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In the 1900 U.S. Census there was only one Minnie Robinson (and no Minnie
Robertson)† of the right age living in Chicago. She was the daughter of
Thomas Robinson (1861–1930) and Hester Langdon
Robinson (1862–1918).
As a day laborer, Thomas's earnings would have been thin for a family of
nine‡ so Minnie may have worked to help support her family. Further evidence
that the family was struggling financially is that
one of Minnie's sisters, twelve year old Florence,
was living with her grandparents in 1900 and a
brother, William, and sister, Florence, each left school around age fourteen.
Better times were ahead for the Robinsons but Minnie
didn't live to see them.
In 1900 The Robinsons lived in the Edgewater
area in north Chicago, which was part of Lake View,
Ward twenty-six.
Location of body and burial
Minnie's body was found at Gavins
Funeral Home and identified by her
seventeen-year-old brother, William C. Robinson
(1886–1968), who by 1903 had relocated to
Park Ridge, Illinois, Maine
Township, northwest of Chicago where he would
become a prominent retail merchant. She was buried in the City of Maine Cemetery in Park Ridge, IL.
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In the years after the fire
By 1910 Hester reported
her marital status as widowed but her death certificate
reported she was divorced and she no longer lived with Thomas in 1910.
Curiously, from at least 1910 until her death in 1918
Hester owned the Park Ridge Hotel on South Prospect
street — valued at $30,000,
inflation adjusted to just under a half million today.
It is not known how the widow or ex wife of a day laborer
came to acquire a hotel. Son William's store building
in Park Ridge had already become a community meeting
place so possibly he helped her start the hotel.
However she came to own the business, for a girl who
came to America as a servant — in 1880 aboard the
ship, Devon — Hester did well for herself.
William "Bill" Robinson
was the first in the family to relocate to Park
Ridge, IL. He operated a candy store and ice
cream parlor at 12 Prospect, the city's main street.
The building, known as "Robinsons Hall"
(later called "Clark's Hall") was also
used as a town meeting place and Masonic hall in the
early 1900s. The St. Luke's Lutheran church
services were held there for the first four years. Bill was joined in Park Ridge by
his mother and siblings around 1910 when the
community's population was around 2,000. Park
Ridge's most famous resident: Hillary Rodham
Clinton.
In 1922 William Robinson founded an ice company
with Frank Tilman and Robert C. McGregor, The Ridge Ice Company.
Brother Harry worked for William at the candy/ice cream store.
William married Lillian Stege and they had a daughter, Fern.
His sister, Florence Robinson, age thirteen when
Minnie died at the Iroquois, married Lillian's
brother, Gus Stege.
In the early 1950s a fire gutted William's ice cream parlor.
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Discrepancies and addendum
* Most other fifteen-year-olds at the Mr. Bluebeard
matinee were students, but Minnie Robinson (born c.1888) was described as
an "attendant." Had she been older that might have
meant she was a nurse but at her age more likely positions would
have been as an attendant in one of Iroquois ladies rooms or as
a domestic servant or childcare provider accompanying one of the
many families with children at the matinee. The fire took the
lives of Iroquois employees
Margaret Devine and
Ragna Anderson so if Minnie Robinson was an Iroquois employee it
is probable that her relationship to the newspaper would also have
been mentioned in newspapers. If I had to bet, I'd say she was a
domestic servant. In general I've found that the few
domestic servants at the Iroquois were awarded little attention
in post-fire newspaper coverage. The degree to which they were ignored is sobering.
† In reports by newspapers
outside Illinois, Minnie's last name was given as
Robertson but in Chicago newspapers, and on her
death certificate, it was given as Robinson. Other
family members used the name Robinson on legal
documents for decades after the fire.
‡ According to the 1900 census Hester gave birth to four children, all
still living then, but in the 1910 census she reported she had given
birth to seven children, of which five still lived. I
dug diligently to confirm the 1900 and 1910 census
reports were for the same Hester Robinson but
was unable to verify an explanation for the
discrepancy in reporting. I suspect there was a misunderstanding of the
information requested in the 1900 census and the reported
four living children referred to the four children
then living at that address. I
believe the correct number of Hester's children was seven
and that another child died, in addition to Minnie,
probably between 1900 and 1910.
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