Virginia Sanders  Mylius

<gmylius@charter.net>   ·
Birmingham, AL    



Complete notes and sources available upon request.

Robison Family, continued (page 5)

The Children of George Heyward Robison and Elizabeth Ann Stewart (continued)

3)  George Stewart Robison was born 1 Jan 1768 Barnwell District, SC, died 3 Sep 1853.    He married Elizabeth “Betsy”  Ann Robison, his first cousin, daughter of William Robison and Mary Lark.   

The Barnwell People-Sentinel, Thursday, April 16, 1987:  

"PORTRAIT OF EARLY BARNWELL RESIDENT FINDS WAY TO BARNWELL COUNTY MUSEUM….Museum Acquisition.   [The] portrait of George Stewart Robison, one of Barnwell County's earliest residents, has been acquired by the Barnwell County Museum and is now on display there for viewing during museum hours.    [photo of portrait in newspaper].  The Barnwell County Museum has recently acquired a portrait of one of Barnwell County's early residents,  George Stewart Robison, of old Barnwell District, 1768-1853, was painted by Henry F. Prime, a painter of Hudson, New York.   Prime's works also hang I the Columbia County Historical Society building in Kinderhook, New York.    The following history of the painting was written by Thomas O. Lawton, Jr., of Allendale:  

"The portrait of George Stewart Robison by Prime has a well-documented history.  The late George Robison Black, former director of "The March of Time", but his will probated in Miami in March 1985, bequeathed it to his cousin, Thomas O. Lawton, Jr., of Allendale, South Carolina.   The subject of the portrait later in life omitted his middle name and designated himself simply "George Robison".   He was born on January 1, 1768, in old Barnwell District, South Carolina, the son of George Robison and Elizabeth Ann Stewart Robison.   He died at his residence, his family home, on September 3, 1853, aged 85 years.   He is buried in the overgrown plantation cemetery on his former lands, now one of the pastures of publisher William S. Morris, III, who calls the property 'Creek Plantation'.   Mr. Robison married his first cousin, Betsy Robison, daughter of his uncle, William Robison, a short time prior to 1786;  the birth of their first child, Allen Robison, is recorded on October 3, 1786.   

"Robison had settled with his wife on a beautiful elevated spot about two miles north of Little Hell Landing on the Savannah River, and there he commenced his married life, with some twenty slaves and numerous cattle, under the will of his father, George Robison.    The diary of the subject's great grandson, Confederate Cavalry Colonel and Congressman from Georgia, GEORGE ROBISON BLACK, describes him thus:   

             (see text as written by George Robison Black (page 1)/ I will not repeat it here)

"Robison and his wife had six (6) children, only one of whom lived to marry.   Their daughter, Betsey Robison, was born January 25, 1792, married William Kirkland about 1809, and died on February 2, 1812, after the birth of her firstborn, Augusta George Anna Kirkland.   

"Besides planting, Robison, according this this great grandson, was the owner of saw mills whose saw timber was rafted to Savannah on the river, and also the operator of pole boats that transported goods between Augusta and Savannah.     Thus Augusta George Anna Kirkland, was the only lineal descendant of her grandparents.   She married on March 20, 1832, Edward J. Black, who became a Congressman from Georgia;  they resided at his plantation, "Black Acre", in Screven County, Georgia.   Mrs. Black died at the residence of her son, Charles Augustus Black, in Barnwell County, South Carolina, on June 26, 1880.    

"From Augusta George Anna Kirkland Black, the portrait passed to her son Charles Augustus Black (who had married Lucy Dunbar), and from him to his daughter, Ann Eliza Black Walton.    Mrs. Walton sold the portrait in 1935 for $75.00 to John Shaw Billings the husband of her cousin, Frederica Wade Billings, a great-great-great-granddaughter of the subject.   Mr. Billings was the first Editor of Life Magazine, and later the Editor of Time, Life and Fortune.  While in New York, the Billings lived at 1200 Fifth Avenue.   When Mr. Billings retired from New York to Redcliffe, at Beech Island, the portrait hung in the Great Hall among portraits of his ancestor, ante-bellum Governor and Senator James Henry Hammond of South Carolina, the builder of the home;   Justice Peyton Lisbey Wade, Mrs. Billings Father, the Reverend Peyton Lisbey Wade, and others.     After Mrs. Billings died in 1965 without issue, her husband gave the portrait to his wife's first cousin, the late Goerge Robison Black.   The Reverend Black was an Episcopal minister, who served parishes in Darien, Georgia;   Flat Rock, N.C.;  Long Island, New York; and Houston.   He was the brother of Mrs. Billings' mother, and great-great-grandson of the subject.    Mr. Black bequeathed it to T. O. Lawton, Jr., who sold it to the Barnwell County Museum.”

The only child of George Stewart Robison and Elizabeth Ann “Betsy” Robison to live & marry was:

Elizabeth “Betsy” (Augusta?) Robison.    Betsy was born 25 Jan 1792, and died in childbirth on 2 Feb 1812 with the birth of her only child.   She had married William Kirkland about 1809.   

