A Man of Many Talents: Samuel Robinson

Samuel Austin Robinson was one of the early settlers of what would become the City of Orlando. Acting as the city’s Representative in the State Legislature for two terms, Alderman, City Surveyor, Orange County Tax Collector, and as Trustee of the Orlando Public Schools, Robinson was integral in improving the Orlando area. He also surveyed and designed Greenwood Cemetery, laying down the foundation for the serene cemetery we have today.  

Samuel Austin Robinson was born on March 12, 1849, near Battle Creek in Emmett, Calhoun County, Michigan, to Urania Parks and Sylvanus Robinson.¹ His father was a homesteader near Battle Creek, and he and his nine siblings, two sisters, and seven brothers, worked alongside their parents on the farm.² On May 23, 1876, Robinson married Mary Agnes Bird in Pennfield, Michigan.³ Later that same year, they moved to Orlando to help Robinson’s brother, Norman, build a citrus grove in what is now Lake Eola Heights.⁴ 

Robinson quickly established himself as a leading resident. A civil engineer, he surveyed and designed Orlando’s downtown streets.⁵ During Robinson’s time as city surveyor, he surveyed not only Orlando but the towns of Winter Park and Kissimmee as well.⁶ He also served as a tax collector, alderman, school trustee, and city surveyor for over fifteen years.⁷ Robinson served two terms in the State Legislature from 1910 to 1915 and performed duties as a notary public.⁸

In 1877, his wife Mary gave birth to a daughter, Edith Urania. Four years later, in 1881, their son, Samuel Clyde, was born.⁹ Tragically, baby Samuel died at less than two months old and was buried in the Conway Cemetery.¹⁰ In 1887, a second daughter, Alice Beauclair, was born.¹¹ In 1885, the Robinsons built one of the first houses in the Lake Eola Heights area, which still stands today as an “imposing four-columned mansion on a heavily traveled downtown street.”¹²

In addition to his many endeavors, Robinson was also an avid geologist.¹³ During his life, he unearthed a multitude of fossils such as the “teeth of the elephant, mastodon, bison, camel” and more.¹⁴ He also excavated a large amount of gold and silver ornaments from Indian mounds, which are now in the possession of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.¹⁵

His most lasting legacy, however, may be his work at Greenwood Cemetery. His design, quite unlike southern American cemeteries of the time, was pronounced to be “one of the best original designs.”¹⁶ Designing the cemetery around the trees and hills of the area, Robinson gave Greenwood Cemetery its unique circular grid.¹⁷ Though he originally purchased a plot in Section A in 1906 after the first expansion of the cemetery, Robinson purchased a lot at the highest point of the landscape in 1913, where his grave forever overlooks the grand cemetery of his own design.¹⁸

After an 1891 fire decimated the cemetery, the City of Orlando purchased the cemetery and fourteen acres of land to its north.¹⁹ It would not be until 1915 that the cemetery was given the name Greenwood Cemetery at the request of Robinson, having formerly been known as the Orlando Cemetery.²⁰ 

Mary Robinson died on September 16, 1917.²¹ She was a charter member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, the First Presbyterian Church, and was an “active force in many other organizations.”²² Samuel Robinson joined his wife in the family plot at the top of the hill eight years later, February 21, 1926.²³ The Robinson family plot is marked with large red granite headstone and Robinson’s grave is marked with a unique, red, natural stone that is reminiscent of terrazzo. This type of stone is called a “pudding stone” and was brought to Orlando by Robinson from his native Michigan.²⁴ A similar stone marks his young son’s grave in Conway Cemetery.²⁵

Samuel Robinson’s legacy has endured to this day. Orlando’s roads, cemetery, and schools were all molded by this pioneering city resident, and Robinson Avenue was named in his honor.  

1. “United States Federal Census, 1870,” database with images, FamilySearch, entry for Samuel Robinson, accessed January 26, 2024, https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MHHX-XCS

2. “S.A. Robinson, 77 years old, dies at home” Orlando Sentinel, Feb 23, 1926, 13.; “1870 Census,” FamilySearch, entry for Samuel Robinson.

3. “Michigan, U.S., County Marriage Records, 1822-1940,” database with images, FamilySearch, entry for Samuel A. Robinson and Mary A. Bird, accessed January 26, 2024, https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N3DN-N2N

4. C. E. Howard, Early Settlers of Orange County, Florida, (Orlando: C. E. Howard, 1915), 14, accessed February 28, 2024, https://stars.library.ucf.edu/cfm-texts/100

5. “S.A. Robinson, 77 years old, dies at home,” Orlando Sentinel, Feb 23, 1926, 13.

6. “S.A. Robinson,” Orlando Sentinel.

7. “S.A. Robinson,” Orlando Sentinel. 

8. “S.A. Robinson,” Orlando Sentinel. 

9. “United States Federal Census, 1900,” database with images, FamilySearch, entry for Samuel Robinson, accessed January 26, 2024, https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M368-853; “Saml. Claude Robinson,” Find a Grave, accessed March 16, 2024, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/55089818/saml.-claude-robinson 

10. “The Pioneer Party Line,” part 2, audio file, Orlando Memory, accessed March 7, 2024, https://orlandomemory.info/topics/the-pioneer-party-line/   

11. “United States Federal Census, 1900,” database with images, FamilySearch, entry for Samuel Robinson, accessed January 26, 2024, https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M368-853 

12. Raymond Cox, “In the News — Orange Preservation Trust,” Orange Preservation Trust, May 7, 2023, http://www.orangepreservationtrust.org/news 

13. “S.A. Robinson,” Orlando Sentinel.

14. “S.A. Robinson,” Orlando Sentinel.

15. “S.A. Robinson,” Orlando Sentinel.

16. Howard, Early Settlers, 14.

17. “S.A. Robinson,” Orlando Sentinel.

18.  Orange County, Florida, Deed Book 125: 256; no. 19060125256, City of Orlando & Samuel A Robinson, July 25, 1906; Orange County Comptroller.; Orange County, Florida, Deed Book 165: 113; no. 19130165113, City of Orlando & Samuel A Robinson, July 25, 1906; Orange County Comptroller.

19. “History of Greenwood Cemetery Told by Hon. Samuel A. Robinson – Pioneer,” Orlando Reporter-Star, September 14, 1915, 8.

20. Marta Madigan, “Yesterday by the Moonlight,” Reflections Magazine, Fall 20215, 10.  

21. Carey Hand Funeral Home, "Robinson, Mary A." (1917), Carey Hand Undertaker's Memoranda, 28, accessed February 28, 2024, https://stars.library.ucf.edu/cfm-ch-memoranda-1917/114/ 

22. “S.A. Robinson,” Orlando Sentinel. 

23. Carey Hand Funeral Home, "Robinson, Samuel A." (1923), Carey Hand Undertaker's Memoranda, 108, accessed February 28, 2024, https://stars.library.ucf.edu/cfm-ch-memoranda-1926/108/

24. “The Pioneer Party Line,” part 2, audio file, Orlando Memory, accessed March 7, 2024, https://orlandomemory.info/topics/the-pioneer-party-line/; “Pudding Stones,” Michigan State University, accessed April 29, 2024, https://project.geo.msu.edu/geogmich/puddingstones.html 

25.  “Saml. Claude Robinson,” Find a Grave.