ecutive.

HARLES ROBINSON, the first Governor of Kansas, was elected under the Wyandotte Constitution, and upon the admission of the State, Jan. 29, 1861, was inaugurated as Chief ExNo better man could have been selected to lay the foundations of the State, for his mind was creative, original and vigorous. Rarely working by copy, he belongs to the class who think and originate, and with whom precedence and text-books have little authority. At this time a great State was to be formed from most incongruous elements. It required men of genius and originality to formulate laws and a constitution, and to this work the vigor and ingenuity of Robinson were peculiarly adapted. Men of all classes, sorts and conditions, had rushed to this section upon different objects bent-some to assist in building up a State, some to make money, to secure notoriety and political preferment, but more, perhaps, as cosmopolitans, having little interest in its reputation or its future.

That the work before Gov. Robinson was accomplished in a praiseworthy manner, a grateful people readily acknowledge. In his course, which necessarily was opposed to the rough and irresponsible element, he made many enemies and was impeached by the House, but on his trial by the Senate no evidence was adduced to connect him with any illegal transaction, and a case of malicious

prosecution was clearly established, which left his good name untarnished.

In reviewing the career of a prominent public man, it cannot be cailed complete without the story of his early life. Gov. Robinson was born at Hardwick, Mass., July 21, 1818, and received a good common-school and academic education, besides two years' drill at Amherst College. His father, Charles Robinson, was a pious and conscientious man, who cherished an inherent hatred of slavery, and the latter quality of his father's character Charles inherited in a marked degree. Upon religious subjects, however, he was always independent and liberal, and is considered heterodox, although for the great principles of Christianity, which serve to improve society and make better men and women, he has the highest regard.

There is but little which is ideal or sentimental in the nature of Gov. Robinson, as his life has been spent principally dealing with men upon practical principles. Before completing his studies he was obliged to leave college on account of illhealth, and his eyes failing him from hard study, he walked forty miles to consult a celebrated physician, Dr. Twichel, of Keene, N. H., and there became so sensibly impressed with both the quackerics of medicine as so often practiced, and the real utility of the healing art as a science, that he determined to study medicine, and after a preparatory course entered for a series of lectures at Woodstock, Vt., and Pittsfield, Mass., and from the school of the latter he was graduated, receiving his diploma with the high honors of the class. Subscquently he became connected with the celebrated

Dr. J. G. Holland in the management of a hospital. In 1849 he started out as a physician to a colony bound overland to California. They arrived in Kansas City April 10, and on the 10th of May following, left with ox and mule teams for the Pacific Slope.

On the 11th of May, thirty-nine years ago, riding his horse at the head of a colony of goldseekers, Gov. Robinson ascended Mt. Oread, where now stands the State University of Kansas, whose Regent he has been for thirteen consecutive years, as well as its faithful, intelligent and generous friend. In his note book at that time he wrote that if the land was opened to settlement and entry, he would go no further, as there seemed to be gold enough for all human wants in the rich soil of the Kaw Valley, and beauty enough in the rolling prairies beyond to meet all the aspirations of ordinary men. He pushed on, however, to California, and there followed a variety of occupations, being miner, restauranteur, editor and member of the Legislature. Then he returned to Massachusetts, and in 1852 commenced the publication of the Fitchburg News, which he conducted two years.

At the time of the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and the intense excitement coincident with the organization of the Territories of Kansas and Nebraska, Gov. Robinson was sent out by the New England Aid Society to Kansas, charged with saving it to freedom. In the darkest hours of that long struggle, as well as in its hour of victory, he seemed to be the one safe counselor and leader of the Free-State forces. His California experience had rounded and ripened a robust nature, and the perils that the hero of the squatter troubles had passed through in that strange combination of craft and cunning, fitted and schooled him for his Kansas work.

In the "Wakarusa War," when the city of Lawrence, only 600 strong, was besieged by an opposing force of 1,200, Dr. Robinson, as he was called in those days, was chosen Major General of the Free-State party. He constructed forts and rifle-pits which did their service, but as a negotiator and diplomat he excelled. He wanted Kansas to be lawfully free, and felt justified in availing himself of any agency which would assist him in accomplishing this. Although the recognized leader

of the Free-State forces, it was not Robinson, but Lane, that the Quantrell ruffians sought when they massacred in cold blood 180 of the inoffensive citizens of Lawrence.

In 1855 the Free-State men had been driven from the polls. Robinson was among the first to repudiate the authority of the bogus laws, and was unanimously chosen a delegate to the convention which met at Topeka to formulate a State government. From May, 1856, until September, he was a prisoner at Locompton, charged with treason. After serving his term as the first Governor of the State, he was, in 1872, chosen a member of the Lower House of the Legislature, and in 1874 elected State Senator and re-elected in 1876. At the last election he came within forty-three votes of beating his opponent for the State Senate, and where the party majority of the latter was about 1,500.

Gov. Robinson has been twice married. By his first wife, Miss Sarah Adams, daughter of a highly respected Massachusetts farmer, two children were born and both died in infancy. The mother died in 1846. On the 30th of October, 1851, he was married to Miss Sarah D. T. Lawrence, daughter of a distinguished Massachusetts lawyer, and connected with the celebrated Lawrence family of that State. Of this union there are no children. Mrs. Robinson is a lady of high literary culture, and has written one of the best of the many books which have been published on Kansas. Though highly accomplished, she is not much of a society woman, being content to dwell quietly at home on their farm, which lies five miles out from Lawrence, and is the resort of many friends, who meet a refined and elegant hospitality.

In 1856 Gov. Robinson pre-empted a portion of the land which, upon his journey to California, he had viewed with so much admiration. He now has one of the finest homes in his section of country, where he resides in affluent circumstances, busying himself in looking after his farm, esteemed by his neighbors, and amply honored by the great State, in laying the firm foundations of which he rendered such efficient service over a quarter of a century ago.