That left little Augusta Georgeanna Kirkland, born 2 February 1812, a newborn who had lost her mother.     Raised by her grandparents, she married  Edward Junius Rosario Black, on 20 Mar 1832.   Edward was born 30 Oct 1805 Screven County, SC; died 1 Sep 1846Millettville, Allendale County, S.C.   Her grandfather signed her marriage contract.    Biographies are readily available about the Hon./Mr. Black.     My notes have:

EDWARD JUNIUS BLACK was actively involved in the politics of Screven County, SC.  As stated in "The History of Screven County, Georgia", chapter:  "More Politics in Old Jacksonborough", the political parties met on September 7, 1835 to prepare resolutions protesting the activities of the abolitionists in the North.    Edward Junius Black was the leader of the 'Nullifiers'.    William W. Black was secretary of the group.   The committee was equally divided between Jacksonian Democrats, or "Union" men, and the Nullifiers, or "States Rights" men.   The committee returned four resolutions:   1) they condemned the "fanatics and abolitionists" who were "wantonly" pursuing a course that would lead to civil war;  2) stated that if the abolitionists "persist in their incendiary operations against the people of the South, we will look to ourselves for protection";  3) called on the state legislature to protect the citizens of the State in the exercise of the "just constitutional rights," and 4) asserted that the legislature had the right to enact laws "relative to the publication and circulation of Abolitionist pamphlets and other incendiary writings."    From all accounts, the discussions were extremely heated.    The "Union" leader, Captain William Hotchkiss, after a spirited uproar, was allowed to read from an abolitionist document, "The Emancipator", and stated that "though there was no law permitting abolition in the Southern states, it was indeed legal for Congress to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia".   

"Then arose Edward Junius BLACK.   He was a fire-eater - little, consumptive, argumentative, vituperative.   Four years earlier he had been narrowly defeated for the position of Attorney General of Georgia, and three years later he was to be elected a Whig member of the U. S. House of Representatives.    As usual, Captain E. J. Black was not for moderation.   He delivered a speech which the secretary described as "strong in argument and overflowing with Southern feeling," in which, among other violent denunciations, he condemned Union editors of the South who were charging that the Nullifiers, by their radicalism, were playing into the hands of the abolitionists."    He then proposed the following resolution, which won unanimous support:     Resolved, unanimously, by the States Rights men and Union men of Screven County, (SC), that he who charges either of the above political parties of this county, with participating in the designs of the Abolitionists, is a LIAR, and that such a charge, if made to us personally in our county, would subject the offender with the immediate infliction of Lynch's law."

Chapter:  "Screven County's First Congressman"   "EDWARD JUNIUS BLACK was born in Beaufort District, South Carolina, on October 30, 1805.   His father was William Black (1774-1838), a prosperous man who was later to meet with financial misfortune.   His mother was Sara Hanson REID BLACK (1784-1818), who was a sister of Robert Raymond REID, a man who was to play an influential role in Congressman Black's early life.   Judge REID became a prominent attorney in Augusta, was elected to Congress, and was named by President Jackson as a federal judge in Florida, and finally became Territorial Governor of Florida by appointment of President Van Buren.    

"Edward J. Black's father lost a considerable part of his wealth through an unfortunate security-debt and moved up the Savannah River to Barnwell District, South Carolina.   His mother died of tuberculosis when we was about 13, and his uncle, Judge Reid, took him home to Augusta, where he grew up under the influence of this distinguished man.   He read law under Judge Reid, and was admitted to the bar at the age of 21, and for a time practiced law in Augusta in partnership with his uncle.       Not previously a wealthy man, he received a dowry of 40 slaves from this marriage, which made it possible for him to buy from Samuel Maner a plantation of 3,000 acres in Screven County, located on the Savannah River above Brier Creek.  He named the place 'Black Acre', settled down there as a planter in a house with six fluted columns, and opened a law office in Jacksonborough."  

" E. J. Black was elected to the state legislature from Richmond County (GA) in 1829.   
" In 1831 he was the Whig candidate for Attorney General of Georgia, losing by a narrow margin to Charles J. Jenkins.
" Was elected as a Whig to the U. S. House of Representatives in 1839, but later denounced the party as not being "sufficiently dedicated to the cause of the Southern planter."  
" In March, 1842, he was elected as a Democrat to fill a vacancy
" And in March 1845, he was elected to serve another full term in the House.

E. J. Black died September 1, 1849, at the home of his wife's grandfather, GEORGE ROBISON, in Barnwell District.     His children as listed in his will were:  Elizabeth Hanson Black, George Robison Black, Edward Junius Black (Jr.), Charles Augustus Black, and William Raymond Black.  

Georgianna Kirkland and Edward Junius Black had the following children:

A)   Edward Junius (Jr) BLACK (b.23 Feb 1832 d.12 Jul 1871)
 | sp: Mary Alice DUNBAR (b.5 Jul 1842 d.16 Aug 1905)
B)   George Robison BLACK (b.24 Mar 1835-Screven County,GA d.3 Nov 1886-Screven County,GA)
 | sp: Georgia Ann Elizabeth BRYAN (m.14 May 1863)
 | sp: Mary Ellen "Nellie" PETERS (b.1851-Atlanta,GA m.17 Apr 1877 d.5 Aug 1919-Atlanta,GA)
C)   William Raymond BLACK (b.26 Jan 1837 d.25 Apr 1857)
D)    Elizabeth Hanson BLACK (b.Eufaula,AL)
 | sp: Paul Delacy BAKER
E)   Thomas Jefferson BLACK (b.15 Jul 1841 d.1880)
 | sp: Belle BOWIE
F)   Charles Augustus BLACK (b.4 Nov 1843)
 | sp: Lucy Minor DUNBAR (b.1844 d.20 Oct 1908-Augusta,Ga)
G)   Robert Reid BLACK (b.6 Jun 1846 d.14 Oct 1847)

Notes on the Descendants of Georgianna Kirkland & Edward Junius Black

Notes about the Descendants of Louisa Robison (pdf)

 

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