In 1849, Dr. Robinson graduated from Bowdoin Medical School, in Brunswick, Maine. (Bowdoin Medical School closed in 1920; Bowdoin College survives today.

After his graduation, Dr. Robinson practiced medicine in Litchfield for a short time. He also lived in Richmond, Maine, before moving to Rockland, Maine, where he set up a medical practice for several years. During that time, he was also the physician for the Maine State Prison at Thomaston.

Dr. Robinson had an incredible political career in Kansas, for he was elected the first Secretary of State of Kansas in December of 18593, (at the age of 35 years,) in anticipation of the admission of Kansas into the Union in 1860. The acceptance of Kansas was delayed until January 29, 1861, due to the debate in Congress over the question of whether to admit Kansas as a free state or a slave state. Dr. Robinson was sworn in as Secretary of State immediately thereafter, in the first week of February, 1861. The Kansas State Historical Society possesses correspondence between Dr. Robinson and The Honorable John McKeown Snow Williams (1818-1886) of Boston, a Republican, and a Massachusetts State Representative from 1856.

Representative Williams was also a board member of The New England Emigrant Aid Company, which was a transportation company created solely to transport immigrants from Massachusetts to the Kansas Territory to shift the balance of votes, so that Kansas would be a Free State. (Those immigrants were called "Free-Staters".) In a letter dated November 15, 1860, Dr. Robinson advised Representative Williams that he had just returned two days before from a tour of "the South and West of Kansas." He acknowledged receipt of a $25 donation Williams had made to the "starving destitute, whose hunger your generosity will appease..." Dr. Robinson tells Williams: "We were greatly rejoiced at the result of the [1860 Presidential] election and now hope better things for Kansas..." At the end of the letter, Dr. Robinson declared his intent to attend the 1861 Inauguration of President-elect Lincoln. There is no mention of whether he planned for his wife, Fannie, to accompany him there.

^* Information kindly provided by Randal J. Loy, Historian to the Dean of Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral.

--CBB