Senator Thomas J. B. Robinson View All Years

THOMAS J. B. ROBINSON

MR. PRESIDENT: Your committee, appointed to prepare a suitable resolution commemorating the life, character and public service of the late Thomas J. B. Robinson, begs leave to submit the following:

Thomas J. B. Robinson was born August 12, 1868, near New Diggings, Wisconsin, son of Isaac and Eliza Graham Robinson. He passed away on January 27, 1958, at Hampton, Iowa, where he had moved with his parents in 1870. He attended public school and was graduated from high school there, and then entered the banking business at the age of eighteen.

On June 15, 1888, he was united in marriage to Belle H. Clinton, a daughter of the Reverend John W. Clinton.

Mr. Robinson became the president of the Citizens National Bank of Hampton, director of the Coulter Savings Bank of Coulter, and a director of the Alexander Savings Bank of Alexander, Iowa. He was elected to the Iowa State Senate in 1912, representing the Forty-third District, and served during the Thirty-fifth and Thirty-sixth General Assemblies. He served as Congressman from the Third District of Iowa from 1923 until 1933, actively supporting the McNary-Haugen bill and other farm relief measures. He also served as president of the Hampton Library Board and was a trustee of Cornell College at Mount Vernon, Iowa. He was a member of the Hampton City Council, chairman of the Franklin County war activities during World War I, was a Mason and a Shriner.

Church activities were also among Mr. Robinson’s interests. He was a member of the Methodist church, a delegate to general conferences of the Methodist church, Baltimore, Maryland, in 1908, Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1912, and Saratoga Springs, New York, in 1916; he was a delegate to Ecumenical conference in Toronto, Canada, in 1911 and London, England, in 1921.

Mr. Robinson is survived by two sons, Walter T. Robinson of Des Moines, Iowa, and Lee C. Robinson of Santa Fe, New Mexico; two daughters, Mrs. F. C. (Jessie) Thornton, of Hampton, Iowa, and Mrs. H. S. (Marguerite) French of Wayne, Illinois. A third daughter, Mrs. W. C. (Dorothy) Clinton, died several years ago. Mr. Robinson is also survived by three sisters, Mrs. J. H. Sniffen and Mrs. Ruth Burns of Los Angeles, California, and Mrs. J. H. Kimball of Berkeley, California.

Therefore, Be It Resolved by the Senate of the Fifty-eighth General Assembly: That in the passing of Thomas J. B. Robinson, the state of Iowa has lost a valuable and honorable citizen and by this resolution tenders its sincere sympathy to the surviving members of the family.

Be It Further Resolved: That a copy of this resolution be spread on the Journal of the Senate, and that the Secretary of the Senate be directed to forward an enrolled copy to the members of the family of the deceased.

J. KENDALL LYNES,

WALTER E. EDELEN,

GUY G. BUTLER,

Committee.

The resolution was unanimously adopted.