ROBINSON, R. M., Beeville Bee, 28 Dec 1900:

An Old Veteran of the Ranger Service and of the Civil War – Helped organize Bee County and Sat on the First Jury.

R. M. Robinson, one of the oldest residents and one of the few remaining original settlers of the county, died at his 
ranch on the Medio twelve miles west of Beeville at seven o’clock on the evening of the 24th and was buried in 
the family cemetery on Christmas afternoon, the funeral being attended and conducted by a large number of 
members of the Masonic lodge of Beeville, of which the deceased was a member.

When the deceased is referred to as a “landmark” the word is used in the strictest sense in which it can be a
pplied, for Mr. Robinson was a resident of this section and a citizen of the territory comprising Bee County while 
it was yet a part of Goliad County, and before it was organized and denominated as a county.  He helped organize 
Bee county and sat on the first jury empanelled at old Marysville, the first county seat on the Medio in 1859.  

He came of that sturdy yeomanry, which crossed the Cumberlands with Boone in the last century and planted 
Anglo-Saxon civilization in Kentucky.  He was born in Mecklenburg county in that state on October 8th, 1830 and 
was consequently past his seventieth year at the time of his death.  When a young man he removed with his father 
and his family from that state to Texas and in 1853 settled in Gonzales county.  In 1856 the family moved to what is 
now Bee county and settled on the Medio where he has since lived, excepting while he was absent in the ranger 
service and in the civil war.  At the outbreak of hostilities in 1861, Mr. Robinson was a member of Captain Nolan’s 
company of rangers which was organized to protect frontier settlements from marauding bands of Mexicans and 
Indians.  The company was mustered out of service of the state and immediately enlisted in the cause of the 
Confederacy and became a part of Col. Piron’s regiment known as the Second Texas, and which operated in 
Louisiana and on the Rio Grande.  He took part in the defense of Galveston and is said to have been the first man 
to board the federal warship, Harriet Lane, when it was so daringly captured by the Confederates.  

At the close of the war Mr. Robinson was married to Mrs. Druscilla Driscoll, who with five children survive him.  
His oldest son, Alney lives in Live Oak county.  The others, J. E. Russel, Mrs. Sarah Powell and Miss Florence are 
residents of Bee County.

The news of the death of this old pioneer will be received with regret by all who knew him.