle Bili'' White, ALT Bas-
com, Charles Ashley, and others since
gathered to the fathers. whose children !
and whose children's children heard
them tell the story of the day that
John Warner came to town to wed the
vivacfous, though poor, Isabelle Robin
son. They knew her father well. They
the time when IL was legally
settled. at least. that Stephen Robin
son was not tainted" 1t was a MEM
ii fa1 AZ !, Il. L