1925 Biography - Robert L. Robinson

Robert L. Robinson, principal of the Berwick public school in St. Mary Parish, has been a school man for a number of years and has been identified with the progressive forces in Louisiana school affairs.

He was born near Vernon, in Jackson Parish, Louisiana, January 2, 1889. His father, Jeremiah A. Robinson, was born in Clarke County, Alabama, February 2, 1854, grew up there and when a young man moved to Lincoln Parish, Louisiana, where he married and where he engaged in farming. Since 1888 his borne has been at Vernon. He is a member of the police jury and deputy sheriff of Jackson Parish, and has filled that office for a number of years. In politics he is a democrat, is a Mason and a member of the Baptist Church. Jeremiah A. Robinson married Addie E. McCormick, who was born near Choudrant in Lincoln Parish in 1865, and died at Vernon October 12, 1892. She was the mother of two children: Robert L. and ha, the latter the wife of Horace L. Cassidy, a carpenter at Ruston.

Robert L. Robinson acquired his early education in public schools in Jackson and Lincoln parishes, and began teaching before he was twenty years of age. In the intervals of teaching he has kept up his studies in normal school and university, and in 1915 graduated from the Louisiana State Normal College at Natchitoches, and nearly every summer since then except during 1917-18, when he was with the colors, has attended the Louisiana State University, studying for the Bachelor of Science degree. Mr. Robinson's successive engagements as principal of schools has been as follows: The Jackson Chapel School, 1908-09; Johnson Bayou school in Cameron Parish, 1909-10; Prospect school in Grant Parish, 1910-12; following which he was in residence as a student at the State Normal School. In 1916 he became principal of the public school at Bonami in Beauregard Parish, and was principal of the Longville public school until he was called to the colors in December, 1917. He was sent to the Aviation Corps at Gerstner Field, Lake Charles, was made a corporal, and served there until honorably discharged in January, 1919. For several months following he was principal of the Lapine school in Ouachita Parish: during 1919-20 was principal of the Esterwood High School and then came an interval when he turned to commercial work, serving fourteen months as purchasing agent of the Caddo Winn Lumber Company at St. Maurice. In the public schools at Jena he was professor of history and science until the fall of 1921, at which date took up his present duties as principal of the public school at Berwick.

Mr. Robinson is member of the Louisiana State Teachers' Association, is a democrat, a Baptist, and is affiliated with the Eros Lodge No. 295, F. and A. M.; Brashear Chapter No. 81, Royal Arch Masons, at Morgan City; and Morgan City Lodge No. 1121, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.

He married, August 27, 1914, at Verda, Louisiana, Florence M. Courtney, daughter of M. and Alice (Stagg) Courtney. Her mother resides at Ponchatoula. Her father, a farmer, died at Verda. Mrs. Robinson finished her education in the Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge. They have one son, Robert Howard, born January 21, 1919.

Contributed 2021 Nov 04 by Mike Miller, from A History of Louisiana, by Henry E. Chambers, published in 1925, volume 2, pages 362-363.