This week I have finished up research on Samuel A. Robinson and his fascinating life.
Samuel Austin Robinson was born on March 12, 1849, in Calhoun County, Michigan to Urania and Sylvanus Robinson. Not much is known about his life before he moved to Orlando other than that he had nine siblings, two sisters and seven brothers. On May 23, 1876, Samuel married his wife, Mary Agnes and later in that same year, they moved to Orlando, Florida to help Samuel’s brother, Norman, build a citrus grove in what is now Lake Eola Heights.
He quickly established himself as an outstanding citizen. Samuel, a civil engineer, surveyed and designed Orlando’s downtown streets as well as served as a tax collector, alderman, school trustee, and city surveyor for over fifteen years. In 1885, Samuel 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”. In 1887, his wife gave birth to two girls, Ede Urania and Alice Beauclair Robinson. In addition to his many endeavors, Samuel was also an avid geologist. During his life, he unearthed a multitude of fossils such as the “teeth of the elephant, mastodon, bison, camel...” and more. He also collected 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. Samuel additionally served two terms in the State Legislature from 1910 to 1915 and performed duties as a notary public. His wife, Mary Agnes, was a charter member of the Daughter’s of the American Revolution and the First Presbyterian Church and was an “active force in many other organizations”.
During Samuel’s time as city surveyor, he surveyed not only Orlando but the towns of Winter Park and Kissimmee as well. His most lasting impression, however, seems to 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”. Designing the cemetery around the trees and hills of the area, Samuel gave Greenwood Cemetery its unique circular grid. Interestingly, Samuel gave himself the highest point in the cemetery, where he forever overlooks the grand cemetery of his own design. After a fire in 1891 that decimated the cemetery, the city of Orlando purchased the cemetery and fourteen acres of land to its north. It would not be until 1915 that the cemetery was given the name ’Greenwood Cemetery’, having formerly been known as the Orlando Cemetery.
Mary Agnes would die less than two years later, on September 16, 1917, and was survived by her husband, their two daughters, and a granddaughter. Samuel joined his wife nine years later on February 21, 1926. His legacy, however, has endured to this day. Orlando’s roads, cemetery, and schools were all molded by this great man, and Robinson Avenue was named in his honor.
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